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Abstract

This article highlights the findings of the literature on aboriginal fire from the human-and the land-centered disciplines, and suggests that the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples be incorporated into plans for reintroducing fire to the nation's forests. Traditional knowledge represents the outcome of long experimentation with application of fire by indigenous people, which can inform contemporary policy discussions.
Journal of Forestry November 200136
Every landscape reflects the his-
tory and culture of the people
who inhabit it. The worldview
of a society is often written more truth-
fully on the land than in its docu-
ments. The current American land-
scape represents the historical legacy of
one worldview superimposed on an-
other, the colonial overlaying the in-
digenous. Nowhere is this history more
apparent than in the attitudes toward
fire, attitudes made manifest on the
landscape.
Euro-Americans arrived in North
America bearing their folk knowledge
that held fire in forests to be destruc-
tive and hazardous to humans (Arno
1985; Lewis 1982). This view con-
trasted sharply with the traditional
knowledge of the indigenous inhabi-
tants, who embraced the benefits of
burning and were skilled in applica-
tion of fire technology.
Fire suppression began soon after
colonization, and its effects followed the
expansion of the frontier westward. An-
thropogenic fire all but disappeared
from eastern forests by the early 1700s
and from the West by 1899 (Arno
1985). The consequences of suppres-
sion are written on the landscape today,
creating what former Secretary of Inte-
rior Bruce Babbitt (1997) called “a crisis
in forest health.” Fire suppression was a
“catastrophic disturbance for those
ecosystems which had been influenced
by anthropogenic fire throughout their
development” (Packard 1993).
The results of fire suppression have
been well documented for ecosystems
throughout North America (e.g.,
Botkin 1990; Wilson 1992; Pyne
1995; Williams 2000a). Parklands
were replaced by dense forests (Biswell
1989; Lewis 1993), prairies and savan-
nas disappeared (Lewis 1993), and re-
Robin Wall Kimmerer and Frank Kanawha Lake
This article highlights the findings of the literature on aboriginal fire from the human- and the
land-centered disciplines, and suggests that the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples
be incorporated into plans for reintroducing fire to the nation’s forests. Traditional knowledge
represents the outcome of long experimentation with application of fire by indigenous people,
which can inform contemporary policy discussions.
Keywords: biodiversity; fire; history; policy; traditional knowledge
ABSTRACT
The Role of
Indigenous Burning
in Land Management
generation patterns were dramatically
altered. Fire suppression has promoted
stand homogeneity and the associated
problems of insects and disease, dis-
rupting the age-class mosaic that was
historically maintained by burning
(Barrett 2000).
The loss of fire in the American
landscape is inextricably linked with
the history of federal Indian policy that
removed tribal people and, therefore,
indigenous land management. In the
words of Williams (2000a),
The basis for much of our forest
health crisis nationwide lies in the al-
most complete cessation of burning by
Indians in fire-adapted ecosystems.
The crisis is commonly attributed to
the advent of systematic fire suppres-
sion and the Smokey Bear mentality of
the 20th century. To fully come to
grips with our forest health crisis
today, we must go back to much ear-
lier land management decisions that
ended thousands of years of Indian in-
teractions with the land, especially
through the use of fire.
Policymakers are struggling with the
outcome of that history and trying to
develop new management policy to re-
store forest health and biodiversity. The
policy pendulum has now swung back
from fire suppression to recognition that
fire regimes are an important part of
ecosystem health. However, the role of
humans in a “natural” fire regime con-
tinues to be debated (Kilgore 1985).
National forest policy now calls for
managers to recreate forests of the pre-
settlement type. Babbitt (1997) pro-
posed that fire be reintroduced for
restoration of ecosystem health and
productivity. If we are to manage for-
ests with the intent of restoration of the
presettlement condition, then it is im-
perative that we understand the role of
indigenous practices in shaping the
landscape (Kimmerer 2000).
Every ecosystem in North America
has been affected in some way by a fire
regime (Pyne 1982; Gruell 1985;
Williams 2000a) manipulated by in-
digenous people. Much forest science,
including ecological classifications of
vegetation types, arose from observa-
tion of forests that were essentially in
transition from conditions of indige-
nous fire management to post-colonial
fire suppression. Our understanding of
forest processes may thus be based on
an anomalous, transitional landscape
(Phillips 1985). “Humans have been a
part of the ecosystem over the past ten
centuries of major climatic change, so
that all forests have developed under
some kind of human influence. This
influence must be accounted for as an
important part of any study of forest
structure and dynamics” (Russell
1997). Further, Anderson (1997) sug-
gests that
a full understanding of wild plant pro-
duction will be achieved only through
the development of a better rap-
prochement between the social, his-
torical and biological sciences. It
would require the sustained and coop-
erative efforts of scholars using both
human- and land-centered avenues of
research.
Extent of Indigenous Burning
In contrast to the romanticized view
of native peoples living with minimal
impact on unspoiled nature (Botkin
1990; Martinez 1998), the presettle-
ment landscape was strongly influ-
enced by indigenous land management
to enhance productivity (Botkin 1992;
Wilson 1992; Blackburn and Ander-
son 1993; Pyne 1995). The most pow-
erful tool for landscape manipulation
was fire. Fire was used by indigenous
people throughout North America
(Kilgore 1985; Williams 2000a), and
its presence or absence strongly shaped
the presettlement vegetation. For ex-
ample, evidence suggests that the dom-
inance of oak and chestnut in Ap-
palachian forests was enhanced by vig-
orous resprouting after indigenous
burning (Abrams 1986, 1992; Del-
court and Delcourt 1997). The extent
of tallgrass prairie of the Midwest is
thought to be largely a result of Indian
fires (e.g., Axelrod 1985).
Western forests, often thought to be
shaped primarily by wildfire, may be
more the product of indigenous burn-
ing than previously thought. For exam-
ple, the distribution and historical
dominance of sugar pine cannot be ex-
plained by frequency of “natural” light-
ning ignition alone. Cultural data pro-
vide evidence that sugar pine stands
were managed by tribal groups who
took “ownership” of individual stands
and applied fire to reduce encroach-
ment by competing species (Schenk
and Gifford 1952). Dated fire scars on
sugar pine offer the best evidence of
heightened aboriginal fire frequency in
the Sierra Nevada (Lewis 1993), which
altered the distribution and abundance
of numerous species.
So ubiquitous was Indian burning
that its absence also shaped forest com-
position. The coastal forests of the Pa-
cific Northwest have a very low inci-
dence of lightning fire. Williams
(2000a) notes that coastal redwood
forests were little affected by burning,
although small clearings were made.
He argues that fire was less prominent
among peoples who relied primarily on
marine resources for food and materi-
als. However, a few miles inland even
the coastal redwoods contained patches
of prairie “too numerous to mention
which
if left to themselves would doubtless
soon have produced forest, but the In-
dians were accustomed to burn them
annually so as to gather seeds. These
prairies were of incalculable value to
the Indians, not alone for their veg-
etable products, but for the game
found upon them (Loud [1918]
quoted in Lewis 1993).
Resource-rich patches in the old-
growth coastal forests were created by
indigenous manipulation of the fire re-
turn interval.
Goals of Indigenous Burning
Fires were intentionally ignited to
fulfill a wide variety of purposes, from
clearing village sites (Brown 2000) to
long-distance signaling. Lewis (1993)
documents more than 70 uses of fire,
including treefelling, clearing travel
corridors, fireproofing settlements, and
hunting. Burning also was used to re-
duce pest populations, including ro-
dents and biting insects, as well as for
collecting edible insects such as Pan-
dora moths and grasshoppers. Burning
37
November 2001 Journal of Forestry
in oak woodlands reduced the popula-
tion levels of acorn weevils and yielded
a more abundant acorn crop, which was
easier to harvest after burning (Mc-
Carthy 1993). Riparian areas com-
monly were burned to attract game an-
imals to the new grass and tree sprouts
(Williams 2000a). Fire still is widely
used in management of basketry plants,
to provide a consistent crop of straight,
slender shoots and roots (Ortiz 1993).
From crop management to range man-
agement, fire was a ubiquitous tool.
Indigenous people used fire to
modify the environment for their own
survival. The most important out-
come of fire use was the intentional
creation of a mosaic of habitat patches
that promoted food security by ensur-
ing a diverse and productive landscape
(Lewis 1985; Williams 2000a). Pro-
ducing such a mosaic promoted sta-
bility in the food supply by creating
multiple resource patches. Maintain-
ing a diversity of habitats buffers the
impact of natural fluctuation in a sin-
gle food species and increases overall
productivity. For example, fire was
used to create prairies which would at-
tract elk, deer, and other game. In-
digenous people skillfully modified
the fire regime to create a range of for-
est openings in many different stages
of postfire succession, which en-
hanced the diversity and yield of
game, berries, root crops, edible seeds,
and medicinal plants. In contrast, fire
was often used by the colonists with a
different intent—uniformity, such as
production of pastures, cropland, and
plantations (Williams 2000a).
Philosophy
The policy of fire suppression in
Western society arises from the myth
that nature can be controlled. Ironi-
cally, trying to control nature through
fire suppression has led to greater un-
predictability. The indigenous world-
view emphasizes the dual nature, cre-
ative and destructive, of all forces. Fire
can be a force for good as it warms
homes and stimulates grasses, but it
can also be immensely destructive. The
role of humans is not to control nature,
but to maintain a balance between
these opposing forces.
This balance is based on recognition
of reciprocal relationships between
human and nonhuman members of
the ecological community. As co-
equals, humans are dependent on non-
humans, and the reverse is also true
(Pierotti and Wildcat 2000). Human
application of fire is part of that inter-
dependence. The ethic of reciprocal re-
sponsibility underlies the indigenous
use of fire, an adaptive symbiosis in
which humans and nonhumans both
benefit from burning. For example, in-
digenous people of the Northwest rou-
tinely burned grasslands and savannas
to increase the yield of root crops, such
as camas and other geophytes. The
people realized a direct benefit from
burning, and so did the plants, as the
fire frequency and extent produced ex-
pansion in the patch size and popula-
tion density of the geophyte species
(Anderson 1997).
Meeting the responsibility for reci-
procity among members of the ecosys-
tem is understood to be simultaneously
pragmatic and spiritual. Application of
fire is viewed by many indigenous
groups as a spiritual responsibility to
the land, a tool that was given to peo-
ple to fulfill the caregiving responsibil-
ities for the land (Martinez 1998) and
to promote world renewal (Krober and
Gifford 1949). The Karuk people of
northern California burn ritually in
New Year ceremonies. Silas Whitman
of the Nez Perce tribe states, “We burn
because it is good for the land; fire
brings more life.” For example, the
prairies of Walpole Island First Nation
have been ritually burned since time
immemorial by the Potawatomi,
Ojibwe, and Ottawa peoples who ac-
cept this as their responsibility and
name themselves the “keepers of the
fire.” The prairies of Walpole Island are
renowned among ecologists for their
species richness, which far exceeds the
diversity where the indigenous fire
regime has been interrupted.
Evidence
Sophisticated application of fire
technology has been a major compo-
nent of indigenous land management
for millennia. The landscape encoun-
tered by colonists was largely shaped by
indigenous burning, yet until recently,
few people acknowledged that Indian
fire use had an impact on the land
(Pyne 1995; Williams 2000a). A for-
estry textbook published as recently as
1973 portrayed the view that “no ha-
bitual or systematic burning was car-
ried out by the Indians” (Williams
2000a). This marginalization of tradi-
tional knowledge arose partly out of ig-
norance and prejudice, but also be-
cause of the fragmentary nature of the
evidence (Williams 2000a). Accounts
of aboriginal burning are found in
notes, journals, and the oral tradition.
These are qualitative, anecdotal sources
that are not readily accepted by West-
ern scientists whose training is usually
limited to interpretation of quantita-
tive data. Much traditional knowledge
has been lost to time and forced assim-
ilation, but much persists in the oral
tradition and practices of contempo-
rary native communities, who are only
rarely consulted as equal partners in
land management.
The correspondence between tradi-
tional ecological knowledge of fire re-
sponse and later scientific evidence is
very strong. Examination of traditional
knowledge offers an opportunity for
crosscultural verification of scientific
hypotheses concerning fire manage-
ment. There is an increasing body of ev-
idence noted by Brown (2000) that val-
idates the oral tradition, through data
collected from historical documents,
dendrochronology, charcoal profiles,
archeological evidence, and statistical
analysis of land survey records. Paleo-
ecological data also support interpreta-
tion of widespread Indian burning and
its effects on vegetation composition
(e.g., Clark and Royall 1996; Delcourt
and Delcourt 1997). However, it must
be acknowledged that there are many
pitfalls in the interpretation of such in-
direct evidence (Williams 2000a). The
widespread significance of indigenous
burning is by no means universally ac-
cepted. Kilgore (1985) summarizes the
arguments critical of the importance of
aboriginal burning, which focus primar-
ily on issues of scale.
The main impediment to scientific
acceptance of the wide impact of abo-
riginal burning arises from a lack of un-
derstanding of the cultural context in
which it took place. For many peoples,
manipulation of the landscape through
38 Journal of Forestry November 2001
November 2001 Journal of Forestry 39
skillful application of fire was critical to
cultural survival, and enhanced food
productivity made agriculture unneces-
sary (Biswell 1989).The material cul-
ture of many tribal peoples simply
could not have been sustained without
extensive use of fire (Blackburn and An-
derson 1993). In terms of energy effi-
ciency, fire was the most potent land
management tool available to indige-
nous people. Millennia of experimenta-
tion and detailed empirical observa-
tions led to a sophisticated application
of fire technology. Coupled with a
worldview that emphasizes the role of
humans as active participants in nature,
fire was integral to many cultures.
The Practice
A careful examination of the philos-
ophy and practice of Indian burning
reveals that it differs from a nonan-
thropogenic fire regime (i.e., wildfire)
in five important respects: seasonality,
frequency, extent, site, and outcome
(Williams 2000a).
Seasonality of burning varied with
the tribe and the ecosystem in question,
but in general fire was applied at a care-
fully considered time that would mini-
mize its destructive nature while har-
nessing its creative power. Numerous
studies confirm that the timing of in-
digenous burns differs significantly
from the seasonality of natural light-
ning ignitions (Barrett 1980; Barrett
and Arno 1982; Lewis 1982; Arno
1985; Brown 2000; Williams 2000a).
Lightning fires are most abundant in
the late summer, but indigenous fires
were set in seasons less conducive to
wildfire. For example, in the boreal for-
ests of northern Alberta, fire was ap-
plied in the early spring when the grass
was dry but the soil was still moist and
the surrounding forests were too wet to
carry a fire. The small-scale, low-inten-
sity burns created openings in the forest
where regrowth was accelerated on the
newly blackened earth, extending the
growing season in this harsh environ-
ment by several weeks and attracting
abundant game (Lewis 1982).
The season of burning also de-
pended on the desired outcome. For ex-
ample, people in the Southwest would
burn the chaparral in the fall to increase
forage for deer. The lower temperatures
and increased soil moisture favored vig-
orous resprouting, which was beneficial
in attracting deer in the winter. In con-
trast, if the intent was to clear land for
tobacco cultivation, the chaparral was
ignited in the spring, when a hotter
burn would discourage resprouting and
prepare a suitable seedbed. In the Great
Plains, Indians rotated the seasonality
of burning as a tool to influence sea-
sonal movement of bison, in synchrony
with their own semi-nomadic move-
ments. In the mosaic of tallgrass prairie
and aspen parkland, the prairie was
burned in the fall, forcing bison into
the parklands that the people inhabited
during the winter. In spring, the park-
lands were burned, which stimulated
movement of the bison out onto the
open prairies (Lewis 1982). This so-
phisticated application of fire required
extensive knowledge of the vegetation
response, the life history of herbivores,
and their interactions with predators.
Williams (2000a) reports an excep-
tion to the general pattern of burning
in the spring or fall, when fire intensity
would be reduced. In northern Califor-
nia and in the Willamette Valley of
Oregon, Kalapuya people burned the
grasslands in the summer, when fire
might be expected to be more intense
and potentially destructive. This un-
usual midsummer burn created a sec-
ond flush of growth in the fall when
the rains returned, a dual cropping sys-
tem that maintained local herbivore
populations. However, the intensity of
the summer burns was quite low be-
cause of their high frequency, which re-
duced fuel accumulation. Appropriate
season of burn was thus understood in
interaction with fire frequency.
Frequency. Most wildfires are started
by lightning strikes; however, scholars
of aboriginal fire agree that anthro-
pogenic fire far exceeded the frequency
of natural lightning strikes. “Lightning
in fire-adapted ecosystems does not
usually cause fires. Lightning tends to
strikehigh rocky points, individual
trees, or other places where no ignition
occurs. Most snag fires are soon extin-
guished by the rain that usually accom-
panies lightning” (Williams 2000b).
Indigenous people enhanced fire fre-
quency not only with more ignitions
but in creating fuel piles so that areas
would burn that ordinarily might not
carry a fire. Several studies of fire return
intervals (Barrett 1980; Blackburn and
Anderson 1993; Brown 2000; Williams
2000b) indicate that fire scars are much
more abundant in areas of Indian habi-
tation than in comparable regions not
managed by indigenous people.
The frequency of fire application
generally was based on the manage-
ment goal. Land was burned annually
if the intent was to increase game by
providing new grass forage. Berry
patches were maintained by burning
on a cycle of three to five years, de-
pending on the ecology of the target
species. A 10- to 12-year fire interval
was typically observed around beaver
ponds to maximize regeneration of
aspen and willows to feed beaver
(Lewis 1982; Williams 2000a). The re-
sult of altered fire frequency was to cre-
ate a mosaic of successional patches,
varying in species composition and age
structure, which ensured a diversity of
plant foods, medicines, game, and ma-
terials for the subsistence of the people.
Extent. Aboriginal burning also dif-
fers from wildfire in its extent. Most
burns were of a modest scale, designed
to maintain small successional patches.
Large-scale burns could be viewed as
maladaptive, disrupting the diverse mo-
saic, disrupting ecotones, and decreas-
ing productivity and stability of the
food supply (Lewis 1993). Extent of
fires was controlled by careful timing,
increased fire frequency and reduced
fuel load, and the use of natural fire
breaks. The mosaic of patches differing
in successional age and flammability
would itself limit the extent of fires.
Ironically, trying to control nature through fire
suppression has led to greater unpredictability.
Journal of Forestry November 200140
Without doubt, fire control was not
uniformly effective, just as we experi-
ence today, and some fires escaped,
with unintended consequences. One
notable exception to the general pattern
of small-scale burning is the huge con-
flagrations traditionally set by peoples
of the northern Great Plains. Prairie
fires would extend for miles and were
used to influence the distribution of
buffalo. This large scale of burning re-
flects the very different ways of Plains
peoples, whose food security arose not
from a mosaic of diverse patches in a
local area, but from maximizing pro-
ductivity of a single species, the buffalo.
A broad range of effects is seen, de-
pending on the resource needs of the
people and the flammability of their
landscape.
Site. Indian fires also differ from
lightning-ignited wildfires in the sites
at which they occur. For example, ri-
parian areas that might not burn with-
out assistance were regularly ignited to
improve waterfowl habitat and encour-
age growth of basketry materials and
certain medicines. Locations of fires
might reflect annual migrations along
the elevational gradient, which enabled
people to take advantage of seasonally
available foods. By understanding dif-
ferential burning conditions, Indians
were able to restrict fires to certain
areas, matching the fire regime to the
ecological conditions and life history of
the target species and thus enhancing
productivity.
Application to Current Goals
Aboriginal use of fire to create and
maintain a landscape mosaic is an an-
cient practice that can be a key to
meeting contemporary land-use goals.
Fire was used as a pragmatic tool to
meet the goals of indigenous practi-
tioners, to increase the yield and diver-
sity of subsistence foods. These practi-
cal goals were also coupled to a spiri-
tual responsibility to carefully use fire
to multiply life. The “natural” fire
regime was manipulated to produce a
richly diverse mosaic of vegetation
types differing in successional age and
species composition.
The intent of contemporary forest
management is no longer to support
the subsistence economy of human be-
ings but to enhance ecosystem health,
productivity, and biodiversity. It is in
this capacity that indigenous knowl-
edge of fire is an invaluable resource for
forest managers. The same indigenous
strategy that was used to increase bio-
diversity and productivity for subsis-
tence can also be used to enhance and
maintain biodiversity for goals of eco-
system health.
For example, indigenous Kalapuya
people of Oregons Willamette Valley
routinely burned savannas and mead-
ows to increase the yield of food plants
such as camas and tarweed (Williams
2000b). Other postfire species in-
creased as well, among them the Kin-
caids Lupine, a legume that is vital to
the life cycle of the Fenders blue butter-
fly (Schulz and Crone 1998). At least
24 species of butterflies once inhabited
these meadows; since cessation of in-
digenous burning, seven have become
extinct and six, including the Fenders
blue, are listed as endangered species
(Schulz and Crone 1998). Restoration
of the indigenous fire regime and the
mosaic it created can have significant
impacts on biodiversity.
Restoration of indigenous-style
burning is not a panacea for problems
of fuel accumulation and structural
changes that have accompanied a cen-
tury of fire suppression, but it should
be part of the strategy for restoration of
forest health. Pyne (1995) states that
to restore natural conditions without
the Indians and the things they did,
including burning, is to construct an
artificial landscape that is historically
and ecologically incomplete. The rea-
son for reinstating fire is not to try and
restore pre-Columbian vistas, but be-
cause we cannot sustain the landscape
we value without it.
The suppression of traditional care-
giving practices has contributed to the
current state of forest health; resump-
tion of human responsibility for fire
can be part of the solution. Indigenous
practice and philosophy offer us an al-
ternative view of the “natural” fire
regime, in which humans regain their
role as “keepers of the fire” and the
symbiotic relationship between hu-
mans, forests, and fire is reestablished
for mutual benefit.
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Robin Wall Kimmerer (Potawatomi)
(rwkimmer@syr.edu) is associate profes-
sor, SUNY College of Environmental Sci-
ence and Forestry, One Forestry Drive,
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Kanawha Lake is graduate research assis-
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Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State Uni-
versity, Corvallis.
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November 2001 Journal of Forestry
... 2023. Frequent burning, often in relatively small patches, was used to reduce fuels, clear hunting grounds, and promote the growth of plants for food, medicine, and basketry (Dixon 1905;Kimmerer and Lake 2001;Stephens et al. 2023). In our study, the inclusion of all fire-scarred trees (C00) resulted in the shortest fire return intervals (median FRI: 4.5 to 12 years). ...
... During the drier parts of the year, the continuity of flammable fuels in these habitats could have provided connectivity with other parts of the landscape, collecting fire from adjacent areas and facilitating fire spread to surrounding uplands. The shorter FRIs near the edges of meadows may also have been an indicator of Indigenous burning (Anderson and Carpenter 1991;Anderson and Moratto 1996;Kimmerer and Lake 2001;Anderson 2005). Native Americans in this region used periodic burning in and around meadows to discourage the encroachment of conifers, maintain and promote edible plants, and improve forage for wildlife (Kimmerer and Lake 2001;Anderson 2005). ...
... The shorter FRIs near the edges of meadows may also have been an indicator of Indigenous burning (Anderson and Carpenter 1991;Anderson and Moratto 1996;Kimmerer and Lake 2001;Anderson 2005). Native Americans in this region used periodic burning in and around meadows to discourage the encroachment of conifers, maintain and promote edible plants, and improve forage for wildlife (Kimmerer and Lake 2001;Anderson 2005). ...
Article
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Background Understanding the role of fire in forested landscapes is fundamental to fire reintroduction efforts, yet few studies have examined how fire dynamics vary in response to interactions between local conditions, such as soil productivity, and more broadscale changes in climate. In this study, we examined historical fire frequency, seasonality, and spatial patterning in mixed conifer forests across a distinct gradient of soil productivity in the northern Sierra Nevada. We cross-dated 46 different wood samples containing 377 fire scars from 6 paired sites, located on and off of ultramafic serpentine soils. Forests on serpentine-derived soils have slower growth rates, lower biomass accumulation, and patchier vegetation than adjacent, non-serpentine sites. Due to these differences, we hypothesized that historical fire frequency and spatial extent would be reduced in mixed conifer forests growing on serpentine soils. Results Fire scars revealed a history of frequent fire at all of our sites (median composite interval: 6–22.5 years) despite clear differences in soil productivity. Fire frequency was slightly shorter in more productive non-serpentine sites, but this difference was not consistently significant within our sample pairs. While fires were frequent, both on and off of serpentine, they were also highly asynchronous, and this was largely driven by differing climate–fire relationships. Fires in more productive sites were strongly associated with drought conditions in the year of the fire, while fires in less productive serpentine sites appeared to be more dependent on a cycle of wet and dry conditions in the years preceding the fire. Widespread fires that crossed the boundary between serpentine and non-serpentine were associated with drier than normal years. Conclusions In our study, fine-scale variation in historical fire regime attributes was linked to both bottom-up and top-down controls. Understanding how these factors interact to create variation in fire frequency, timing, and spatial extent can help managers more effectively define desired conditions, develop management objectives, and identify management strategies for fire reintroduction and forest restoration projects.
... Among some Indigenous communities, the traditional practice of fire stewardship has continued and in other cases it is currently being rekindled as part of cultural revitalization initiatives. This type of fire use is known in the anthropological literature as the "firestick farming" hypothesis (Lewis, 1972;Bliege Bird et al., 2008;Jones, 2012) and is well supported within a multitude of Indigenous oral traditions as "fire stewardship" and "cultural fire" (Kimmerer and Lake, 2001;Lake et al., 2017). Rather than viewing human ignitions as a "black box" of decisions and accidents by a firewielding species, this conception of anthropogenic fire suggests that the use of broadcast fire by hunter-gatherers was a purposive resource management strategy employed to facilitate hunting and gathering, and to maintain, improve, and expand focal resources over generational timeframes. ...
... Indigenous forest stewardship techniques would have contributed to this goal by enhancing productivity, creating seasonally reliable food patches, and expanding the habitat of focal plant and animal resources, a type of tradeoff common to Pre-Contact Indigenous populations of the PNW (Tushingham and Bettinger, 2018). While the labor investments involved in some forest stewardship activities may have decreased the overall efficiency of procurement, "broadcast" burning increased efficiencies in the capture of game, the collection of edible insects, grass seeds, and acorns (Kimmerer and Lake, 2001). Indeed, the availability and procurement of most Indigenous food resourceseven fish (see David et al., 2018)-may have benefitted directly or indirectly from the frequent, seasonally-timed application of low severity fire (LaLande and Pullen, 1999;Connolly, 2000;Peacock and Turner, 2000;Kimmerer and Lake, 2001;Stewart, 2002;Anderson, 2005). ...
... While the labor investments involved in some forest stewardship activities may have decreased the overall efficiency of procurement, "broadcast" burning increased efficiencies in the capture of game, the collection of edible insects, grass seeds, and acorns (Kimmerer and Lake, 2001). Indeed, the availability and procurement of most Indigenous food resourceseven fish (see David et al., 2018)-may have benefitted directly or indirectly from the frequent, seasonally-timed application of low severity fire (LaLande and Pullen, 1999;Connolly, 2000;Peacock and Turner, 2000;Kimmerer and Lake, 2001;Stewart, 2002;Anderson, 2005). ...
Article
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Fire is a key disturbance process that shapes the structure and function of montane temperate rainforest in the Pacific Northwest (PNW). Recent research is revealing more frequent historical fire activity in the western central Cascades than expected by conventional theory. Indigenous peoples have lived in the PNW for millennia. However, Indigenous people’s roles in shaping vegetation mosaics in montane temperate forests of the PNW has been overlooked, despite archaeological evidence of long-term, continuous human use of these landscapes. In this paper, we present a generalizable research framework for overcoming biases often inherent in historical fire research. The framework centers Indigenous perspectives and ethnohistory, leveraging theory in human ecology and archaeology to interpret fire histories. We apply this framework to place-based, empirical evidence of Indigenous land use and dendroecological fire history. Our framework leads us to conclude that the most parsimonious explanation for the occurrence of historical high fire frequency in the western Cascades is Indigenous fire stewardship. Further, our case study makes apparent that scholars can no longer ignore the role of Indigenous people in driving montane forest dynamics in the PNW.
... " The question of what constitutes "natural" in wilderness fire management was one of many key issues recognized decades ago (Kilgore 1987) and remains at the heart of these tensions. Resolving them will likely require addressing the contradictions in imposing the Western concept of uninhabited wilderness to wilderness landscapes that, for thousands of years prior to Euro-American colonization, were affected by the intentional practices of Indigenous peoples (Kimmerer & Lake 2001). ...
... Research indicates that early humans used fire to modify their environments to their advantage nearly 100,000 years ago (Thompson et al. 2021). In North America, many Indigenous peoples have used fire to influence the environments in which they live and steward from time immemorial (Hankins in press 2024;Christianson et al. 2022;Kimmerer & Lake 2001;Lewis 1973). For example, the Anishinaabeg historically ignited fires along commonly traveled waterways in what is today the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota ). ...
Article
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Historical and contemporary policies and practices, including the suppression of lightning-ignited fires and the removal of intentional fires ignited by Indigenous peoples, have resulted in over a century of fire exclusion across many of the USA’s landscapes. Within many designated wilderness areas, this intentional exclusion of fire has clearly altered ecological processes and thus constitutes a fundamental and ubiquitous act of trammeling . Through a framework that recognizes four orders of trammeling , we demonstrate the substantial, long-term, and negative effects of fire exclusion on the natural conditions of fire-adapted wilderness ecosystems. In order to un trammel more than a century of fire exclusion, the implementation of active programs of intentional burning may be necessary across some wilderness landscapes. We also suggest greater recognition and accommodation of Indigenous cultural burning, a practice which Tribes used to shape and maintain many fire-adapted landscapes for thousands of years before Euro-American colonization, including landscapes today designated as wilderness. Human-ignited fire may be critical to restoring the natural character of fire-adapted wilderness landscapes and can also support ecocultural restoration efforts sought by Indigenous peoples.
... Rather than actively suppressing a wildfire, OTFS strategies entail taking indirect approaches for reasons such as reducing firefighter exposure (Thompson et al. 2016a(Thompson et al. , 2016b, finding potential control locations that have a higher probability of success than direct attack (Dunn et al. 2020; Thompson et al. 2021), or allowing wildfire to function as an ecological process (Huffman et al. 2017;Stoddard et al. 2020). The role of wildfire as an ecological process has been understood by Indigenous peoples for centuries across an array of landscapes, including Canada (Christianson et al. 2022), Australia (Abbott 2003;Prober et al. 2016), New Zealand (Baillie and Bayne 2019), and the United States (Kimmerer and Lake 2001). However, historical colonialism and governmental exclusion pushed these perspectives out of land management, especially in the United States (Vinyeta 2022). ...
... However, historical colonialism and governmental exclusion pushed these perspectives out of land management, especially in the United States (Vinyeta 2022). Although the ecological value of fire has been increasingly acknowledged by Western science over the past century, (Leopold 1924;Leopold et al. 1963;Botti and Nichols 1978;Kimmerer and Lake 2001;Huffman et al. 2020), public policy governing wildfire has struggled to articulate how best to allow for natural ignitions in fire management (van Wagtendonk 2007). ...
Article
Full-text available
Background. Intentional management of naturally ignited wildfires has emerged as a valuable tool for addressing the social and ecological consequences of a century of fire exclusion in policy and practice. Policy in the United States now allows wildfires to be managed for suppression and other than full suppression (OTFS) objectives simultaneously, giving flexibility to local decision makers. Aims. To extend existing research on the history of wildfire management, investigate how wildfire professionals interpret current policy with respect to OTFS management, and better understand how they translate policy into implementation. Methods. Interviews were conducted in southwest United States with wildfire professionals to explore policy's impact on OTFS management. Key results. Respondents reported that while flexible federal policy and inter-agency guidance was important, suitable landscape conditions, organisational capacity, support from national and regional leadership, updated management plans, increased monitoring capacity, and adequate performance measures also influence the decision to use OTFS strategies. Conclusions. Translating flexible options into feasible operations requires aligning many layers of policy and people using proactive, collaborative, ongoing preparation. Implications. Our research may prompt targeted discussions between management agencies and policymakers to determine how to best support successful management of wildfires OTFS.
... Indigenous fire stewardship has been practiced broadly across North America, playing an important role in the maintenance of open plains and productive mixed-age forests (Kimmerer & Lake, 2001;Miller & Davidson-Hunt, 2010;Stewart, 2002). In the Rocky Mountains, mosaics of grassland and forest exist as a result of millennia of landscape-level modification by First Nations (Barrett & Arno, 1982;Byrne, 1968;White et al., 2011), and frequent fire is the most important factor in maintaining grassland plant communities (Coop & Givnish, 2007). ...
Article
Full-text available
For millennia, Indigenous Peoples and their ecological stewardship have kept culturally important landscapes open, diverse and productive. Under colonization which suppresses stewardship activities, landscape vegetation patterns shift and areas previously stewarded by Indigenous Peoples are now undergoing successional change. As a case study, we document ecological change on the homelands of the Stoney Iyethka Nations in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, where landscapes have changed dramatically over the past century of colonial management. On the Stoney Iyethka traditional montane Egnuck Wida grasslands, we analysed vegetation change on both the landscape and plot level. Using oblique photographs taken in 1924 paired with 2021 satellite imagery, we compared past and present landscape vegetation cover and assessed drivers of succession. We also examined differences in vegetation class cover and plant community structure between surveys conducted in 1981, 1995 and 2020. Nearly half (47%) of the landscape surveyed showed seral progression in vegetation class, which was not explained by topography, geology or climate warming. Grassland area decreased four‐fold between 1924 and 2021. Grassland retention was strongly related to management zoning, with greater losses in the crown‐managed ecological reserve than on lands that remain under Stoney Iyethka stewardship. Vegetation plots surveyed reveal changes to plant community composition and shifts in dominant vegetation class. In plots previously composed primarily of forbs and graminoids, shrubs have become the dominant groundcover. Declines in historic vegetation include a loss of culturally important food, medicine and ceremonial plants to the Stoney Iyethka Nations. The most likely explanation for these results is the displacement of Indigenous Peoples and their stewardship from the landscape. We demonstrate that the past century of colonial environmental management has altered ecological processes maintained on this landscape for millennia by Indigenous Peoples. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
... Following colonization, traditional Indigenous practices were disrupted worldwide by the displacement of Indigenous peoples from their lands and prohibition of their traditional practices, including the use of fire (Kimmerer & Lake, 2001;Moura et al., 2019). However, in recent decades, there has been growing recognition of traditional knowledge and practices related to fire management, leading to a revival of several Indigenous fire management programs (Armatas et al., 2016;Bilbao et al., 2019;Eloy et al., 2019;Marks-Block et al., 2021;McKemey et al., 2020;Mistry et al., 2016;Nikolakis et al., 2020); although more collaborative decision-making is needed on the ground (Hoffman et al., 2022;Perry et al., 2018). ...
Article
Full-text available
Fire is an essential tool enabling tropical subsistence agriculture, but can result in escaped fires when not adequately controlled. We employed agricultural calendars, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews with over 60 farmers over four months of fieldwork to evaluate how agricultural burning is currently conducted in the Peruvian Andes. We found that Quechua farmers use fire for clearing agricultural residue, controlling weeds and shrubs, and preparing new or fallow parcels, with most burns set during the dry season. Quechua farmers employ control burning techniques that reflect an understanding of how fire behavior is influenced by fuel, topography, and weather conditions, a knowledge that aligns closely with Western use of prescribed and controlled burns. We also observed a high incidence of escaped fires, although most were controlled within an hour, and very few required community-wide intervention to extinguish. Our findings have significant policy implications for the safe and effective use of fire in rural agricultural landscapes. Rather than solely impose fire suppression, governments could facilitate access to modern wildfire risk indices and provide technical assistance for controlled burns, compatible with farmers’ existing knowledge of factors influencing fire behavior. These recommendations are part of a worldwide call for collaborative fire management solutions that are reasonable and applicable in diverse settings in the Global South.
... 35 The optimal burning cycle used to maintain berry abundance was every 3-5 years. 40 The probability of fire is likely increasing in the south central and western coastal regions of Alaska. 41 Combined with other climate changes this could support salmonberry expansion into new areas. ...
Technical Report
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In the “Berries in Alaska’s Changing Environment” series, we examine what we know about the impacts of climate change on our berry species based on scientific research and observations by community members across the state. We identify potential threats to the growth, health, and fruit production of each species. We also look at opportunities: ways that Alaskans may be able to preserve or even expand the availability of fruits. And third, we identify gaps in our knowledge that limit our current abilities to predict what will happen with our berry species. We hope this information will inspire berry lovers to find ways to take advantage of new opportunities, protect what we have, and adapt when that is not possible. The reports will look at growth, flowers, pollination, fruits and seeds, mutualists (like fungi that help plants obtain nutrients) and plant enemies (like herbivores and pathogens), briefly discuss human use, and highlight threats and opportunities for each aspect of the plant life cycle under a changing climate.
... Indigenous peoples maintain a unique relationship to country (9,10), and Indigenous cultures (e.g., languages, objects, knowledges, stewardship practices, and lifeways) generally reflect the environment where they originate. However, there are often nearly universal stewardship practices and approaches such as the use of fire (11) shared among peoples. ...
Article
The climate crisis has exacerbated many ecological and cultural problems including wildfire and drought vulnerability, biodiversity declines, and social justice and equity. While there are many concepts of social and ecological resilience, the exemplar practices of Indigenous stewardship are recognized in having sustained Indigenous peoples and their countries for millennia and past climate change events. California has been at the crossroads of many of these issues, and the historic and current contributions of Indigenous peoples to addressing these provide an excellent study of ecocultural stewardship and leadership by Indigenous peoples to achieve climate resilience.
... Fire management incorporating traditional Indigenous burning practices has been widely discussed as a tool for ecocultural restoration (125)(126)(127)(128). For example, the North Fork Mono tribe in northern California have been working with public lands managers to restore montane meadows and oak groves within conifer forests (129), using burning, digging, and other practices that promote traditional foods, materials, and lifeways. ...
Article
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In this review and synthesis, we argue that California is an important test case for the nation and world because terrestrial biodiversity is very high, present and anticipated threats to biodiversity from climate change and other interacting stressors are severe, and innovative approaches to protecting biodiversity in the context of climate change are being developed and tested. We first review salient dimensions of California’s terrestrial physical, biological, and human diversity. Next, we examine four facets of the threat to their sustainability of these dimensions posed by climate change: direct impacts, illustrated by a new analysis of shifting diversity hotspots for plants; interactive effects involving invasive species, land-use change, and other stressors; the impacts of changing fire regimes; and the impacts of land-based renewable energy development. We examine recent policy responses in each of these areas, representing attempts to better protect biodiversity while advancing climate adaptation and mitigation. We conclude that California’s ambitious 30 × 30 Initiative and its efforts to harmonize biodiversity conservation with renewable energy development are important areas of progress. Adapting traditional suppression-oriented fire policies to the reality of new fire regimes is an area in which much progress remains to be made.
Article
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Contemporary Western attitudes concerning the management of natural re- sources, treatment of nonhuman animals, and the natural world emerge from traditions derived from Western European philosophy, i.e., they assume that humans are autonomous from, and in control of, the natural world. A different approach is presented by Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of indigenous peoples of North America. Although spiritually oriented, TEK converges on Western scientific approaches. TEK is based on close obser- vation of nature and natural phenomena; however, it is combined with a concept of com- munity membership that differs from that of Western political and social thought. TEK is strongly tied to specific physical localities; therefore, all aspects of the physical space can be considered part of the community, including animals, plants, and landforms. As a con- sequence, native worldviews can be considered to be spatially oriented, in contrast to the temporal orientation of Western political and historical thought. TEK also emphasizes the idea that individual plants and animals exist on their own terms. This sense of place and concern for individuals leads to two basic TEK concepts: (1) all things are connected, which is conceptually related to Western community ecology, and (2) all things are related, which changes the emphasis from the human to the ecological community as the focus of theories concerning nature. Connectedness and relatedness are involved in the clan systems of many indigenous peoples, where nonhuman organisms are recognized as relatives whom the humans are obliged to treat with respect and honor. Convergence of TEK and Western science suggests that there may be areas in which TEK can contribute insights, or possibly even new concepts, to Western science. TEK is inherently multidisciplinary in that it links the human and the nonhuman, and is the basis not only for indigenous concepts of nature, but also for concepts of indigenous politics and ethics. This multidisciplinary aspect sug- gests that TEK may be useful in resolving conflicts involving a variety of stakeholders and interest groups in controversies over natural resource use, animal rights, and conservation. TEK may also have implications for human behavior and obligations toward other forms of life that are often unrecognized, or at least not emphasized, in Western science. We present examples from community and behavioral ecology where a TEK-based approach yielded unexpected and nonintuitive insights into natural phenomena. Understanding of TEK may be useful in helping scientists respond to the changing public perceptions of science, and new cultural pressures in our society.
Article
One of the oldest forms of tillage in the world is the digging of subterranean organs of wild plants for food and other purposes. Many areas were managed for increased densities and abundances of wild plants with edible corms, bulbs, tubers, and rhizomes. The horticultural techniques of digging, replanting, and sparing, in conjunction with larger-scale habitat management, created ecological effects at the species, population, community, and landscape levels . California provides a vivid example of an area where tillage was an important element in a comprehensive land management system that was in place for millennia. It is hypothesized that native California tillage activities mimicked natural disturbances with which plants coevolved, and played an ecological role that is now vacant in many wildlands, where Native Americans can no longer harvest and manage plants. Their land management system needs to be studied, described, interpreted, and experimentally mimicked to better understand indigenous disturbance regimes. It is suggested that some wildland areas would benefit from the reintroduction of management and harvesting regimes that authentically mimic indigenous techniques. RESUMEN.-Una de las formas mas antiguas de labranza en el mundo fue excavar los 6rganos subterraneos de plantas silvestres para obtener alimento y para otros prop6sitos. Muchas areas fueron manejadas para incrementar la densidad y abundancia de plantas silvestres con corrnos, bulbos y tuberculos comestibles. Las tecnicas horticolas de escarbar, replantar y dejar plantas para que proliferen, junto con el manejo del habitat a mayor escala, crearon efectos ecol6gicos al nivel de especie, poblaci6n, comunidad y paisaje . California ofrece un ejemplo elocuente de un area donde la labranza fue un elemento importante en un sistema integral de manejo del terreno que oper6 a 10 largo de milenios. Se plantea como hip6tesis que las actividades de labranza de la poblaci6n indigena de California simulaban las perturbaciones naturales con las cuales habian coevolucionado las plantas, y que jugaban un papel ecol6gico ahora vacante en muchas areas naturales, donde los indigenas ya no pueden cosechar y manejar las plantas. Sus sistemas de manejo del terreno deben ser estudiados, descritos, interpretados y reproducidos experimentalmente para entender mejor los regimenes indigenas de perturbaci6n. Se sugiere que algunas areas naturales se beneficiarian de la reintroducci6n de regimenes de manejo y cosecha que imitaran las interacciones indigenas de una manera autentica, RESUME.-Une des plus anciennes formes de labourage au monde consistait a fouiller la terre pour en extraire les organes souterrains des plantes sauvages utilises comme aliments ou a d 'autres fins . Plusieurs endroits etaient geres afin 150 M. K. ANDERSON Vol. 17,No.2 d'augmenter en densite et en abondance les plantes sauvages qui comportaient des rhizomes, des bulbes et des tubercules comestibles . Les techniques d'horticulture d' extraction, d' ensemencementet de jachereassocieesaune gestion de l'habitat a grande echelle a produit des effets ecologiques aux niveaux de I'espece, de la population, de la cornmunaute et du paysage. La Californie foumit un exemple frappant d'un endroit ou Ie labourage etait un element important dans un systeme global de gestion des terres, en place depuis des millenaires, Nous emettons l'hypothese que les activites de labourage des Amerindiens de la Californie mimaient les perturbations naturelles du milieu ou coevoluaient les plantes et ont joue un role ecologique qui maintenant fait defaut aplusieurs terres sauvages ou les autochtones d' Amerique ne peuvent desorrnais plus recolter et gerer les plantes. Leur systeme de gestion des terres doit etre etudie, decrit, interprete et mime de facon experimentale afin de mieux comprendre les regimes de perturbation autochtones. II est suggere que quelques endroits sauvages pourraient beneficier d'une reintroduction des regimes de gestion et de recolte qui mimeraient de facon authentique les interactions autochtones .
Article
Research into the nature and functioning of the oak savannas and woodlands of the American Midwest is leading to re-evaluation of ideas concerning plant community structure and succession, which in turn requires reassessment of landscape management and restoration. The author's goal is to restore savanna to its last known natural state and then let processes that are as natural as possible proceed. -P.J.Jarvis
Article
1 Presettlement fire regimes in north-eastern North America and their dependence on climate, fuels, and cultural patterns are poorly understood due to lack of relevant historic or palaeoecological data. Annual records of sediment charcoal accumulation were compiled from seven sites spanning the last 2000 years and representing important climate, vegetation, and cultural settings. Results were compared across sites and across changes in Indian cultures to determine whether fire patterns might be explained by one or more of these variables. 2 Clearly interpretable fires were restricted to the western (most xeric) portion of our study region in Pine Hardwoods of Minnesota, a single fire in Northern Hardwoods of northern Wisconsin, and cultural burning near an Iroquois village in southern Ontario. Other sites in Northern Hardwoods and Hardwood Hemlock forests did not show clear evidence of fire. Spectral analysis suggested instances in which local fire regimes departed from regional ones. 3 Our interpretation suggests substantially longer intervals between fires than reported in previous sediment charcoal studies. We did not find evidence for fire in mixed oak forests, where it has been speculated that fire might be necessary for oak recruitment, suggesting need for further analysis. 4 A single site in northern Wisconsin was the only Algonquin site showing a clear increase in charcoal suggesting local fire. Algonquin use of fire for hunting may not have affected our sites. A single site in Sioux territory experienced such frequent fire that cultural effects were not evident, even when Sioux were replaced by Chippewa (Algonquin) in the 18th century. One of two Iroquois sites showed clear increases in charcoal during occupation. The second site may not have had settlements nearby.