Honors professor and anthropologist Kate Magargal co-authored “Gathering Firewood—and Redefining Land Stewardship—at Bears Ears,” an article published in Sapiens Magazine this past October.

Magargal and her research team, which comprised of U professor Adrienne Cachelin, undergraduates Sam Enke and Rachel Christensen, and Jesse Wyasket, conducted a field study near Bears Ears National Monument. The group hoped to explore the application of a new co-management plan for the area. The co-management plan is an attempt to connect the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition into a mutually beneficial stewardship of the land surrounding the monument. This plan comes after years of contention over land designation status, as the area has cultural significance to several indigenous groups but also contains resources such as coal, oil, and uranium.

Many of the indigenous communities that live near Bears Ears burn firewood for fuel. They gather the firewood locally and sustainably and have done so for thousands of years. Magargal explains, “The ecosystems themselves are embedded with these different types of human activities that include firewood harvesting.” The research team conducted interviews on both the U.S. and indigenous sides of the plan and participated in gathering firewood with the Diné (Navajo for “the people”) to better understand the cultural goals of the coalition. In doing so, they realized there is an unequal balance of power and resources between the two. “Here we have co-management in name, but the question still remains if there is co-management in practice,” says Magargal.

Since publishing “Gathering Firewood,” Magargal has joined a new research collaboration to study the impact of the energy transition on communities in Utah. She explains, “Our research will contribute to knowledge about where we can focus efforts to shift our energy production and use to mitigate climate change, with a focus on community agency in making their own decisions.”

McKenna Hall | Journalism Intern, University of Utah Honors College