Native American use of fire in ecosystems

Last updated

Prior to the European colonization of the Americas, indigenous peoples used fire to modify the landscape. [1] This influence over the fire regime was part of the environmental cycles and maintenance of wildlife habitats that sustained the cultures and economies of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. [2] What was initially perceived by colonists as "untouched, pristine" wilderness in North America was the cumulative result of the indigenous use of fire, creating a mosaic of grasslands and forests across North America, sustained and managed by the peoples indigenous to the landscape. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Contents

Radical disruption of indigenous burning practices occurred with European colonization and the forced relocation of those who had historically maintained the landscape. [8] Some colonists understood the traditional use and benefits of low-intensity broadcast burns ("Indian-type" fires), but others feared and suppressed them. [9] [8] By the 1880s, the impacts of colonization had devastated indigenous populations, and fire exclusion had become more widespread. By the early 20th century, fire suppression had become the official US federal policy. [10]

Understanding pre-colonization land management and the traditional knowledge held by the indigenous peoples who practice it provides an important basis for current re-engagement with the landscape and is critical for the correct interpretation of the ecological basis for vegetation distribution. [11] [12] [13] [14]

Human-shaped landscape

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Native Americans played a major role in determining the diversity of their ecosystems. [15] [16]

The most significant type of environmental change brought about by Pre-Columbian human activity was the modification of vegetation. [...] Vegetation was primarily altered by the clearing of forest and by intentional burning. Natural fires certainly occurred but varied in frequency and strength in different habitats. Anthropogenic fires, for which there is ample documentation, tended to be more frequent but weaker, with a different seasonality than natural fires, and thus had a different type of influence on vegetation. The result of clearing and burning was, in many regions, the conversion of forest to grassland, savanna, scrub, open woodland, and forest with grassy openings. (William M. Denevan) [17]

The benefits of forest management have been seen throughout history, and natives knew the dangers of letting forests become overly dense. [18] Fire was used to keep large areas of forest and mountains free of undergrowth for hunting or travel. It also was a tool to help manage natural resources such as food. Fire was used in warfare for the protection of settlements [19] [20] [15] [21]

Authors such as William Henry Hudson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Francis Parkman, and Henry David Thoreau contributed to the widespread myth [16] that pre-Columbian North America was a pristine, natural wilderness, "a world of barely perceptible human disturbance.” [22] At the time of these writings, however, enormous tracts of land had already been allowed to succeed to climax due to the reduction in anthropogenic fires after the depopulation of native peoples from epidemics of diseases introduced by Europeans in the 16th century, forced relocation, and warfare.

Grasslands and savannas

Fire regimes of United States plants. Savannas have regimes of a few years: blue, pink, and light green areas. Wildland Fire in Ecosystems 15-1-2.png
Fire regimes of United States plants. Savannas have regimes of a few years: blue, pink, and light green areas.

When first encountered by Europeans, many ecosystems were the result of repeated fires every one to three years, resulting in the replacement of forests with grassland or savanna, or opening up the forest by removing undergrowth. [23] Terra preta soils, created by slow burning, are found mainly in the Amazon basin, where estimates of the area covered range from 0.1 to 0.3%, or 6,300 to 18,900 km2 of low forested Amazonia to 1.0% or more. [24] [25] [26]

In the Klamath Valley region of northern California, the frequent and low-intensity fire of cultural burns are key to keeping grasslands open that otherwise would be invaded by conifers, which are less fire tolerant than the native oak. In the Pacific Northwest, the implementation of cultural burning led by tribal practitioners has been found to facilitate the growth of culturally important plants such as camas, yampa, and tarweed. [27] Camas, yampa, and tarweed are all plants that have been part to several tribes' diets. The Blackfoot, Cree, and Nez Perce tribes would eat the bulbs of the Common Camas (Camassia quamash), which could be steamed or dried to make flour. [28] Yampa, part of the genus Perideridia and also known as wild carrots, are harvested by the Yokut tribe of the San Joaquin Valley, California. [29] [30] The seeds are tarweed are also edible, described as "rich as butter." [30] Burning to keep grasslands open can provide space for diverse flora that grow in very few places, found in the diversity of prairies, like the western lily and Howell's triteleia. [27]

There is some argument about the effect of human-caused burning when compared to lightning in western North America. Eyewitness accounts of extensive pre-settlement prairie in the 1600s, and the rapid conversion of extensive prairie areas to woodland on settlement, combined with accounts of the efforts made to make indigenous prairie burning practices illegal in Canada and the US, all point to widespread pre-settlement control of fire with the intent to maintain and expand prairie areas. [23] As Emily Russell (1983) has pointed out, “There is no strong evidence that Indians purposely burned large areas....The presence of Indians did, however, undoubtedly increase the frequency of fires above the low numbers caused by lightning.” As might be expected, Indian fire use had its greatest impact “in local areas near Indian habitations.” [31] [32]

Reasons for and benefits of burning

Reasons given for intentional burns in pre-contact ecosystems are numerous. They include:

Impacts of European settlement

By the time that European explorers first arrived in North America, millions of acres of "natural" landscapes were already manipulated and maintained for human use. [3] [4] [5] Fires indicated the presence of humans to many European explorers and settlers arriving on ship. In San Pedro Bay in 1542, chaparral fires provided that signal to Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, and later to others across all of what would be named California. [42] In the American west, it is estimated that 456,500 acres (184,737 ha) burned annually pre-settlement in what is now Oregon and Washington. [43]

By the 17th century, native populations were greatly affected by the genocidal structure of settler colonialism. [44] [45] Many colonists often either deliberately set wildfires and/or allowed out of control fires to "run free." Also, sheep and cattle owners, as well as shepherds and cowboys, often set the alpine meadows and prairies on fire at the end of the grazing season to burn the dried grasses, reduce brush, and kill young trees, as well as encourage the growth of new grasses for the following summer and fall grazing season. [15] Native people were forced off their traditional landbases or killed, and traditional land management practices were eventually made illegal by settler governance. [46]

By the 19th century, many indigenous nations had been forced to sign treaties with the federal government and relocate to reservations, [47] which were sometimes hundreds of miles away from their ancestral homelands. [15] In addition to violent and forced removal, fire suppression would become part of colonial methods of removal and genocide. As sociologist Kari Norgaard has shown, "Fire suppression was mandated by the very first session of the California Legislature in 1850 during the apex of genocide in the northern part of the state." [48] For example, the Karuk peoples of Northern California "burn [the forest] to enhance the quality of forest food species like elk, deer, acorns, mushrooms, and lilies, as well as basketry materials such as hazel and willow, but also keep travel routes open.” [41] When such relationships to their environment were made illegal through fire suppression, it would have dramatic consequences on their methods of relating to one another, their environment, their food sources, and their educational practices. [48] [49] [50] Thus, many scholars have argued that fire suppression can be seen as a form of "colonial ecological violence" which results in particular risks and harms experienced by native peoples and communities. [51]

Through the turn of the 20th century, settlers continued to use fire to clear the land of brush and trees in order to make new farm land for crops and new pastures for grazing animals—the North American variation of slash and burn technology—while others deliberately burned to reduce the threat of major fires—the so‑called "light burning" technique. Light burning is also been called "Paiute forestry," a direct but derogatory reference to southwestern tribal burning habits. [52] The ecological impacts of settler fires were vastly different than those of their Native American predecessors. Cultural burning practices were functionally made illegal with the passage of the Weeks Act in 1911. [53]

Modern management

Removal of indigenous populations and their controlled burning practices have resulted in major ecological changes, including increased severity of wild fires, especially in combination with climate change. [47] [54] Attitudes towards Native American-type burning have shifted in recent times, and Tribal agencies and organizations, now with fewer restrictions placed on them, have resumed their traditional use of fire practices in a modern context by reintroducing fire to fire-adapted ecosystems, on and adjacent to, tribal lands. [2] [55] [47] [56] Many foresters and ecologists have also recognized the importance of native fire practices. They are now learning from traditional fire practitioners and using controlled burns to reduce fuel accumulations, change species composition, and manage vegetation structure and density for healthier forests and rangelands. [47] [57] [58]

Fire was used as a technological tool for natives and its use in controlled burns. Aaccording to Dave Roos, an author for the History Channel on Native American news, he ascertained that fire was viewed as a science. Yosemite is a clear example of how indigenous used controlled burns to clear brush in order to provide nutrient rich soil for woodland crop growth. Fire has always had a medicine type feeling with the indigenous and medicine is best used when it's given at the perfect time. [59]

Forest management includes but is not limited to controlled burns, selective thinning, and reforestation. Fire agencies across the US have adopted these tactics. Some are drawing on Native American oral history and traditional ecological knowledge to revive them. Native Americans in California and Australia have known the risk of overgrown forests for millennia and used these tactics to prevent wildfires and encourage beneficial plant growth. Controlled burns help cut back the organic fuel in uncontrolled forests. Native Americans used wood for small scale fires to clear brush from in between the trees of a forest in order to limit the possibility of an uncontrolled forest fire. [60]

Map of North American fire scar network. NorthAmericanTreeRingFireScarNetworkMap.png
Map of North American fire scar network.

Selective thinning allows for old thin trees to be replaced by more pyrophytic plants or plants that benefit from fire. Pyrophyte vegetation are plants and trees that have formed the ability to resist the effects of fire. Native Americans had a method of forest thinning with their understanding of which plants would be at highest risk of burning during fire season. They would dig the plants out and or burn them off individually. [61]

Archaeological studies

Studies made by U.C. Berkeley concluded that fire has greatly influenced forest vegetation over the last few decades. The 1990 to 2014 study tracked some of the most destructive wildfires, showing human intervention has always existed regarding forest management, and native people played a vital role in the forest's survival. [62]

Several forms of evidence are collected when researching the history of cultural fire.

California

Californian Indigenous groups stopped burning due to the Spanish banning the practice and the loss of manpower due to the forced labor on missions, ranchos, and pueblos. [64]  

California's Native population has a cultural and dietary reliance on plants that must be maintained by burning. One cultural example is the hazel bush, used for weaving baskets, mainly baskets that carry newborn babies. The baskets must be woven with straight branches, and they need to be burned to do so. Acorns and salmon, which are native food sources, are also affected by Indigenous-prescribed burns. [65]

Don L Hankins conducted a study to understand the effects of Indigenous prescribed burning on different aspects of riparian fauna. They found a generally positive impact and concluded that prescribed burnings are important for maintaining the biodiversity of riparian ecosystems. This study showed that prescribed fires maintained the richness of the area. Fire burns are particularly needed to sustain native plant species. They increased the proportion of native plants to non-native plants and the richness of native plants. Fall burning, in particular, increased overall and native richness. On the other hand, fires in the spring only affected the richness of native species and did not impact non-native species. [66]

Another study of California's Quiroste Valley was conducted using visible plant remains (macrobotanical), charcoal or ash (anthracological), and local ecological data. The study found that the low frequency of lightning in the area, along with the presence of high amounts of grass-like plants and plants which thrive in post fire environments, indicates a history of anthropogenic burnings in the area. Two potential factors that were not able to be accounted for in this study was the frequency of lighting in the past, as they assumed it to be similar to modern day lightning frequency and used modern day data for their conclusions, and the potential for a different climate encouraging different plants to grow. [67]

Kentucky

Research conducted by Paul Delcort at Cliff Palace Pond (Jackson County) pioneered the study of anthropogenic fires in the United States using archaeological techniques. [68] These studies looked at pollen and charcoal sediment samples to chart fires over time. The study found that between 1000 BCE and 1800 CE there was increased charcoal concentrations, suggesting frequent low severity fires. During this same period there was an increase in pollen from fire adapted tree species such as oak, chestnut, and hickory. There was also an increase in pollen from sunflowers and goosefoot in forest areas which may suggest that there was food production in burned ecosystems. The studies found that fires which coincided with human habitation prior to fire suppression resulted in a diverse patchwork ecosystem with many plants that could be used by humans. [33]

Massachusetts

A study of sites in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, that were inhabited from 3000 BCE to 1000 CE found that the precedence of low severity landscape fires was correlated with periods of habitation by looking at charcoal sentiment samples. The research found that periods of intense burning were correlated with increases in chestnut trees through looking at fossilized pollen samples. The study did not find any archaeological evidence that the fires were intentionally set, but a combination of historic accounts from the region, the correlation with habitation, and the incentive for burning to increase nut producing trees, it is likely that these were anthropogenic fires. [69]

New Mexico

A study of the anthropological use of fire in the Jemez Mountains was conducted using charcoal samples in the soil and fire scars in tree rings. The study found that increases in low severity ecological fires were positively correlated with population changes, rather than climate changes. The study also found, from fungal evidence, that there were more herbivores present at times of increased burning and that the fires that occurred during the period of ancient settlement were less severe than modern wildfires in the region. [37]

Tennessee

A study of charcoal and pollen deposits in the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee found regular anthropological fires were occurring from 3,000 years ago to 200 years ago. However, the study found no evidence that the fires changed the overall vegetation that was present in the region. [70]

West Virginia

A paleoarchealogical study of the Ohio River Valley in West Virginia found that ecosystems experienced coevolution with humans due to land management practices. The study concluded that these practices included burning and land clearing. They found that these practices altered soil carbon cycling and the diversity of plant species. They found that the use of fire decreased biomass, increased charcoal abundance, and potentially led to more usable vegetation. [71]

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Stewart, O.C. (2002). Forgotten fires: Native Americans and the transient wilderness . Tulsa, OK: Univ. of Oklahoma Press. pp.  364. ISBN   978-0806140377.
  2. 1 2 Lake, F. K., Wright, V., Morgan, P., McFadzen, M., McWethy D., Stevens-Rumann, C. (2017). "Returning Fire to the Land: Celebrating Traditional Knowledge and Fire" (PDF). Journal of Forestry. 115 (5): 343–353. doi:10.5849/jof.2016-043R2.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. 1 2 Arno & Allison-Bunnel, Stephen & Steven (2002). Flames in Our Forest. Island Press. p. 40. ISBN   1-55963-882-6.
  4. 1 2 Anderson & Moratto, M.K, and M.J. (1996). Native American land-use practices and ecological impacts. University of California, Davis: Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project: Final Report to Congress. pp. 187–206.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. 1 2 Vale, Thomas (2002). Fire, Native Peoples, and the Natural Landscape . United States: Island Press. pp.  1–40. ISBN   155963-889-3.
  6. ↑ Pyne, S.J. (1995). World fire: The culture of fire on Earth. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
  7. ↑ Hudson, M. (2011). Fire Management in the American West. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado.
  8. 1 2 Weir, John (2009). Conducting Prescribed Burns: a comprehensive manual. Texas: Texas A&M University Press College Station. pp. 1–12. ISBN   978-1-60344-134-6.
  9. ↑ "Native Americans used fire locally, not across the broad landscape". CCI. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
  10. ↑ Brown, Hutch (2004). "Reports of American Indian Fire Use in the East". Fire Management Today. 64 (3): 17–23.
  11. ↑ Barrett, S.W. (Summer 2004). "Altered Fire Intervals and Fire Cycles in the Northern Rockies". Fire Management Today. 64 (3): 25–29.
  12. ↑ Agee, J.K. (1993). Fire ecology of the Pacific Northwest forests. Washington, DC: Island Press.
  13. ↑ Brown, J.K. (2000). "Introduction and fire regimes". Wildland Fire in Ecosystems: Effects of Fire on Flora. 2: 1–7.
  14. ↑ Keeley, Jon (Summer 2004). "American Indian Influence on Fire Regimes in California's Coastal Ranges". Fire Management Today. 64 (3): 15–22.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 Williams, Gerald W. "References on the American Indian Use of Fire in Ecosystems" (PDF). USDA Forest Service. Retrieved September 19, 2024.
  16. 1 2 Denevan, William M. (1992). "The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 82 (3). Washington, DC: Association of American Geographers: 369–385. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.1992.tb01965.x. ISSN   0004-5608.
  17. ↑ David L. Lentz, ed. (2000). Imperfect balance: landscape transformations in the Precolumbian Americas. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. xviii–xix. ISBN   0-231-11157-6.
  18. ↑ "History – Southern Ute Indian Tribe". www.southernute-nsn.gov. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  19. ↑ Bowman, David M. J. S.; Balch, Jennifer; Artaxo, Paulo; Bond, William J.; Cochrane, Mark A.; D’Antonio, Carla M.; DeFries, Ruth; Johnston, Fay H.; Keeley, Jon E.; Krawchuk, Meg A.; Kull, Christian A.; Mack, Michelle; Moritz, Max A.; Pyne, Stephen; Roos, Christopher I. (December 2011). "The human dimension of fire regimes on Earth: The human dimension of fire regimes on Earth". Journal of Biogeography. 38 (12): 2223–2236. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02595.x. PMC   3263421 . PMID   22279247.
  20. ↑ Williams, Gerald W. (Summer 2000). "Introduction to Aboriginal Fire Use in North America" (PDF). Fire Management Today. 60 (3). USDA Forest Service: 8–12. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
  21. ↑ Chapeskie, Andrew (1999). "Northern Homelands, Northern Frontier: Linking Culture and Economic Security in Contemporary Livelihoods in Boreal and Cold Temperate Forest Communities in Northern Canada". Forest Communities in the Third Millennium: Linking Research, Business, and Policy Toward a Sustainable Non-Timber Forest Product Sector. USDA Forest Service. pp. 31–44. Retrieved September 19, 2024.
  22. ↑ Shetler, Stanwyn G. (1991). "Faces of Eden" . In Herman J. Viola and Carolyn Margolis (ed.). Seeds of Change: A Quincentennial Commemoration. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. pp.  226. ISBN   1-56098-036-2.
  23. 1 2 Krug, Edward C.; Hollinger, Steven E. (2003). "Identification of Factors that Aid Carbon Sequestration in Illinois Agricultural Systems" (PDF). Champaign, Illinois: Illinois State Water Survey. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 9, 2017. Retrieved April 9, 2022. Land improvement by the natives of the New World involved whole ecosystem manipulation to produce the "fruited plains."
  24. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 20, 2008. Retrieved May 1, 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) “Discovery and awareness of anthropogenic amazonian dark earths (terra preta)”, by William M. Denevan, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and William I. Woods, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 20, 2008. Retrieved May 1, 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  25. ↑ “Classification of Amazonian Dark Earths and other Ancient Anthropic Soils” in “Amazonian Dark Earths: origin, properties, and management” by J. Lehmann, N. Kaampf, W.I. Woods, W. Sombroek, D.C. Kern, T.J.F. Cunha et al., Chapter 5, 2003. (eds J. Lehmann, D. Kern, B. Glaser & W. Woods); cited in Lehmann et al.., 2003, pp. 77–102
  26. ↑ "Carbon negative energy to reverse global warming". Archived from the original on September 13, 2021. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
  27. 1 2 3 Long, Jonathan W.; Lake, Frank K.; Goode, Ron W. (November 15, 2021). "The importance of Indigenous cultural burning in forested regions of the Pacific West, USA". Forest Ecology and Management. 500: 119597. Bibcode:2021ForEM.50019597L. doi: 10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119597 . ISSN   0378-1127.
  28. ↑ Holmes, Russell. "Common Camas (Camassia quamash (Pursh) Greene)". U.S. Forest Service | United States Department of Agriculture.
  29. ↑ Todt, Donn L. (1997). "Cross-Cultural Folk Classifications of Ethnobotanically Important Geophytes in Southern Oregon and Northern California". Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology. 19 (2): 250–259. ISSN   0191-3557. JSTOR   27825645.
  30. 1 2 Anderson, M. Kat (2005). Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources. University of California Press. pp. 131–245. ISBN   978-0520280434.
  31. ↑ Keeley, J. E.; Aplet, G.H.; Christensen, N.L.; Conard, S.C.; Johnson, E.A.; Omi, P.N.; Peterson, D.L.; Swetnam, T.W. Ecological foundations for fire management in North American forest and shrubland ecosystems. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-779. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. p. 33.
  32. ↑ Barrett, Stephen W.; Thomas W. Swetnam; William L. Baker (2005). "Indian fire use: deflating the legend" (PDF). Fire Management Today. 65 (3). Washington, DC: Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture: 31–33. Retrieved August 8, 2009.
  33. 1 2 Delcourt, Paul A.; Delcourt, Hazel R.; Ison, Cecil R.; Sharp, William E.; Gremillion, Kristen J. (April 1998). "Prehistoric Human Use of Fire, the Eastern Agricultural Complex, and Appalachian Oak-Chestnut Forests: Paleoecology of Cliff Palace Pond, Kentucky". American Antiquity. 63 (2): 263–278. doi:10.2307/2694697. ISSN   0002-7316. JSTOR   2694697. S2CID   163220544.
  34. ↑ Johnson, Eric (Fall 2023). "Forest Management in the Ancient Northeast: Evidence from Stockbridge, MA". Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society. 64 (2): 2–9.
  35. 1 2 Long, Jonathan W.; Lake, Frank K.; Goode, Ron W. (November 15, 2021). "The importance of Indigenous cultural burning in forested regions of the Pacific West, USA". Forest Ecology and Management. 500: 119597. Bibcode:2021ForEM.50019597L. doi: 10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119597 . ISSN   0378-1127.
  36. 1 2 Marks-Block, Tony; Lake, Frank K.; Curran, Lisa M. (October 15, 2019). "Effects of understory fire management treatments on California Hazelnut, an ecocultural resource of the Karuk and Yurok Indians in the Pacific Northwest". Forest Ecology and Management. 450: 117517. Bibcode:2019ForEM.45017517M. doi: 10.1016/j.foreco.2019.117517 . ISSN   0378-1127.
  37. 1 2 Roos, Christopher I.; Swetnam, Thomas W.; Ferguson, T. J.; Liebmann, Matthew J.; Loehman, Rachel A.; Welch, John R.; Margolis, Ellis Q.; Guiterman, Christopher H.; Hockaday, William C.; Aiuvalasit, Michael J.; Battillo, Jenna; Farella, Joshua; Kiahtipes, Christopher A. (January 26, 2021). "Native American fire management at an ancient wildland–urban interface in the Southwest United States". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118 (4): e2018733118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2018733118 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   7848524 . PMID   33468651.
  38. ↑ "The Land, Fire, and Community Are Moving Together: Managing Fire Since Time Immemorial: Kathy McCovey (Season 1, Episode 2) by Intentional Fire: Karuk Tribe/SWCASC". 2022.
  39. ↑ Mucioki, Megan; Sowerwine, Jennifer; Sarna-Wojcicki, Daniel; McCovey, Kathy; Bourque, Shawn D. (December 1, 2022). "Understanding the conservation challenges and needs of culturally significant plant species through Indigenous Knowledge and species distribution models". Journal for Nature Conservation. 70: 126285. Bibcode:2022JNatC..7026285M. doi: 10.1016/j.jnc.2022.126285 . ISSN   1617-1381.
  40. ↑ Krech III, Shepard (1999). The ecological Indian: myth and history (1 ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. pp.  101–122. ISBN   0-393-04755-5.
  41. 1 2 Norgaard, Kari Marie (September 13, 2019). Salmon and Acorns Feed Our People: Colonialism, Nature, and Social Action. Rutgers University Press. ISBN   978-0-8135-8421-8.
  42. ↑ Neil G. Sugihara; Jan W. Van Wagtendonk; Kevin E. Shaffer; Joann Fites-Kaufman; Andrea E. Thode, eds. (2006). "17". Fire in California's Ecosystems . University of California Press. pp.  417. ISBN   978-0-520-24605-8.
  43. ↑ K., Agee, James (1993). Fire ecology of Pacific Northwest forests. Washington, DC: Island Press. ISBN   1559632291. OCLC   682118318.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  44. ↑ Wolfe, Patrick (December 1, 2006). "Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native". Journal of Genocide Research. 8 (4): 387–409. doi: 10.1080/14623520601056240 . ISSN   1462-3528. S2CID   143873621.
  45. ↑ Ostler, Jeffrey (May 28, 2019). Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas. Yale University Press. ISBN   978-0-300-24526-4.
  46. ↑ William., Cronon (2003). Changes in the land : Indians, colonists, and the ecology of New England . Demos, John (1st rev. ed., 20th-anniversary ed.). New York: Hill and Wang. ISBN   978-0809016341. OCLC   51886348.
  47. 1 2 3 4 Williams, G.W. (Summer 2000). "Reintroducing Indian-type fire: Implications for land managers". Fire Management Today. 60 (3): 40–48.
  48. 1 2 Norgaard, Kari. "Colonization, Fire Suppression, and Indigenous Resurgence in the Face of Climate Change". YES! Magazine. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  49. ↑ Whyte, Kyle Powys (October 1, 2013). "Justice forward: Tribes, climate adaptation and responsibility". Climatic Change. 120 (3): 517–530. Bibcode:2013ClCh..120..517W. doi:10.1007/s10584-013-0743-2. ISSN   1573-1480. S2CID   149453106.
  50. ↑ Kimmerer, R. W.; Lake, F. K. (November 1, 2001). "The Role of Indigenous Burning in Land Management". Journal of Forestry. 99 (11): 36–41. doi:10.1093/jof/99.11.36. ISSN   0022-1201.
  51. ↑ Bacon, J. M. (January 2, 2019). "Settler colonialism as eco-social structure and the production of colonial ecological violence". Environmental Sociology. 5 (1): 59–69. Bibcode:2019EnvSo...5...59B. doi: 10.1080/23251042.2018.1474725 . S2CID   158076503.
  52. ↑ Williams, G.W. (Summer 2004). "American Indian Fire Use in the Arid West". Fire Management Today. 64 (3): 10–14.
  53. ↑ "Fire Works!". karuk climate change projects. June 24, 2019. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  54. ↑ Norgaard, Kari Marie; Worl, Sara (October 29, 2019). "What western states can learn from Native American wildfire management strategies". The Conversation. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  55. ↑ Museum of Natural and Cultural History (November 20, 2020). "Climate Change, Fire, and Indigenous Science". YouTube. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  56. ↑ Vinyeta, Kirsten (October 12, 2021). "Under the guise of science: how the US Forest Service deployed settler colonial and racist logics to advance an unsubstantiated fire suppression agenda". Environmental Sociology. 8 (2): 134–148. doi:10.1080/23251042.2021.1987608. S2CID   244604573.
  57. ↑ Vinyeta, Kirsten; Lynn, Kathy (2015). "Strengthening the Federal-Tribal Relationship: A Report on Monitoring Consultation under the Northwest Forest Plan" (PDF). U.S. Forest Service Report.
  58. ↑ Vinyeta, Kirsten; Lynn, Kathy (2013). "Exploring the role of traditional ecological knowledge in climate change initiatives". Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-879. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 37 P. 879. doi: 10.2737/PNW-GTR-879 .
  59. ↑ "Native Americans Used Fire to Protect and Cultivate Land". HISTORY. August 11, 2023. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
  60. ↑ "Indigenous Fire Practices Shape our Land - Fire (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
  61. ↑ Smith, Tyler (April 1, 2008). ""Ecology" by Michael L. Cain, William D. Bowman, and Sally D. Hacker. 2008. [book review]". The Canadian Field-Naturalist. 122 (2): 190. doi: 10.22621/cfn.v122i2.565 . ISSN   0008-3550.
  62. ↑ "How the Indigenous practice of 'good fire' can help our forests thrive". University of California. April 6, 2022. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
  63. 1 2 3 Lightfoot, Kent G.; Cuthrell, Rob Q.; Boone, Cristie M.; Byrne, Roger; Chavez, Andreas S.; Collins, Laurel; Cowart, Alicia; Evett, Rand R.; Fine, Paul V. A.; Gifford-Gonzalez, Diane; Hylkema, Mark G.; Lopez, Valentin; Misiewicz, Tracy M.; Reid, Rachel E. B. (December 2013). "Anthropogenic Burning on the Central California Coast in Late Holocene and Early Historical Times: Findings, Implications, and Future Directions". California Archaeology. 5 (2): 371–390. doi:10.1179/1947461X13Z.00000000020. ISSN   1947-461X.
  64. ↑ Martinez, Deniss J.; Seraphin, Bruno; Marks-Block, Tony; Nelson, Peter; Vinyeta, Kirsten (September 1, 2023). "Indigenous Fire Futures: Anticolonial Approaches to Shifting Fire Relations in California". Environment and Society. 14 (1): 142–161. doi: 10.3167/ares.2023.140109 . ISSN   2150-6779.
  65. ↑ "Quiet Fire". The Nature Conservancy. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  66. ↑ Hankins, Don L. (July 29, 2013). "The effects of indigenous prescribed fire on riparian vegetation in central California". Ecological Processes. 2 (1): 24. Bibcode:2013EcoPr...2...24H. doi: 10.1186/2192-1709-2-24 . ISSN   2192-1709.
  67. ↑ Cuthrell, Rob Q. (December 2013). "Archaeobotanical Evidence for Indigenous Burning Practices and Foodways at CA-SMA-113". California Archaeology. 5 (2): 265–290. doi:10.1179/1947461X13Z.00000000015. ISSN   1947-461X.
  68. ↑ https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5276203.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  69. ↑ 2, Johnson, Eric (Fall 2003). "Forest Management in the Ancient Northeast: Evidence from Stockbridge, MA". Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society. https://vc.bridgew.edu/bmas/179/
  70. ↑ Beck, Chase (2010-08-13). "The Analysis of Palaeobotanical Remains from Native American Sites in the Tennessee Region of the Upper Cumberland Plateau". East Tennessee State University Electronic Theses and Dissertations. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1731/
  71. ↑ Springer, Gregory S.; White, D. Matthew; Rowe, Harold D.; Hardt, Ben; Nivanthi Mihimdukulasooriya, L.; Hai Cheng; Edwards, R. Lawrence (2010). "Multiproxy evidence from caves of Native Americans altering the overlying landscape during the late Holocene of east-central North America". The Holocene. 20 (2): 275–283. Bibcode:2010Holoc..20..275S. doi:10.1177/0959683609350395. ISSN   0959-6836. S2CID   129626719.

PD-icon.svg This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Department of Agriculture .

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fire</span> Rapid and hot oxidation of a material

Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames are produced. The flame is the visible portion of the fire. Flames consist primarily of carbon dioxide, water vapor, oxygen and nitrogen. If hot enough, the gases may become ionized to produce plasma. Depending on the substances alight, and any impurities outside, the color of the flame and the fire's intensity will be different.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grassland</span> Area with vegetation dominated by grasses

A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, such as clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica and are found in most ecoregions of the Earth. Furthermore, grasslands are one of the largest biomes on Earth and dominate the landscape worldwide. There are different types of grasslands: natural grasslands, semi-natural grasslands, and agricultural grasslands. They cover 31–69% of the Earth's land area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Savanna</span> Mixed woodland-grassland ecosystem

A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of grasses. Four savanna forms exist; savanna woodland where trees and shrubs form a light canopy, tree savanna with scattered trees and shrubs, shrub savanna with distributed shrubs, and grass savanna where trees and shrubs are mostly nonexistent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slash-and-burn</span> Agricultural practice

Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed vegetation, or "slash", is then left to dry, usually right before the rainiest part of the year. Then, the biomass is burned, resulting in a nutrient-rich layer of ash which makes the soil fertile, as well as temporarily eliminating weed and pest species. After about three to five years, the plot's productivity decreases due to depletion of nutrients along with weed and pest invasion, causing the farmers to abandon the field and move to a new area. The time it takes for a swidden to recover depends on the location and can be as little as five years to more than twenty years, after which the plot can be slashed and burned again, repeating the cycle. In Bangladesh and India, the practice is known as jhum or jhoom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Controlled burn</span> Technique to reduce potential fuel for wildfire through managed burning

A controlled or prescribed (Rx) burn is the practice of intentionally setting a fire to change the assemblage of vegetation and decaying material in a landscape. The purpose could be for forest management, ecological restoration, land clearing or wildfire fuel management. A controlled burn may also refer to the intentional burning of slash and fuels through burn piles. Controlled burns may also be referred to as hazard reduction burning, backfire, swailing or a burn-off. In industrialized countries, controlled burning regulations and permits are usually overseen by fire control authorities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecological restoration</span> Scientific study of renewing and restoring ecosystems

Ecological restoration, or ecosystem restoration, is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, destroyed or transformed. It is distinct from conservation in that it attempts to retroactively repair already damaged ecosystems rather than take preventative measures. Ecological restoration can reverse biodiversity loss, combat climate change, support the provision of ecosystem services and support local economies. The United Nations has named 2021-2030 the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historical ecology</span>

Historical ecology is a research program that focuses on the interactions between humans and their environment over long-term periods of time, typically over the course of centuries. In order to carry out this work, historical ecologists synthesize long-series data collected by practitioners in diverse fields. Rather than concentrating on one specific event, historical ecology aims to study and understand this interaction across both time and space in order to gain a full understanding of its cumulative effects. Through this interplay, humans both adapt to and shape the environment, continuously contributing to landscape transformation. Historical ecologists recognize that humans have had world-wide influences, impact landscape in dissimilar ways which increase or decrease species diversity, and that a holistic perspective is critical to be able to understand that system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fire ecology</span> Study of fire in ecosystems

Fire ecology is a scientific discipline concerned with the effects of fire on natural ecosystems. Many ecosystems, particularly prairie, savanna, chaparral and coniferous forests, have evolved with fire as an essential contributor to habitat vitality and renewal. Many plant species in fire-affected environments use fire to germinate, establish, or to reproduce. Wildfire suppression not only endangers these species, but also the animals that depend upon them.

Fire-stick farming, also known as cultural burning and cool burning, is the practice of Aboriginal Australians regularly using fire to burn vegetation, which has been practised for thousands of years. There are a number of purposes for doing this special type of controlled burning, including to facilitate hunting, to change the composition of plant and animal species in an area, weed control, hazard reduction, and increase of biodiversity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prairie restoration</span> Conservation efforts focused on prairie lands

Prairie restoration is a conservation effort to restore prairie lands that were destroyed due to industrial, agricultural, commercial, or residential development. The primary aim is to return areas and ecosystems to their previous state before their depletion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conservation grazing</span> Use of animals to graze areas like nature reserves to maintain habitats

Conservation grazing or targeted grazing is the use of semi-feral or domesticated grazing livestock to maintain and increase the biodiversity of natural or semi-natural grasslands, heathlands, wood pasture, wetlands and many other habitats. Conservation grazing is generally less intensive than practices such as prescribed burning, but still needs to be managed to ensure that overgrazing does not occur. The practice has proven to be beneficial in moderation in restoring and maintaining grassland and heathland ecosystems. Conservation or monitored grazing has been implemented into regenerative agriculture programs to restore soil and overall ecosystem health of current working landscapes. The optimal level of grazing and grazing animal will depend on the goal of conservation. Different levels of grazing, alongside other conservation practices, can be used to induce desired results.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pre-Columbian woodlands of North America</span> Mixed woodland-grassland ecosystem

Pre-Columbian woodlands of North America, consisting of a mixed woodland-grassland ecosystem, were maintained by both natural lightning fires and by Native Americans before the significant arrival of Europeans. Although decimated by widespread epidemic disease, Native Americans in the 16th century continued using fire to clear woodlands until European colonists began colonizing the eastern seaboard. Many colonists continued the practice of burning to clear underbrush, reinforced by their similar experience in Europe, but some land reverted to forest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traditional ecological knowledge</span> Indigenous and other traditional knowledge of local ecology

Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is a cumulative body of knowledge, practice, and belief, evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings with one another and with their environment.

A fire regime is the pattern, frequency, and intensity of the bushfires and wildfires that prevail in an area over long periods of time. It is an integral part of fire ecology, and renewal for certain types of ecosystems. A fire regime describes the spatial and temporal patterns and ecosystem impacts of fire on the landscape, and provides an integrative approach to identifying the impacts of fire at an ecosystem or landscape level. If fires are too frequent, plants may be killed before they have matured, or before they have set sufficient seed to ensure population recovery. If fires are too infrequent, plants may mature, senesce, and die without ever releasing their seed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fossil record of fire</span> Fossilized evidence of wildfires on Earth

The fossil record of fire first appears with the establishment of a land-based flora in the Middle Ordovician period, 470 million years ago, permitting the accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere as never before, as the new hordes of land plants pumped it out as a waste product. When this concentration rose above 13%, it permitted the possibility of wildfire. Wildfire is first recorded in the Late Silurian fossil record, 420 million years ago, by fossils of charcoalified plants. Apart from a controversial gap in the Late Devonian, charcoal is present ever since. The level of atmospheric oxygen is closely related to the prevalence of charcoal: clearly oxygen is the key factor in the abundance of wildfire. Fire also became more abundant when grasses radiated and became the dominant component of many ecosystems, around 6 to 7 million years ago; this kindling provided tinder which allowed for the more rapid spread of fire. These widespread fires may have initiated a positive feedback process, whereby they produced a warmer, drier climate more conducive to fire.

Wildfire suppression in the United States has had a long and varied history. For most of the 20th century, any form of wildland fire, whether it was naturally caused or otherwise, was quickly suppressed for fear of uncontrollable and destructive conflagrations such as the Peshtigo Fire in 1871 and the Great Fire of 1910. In the 1960s, policies governing wildfire suppression changed due to ecological studies that recognized fire as a natural process necessary for new growth. Today, policies advocating complete fire suppression have been exchanged for those who encourage wildland fire use, or the allowing of fire to act as a tool, such as the case with controlled burns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pyrogeography</span> Study of the distribution of wildfires

Pyrogeography is the study of the past, present, and projected distribution of wildfire. Wildland fire occurs under certain conditions of climate, vegetation, topography, and sources of ignition, such that it has its own biogeography, or pattern in space and time. The earliest published evidence of the term appears to be in the mid-1990s, and the meaning was primarily related to mapping fires The current understanding of pyrogeography emerged in the 2000s as a combination of biogeography and fire ecology, facilitated by the availability of global-scale datasets of fire occurrence, vegetation cover, and climate. Pyrogeography has also been placed at the juncture of biology, the geophysical environment, and society and cultural influences on fire.

The relationships between fire, vegetation, and climate create what is known as a fire regime. Within a fire regime, fire ecologists study the relationship between diverse ecosystems and fire; not only how fire affects vegetation, but also how vegetation affects the behavior of fire. The study of neighboring vegetation types that may be highly flammable and less flammable has provided insight into how these vegetation types can exist side by side, and are maintained by the presence or absence of fire events. Ecologists have studied these boundaries between different vegetation types, such as a closed canopy forest and a grassland, and hypothesized about how climate and soil fertility create these boundaries in vegetation types. Research in the field of pyrogeography shows how fire also plays an important role in the maintenance of dominant vegetation types, and how different vegetation types with distinct relationships to fire can exist side by side in the same climate conditions. These relationships can be described in conceptual models called fire–vegetation feedbacks, and alternative stable states.

Cultural burning is the process of using prescribed burns to manage landscapes, a process used primarily by Indigenous peoples; more specifically the Indigenous people of Australia and the Western parts of North America have been found to use this method extensively. This practice created a relationship between the land and the people so strong that the local flora became dependent on patterned burnings. The practice then elevated the Indigenous peoples of their respective environments to a keystone species status as the interspecies connections strengthened over time, which is partially why Indigenous people still manage 40-60% of all ecological reserves.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.