A new Penn State research report on the use of fire by Indians to enhance wildlife populations via encouraging certain mast bearing tree types such as oak and chestnut to thrive (as well as preparing the land for growing corn, squash and beans) states the following----"Tree census, paleopollen, fossil charcoal, hsman population, and climate data provide unique support for important anthropogenic use of fire over the last 2000 years in the eastern USA"......................."This includes multiple instances of climate fire anomalies that may be best explained by the role of human-caused burning"..............""The debate about whether forest composition has been largely determined by land use or climate continues, but this new study strongly suggests anthropogenic fire has been the major driver of forest change in the East"............“There are great smokes of fire rising from deep in the woods"...............“We marched to those smokes, recalled George Percy (upon navigating the Jamestown Virginia region in 1607), and found that the savages had been there burning down the grass as, we thought, either to make their plantation there or else to give signs to bring their forces together, and so to give us battle"...................."There are those who disagree as to the extent of fire use"............."Steve Pyne wrote that "even a decade ago the question of 'Indian burning' was a quaint appendix to fire management (Pyne 1995: 242)"................"One example of this can be found in the classic, college-level, forestry textbook on fire control by Art Brown and Ken Davis"---- "It is known that Indians at times set fires...[Yet] it is at least a fair assumption that no habitual or systematic burning was carried out by the Indians (Brown and Davis 1973: 16)".................."Hugh Raup, writing in 1937, noted that Indian caused fires in the northeast were uncommon and the idea that they burned the entire New England area every year , or even every 10 to 20 years “is inconceivable"................."Another author also called the idea that Indians purposely burned the forests to preserve them "preposterous" (Coman 1911)".................."Further, esteemed Historical Ecologist Emily Southgate Russell concluded that based on the 35 documents that describe vegetation or Indian life in the 16th or 17th centuries, only half mention any use of fire except for cooking"................. "Only six purportedly first—hand accounts might refer to purposeful, widespread, and frequent use of fire".............. "These six are all consistent with use of fire only locally near camps or villages, or with accidentally escaped fires".............."It is concluded that the frequent use of fires by the Indians to burn the forests was probably at most a local occurrence"................"The Indians' presence in the region and their use of fire for many purposes did, however, increase the frequency of fires above the low levels caused by lightning, and thus had some effect on the vegetation; for example, grasses characterized the ground cover at small, local, frequently burned sites"

A new report

Date:

May 21, 2019

Source:

Penn State

Eastern forests shaped more by Native Americans' burning than climate change

Native Americans' use of fire to manage vegetation in what is now the Eastern United States was more profound than previously believed, according to a Penn State researcher who determined that forest composition change in the region was caused more by land use than climate change.

"I believe Native Americans were excellent vegetation managers and we can learn a lot from them about how to best manage forests of the U.S.," said Marc Abrams, professor of forest ecology and physiology in the College of Agricultural Sciences. "Native Americans knew that to regenerate plant species that they wanted for food, and to feed game animals they relied on, they needed to burn the forest understory regularly."

Over the last 2,000 years at least, according to Abrams -- who for three decades has been studying past and present qualities of eastern U.S. forests -- frequent and widespread human-caused fire resulted in the predominance of fire-adapted tree species. And in the time since burning has been curtailed, forests are changing, with species such as oak, hickory and pine losing ground.

"The debate about whether forest composition has been largely determined by land use or climate continues, but a new study strongly suggests anthropogenic fire has been the major driver of forest change in the East," said Abrams. "That is important to know because climate change is taking on an ever larger proportion of scientific endeavor."

But this phenomenon does not apply to other regions, Abrams noted. In the western U.S., for example, climate change has been much more pronounced than in the East. That region has received much more warming and much more drought, he explained.

"Here in the East, we have had a slight increase in precipitation that has ameliorated the warming," said Abrams.

To learn the drivers of forest change, researchers used a novel approach, analyzing both pollen and charcoal fossil records along with tree-census studies to compare historic and modern tree composition in the forests of eastern North America. They looked at seven forest types in the north and central regions of the eastern United States. Those forest types encompass two distinct floristic zones -- conifer-northern hardwood and sub-boreal to the north, and oak-pine to the south.

The researchers found that in the northernmost forests, present-day pollen and tree-survey data revealed significant declines in beech, pine, hemlock and larches, and increases in maple, poplar, ash, oak and fir. In forests to the south, both witness tree and pollen records pointed to historic oak and pine domination, with declines in oak and chestnut and increases in maple and birch, based on present-day data.

"Modern forests are dominated by tree species that are increasingly cool-adapted, shade-tolerant, drought-intolerant pyrophobes -- trees that are reduced when exposed to repeated forest burning," Abrams said. "Species such as oak are largely promoted by low-to moderate-level forest fires. Furthermore, this change in forest composition is making eastern forests more vulnerable to future fire and drought."

Researchers also included human population data for the region, going back 2,000 years, to bolster their findings, which recently were published in the Annals of Forest Science. After hundreds of years of fairly stable levels of fire caused by relatively low numbersof Native Americans in the region, they report, the most significant escalation in burning followed the dramatic increase in human population associated with European settlement prior to the early 20th century. Moreover, it appears that low numbers of Native Americans were capable of burning large areas of the eastern U.S. and did so repeatedly.

After 1940, they found, fire suppression was an ecologically transformative event in all forests.

"Our analysis identifies multiple instances in which fire and vegetation changes were likely driven by shifts in human population and land use beyond those expected from climate alone," Abrams said. "After Smokey Bear came on the scene, fire was mostly shut down throughout the U.S. and we have been paying a big price for that in terms of forest change. We went from a moderate amount of fire to too much fire to near zero fire -- and we need to get back to that middle ground in terms of our vegetation management."

Also involved in the research was Gregory J. Nowacki, with the Eastern Regional Office, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. The Agricultural Experiment Station of Penn State funded this research.

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Story Source:

Materials provided by Penn State. Original written by Jeff Mulhollem. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Marc D. Abrams, Gregory J. Nowacki. Global change impacts on forest and fire dynamics using paleoecology and tree census data for eastern North America. Annals of Forest Science, 2019; 76 (1) DOI: 10.1007/s13595-018-0790-y

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https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2307/1937331

Indian‐Set Fires in the Forests of the Northeastern United States

Emily W. B. Russell

First published: 01 February 1983

https://doi.org/10.2307/1937331

Abstract

The historical evidence for the Indians' burning the forests of the northeastern United States is reevaluated. Of 35 documents that describe vegetation or Indian life in the 16th or 17th centuries, only half mention any use of fire except for cooking. Only six purportedly first—hand accounts might refer to purposeful, widespread, and frequent use of fire. These six are all consistent with use of fire only locally near camps or villages, or with accidentally escaped fires. It is concluded that the frequent use of fires by the Indians to burn the forests was probably at most a local occurrence. The Indians' presence in the region and their use of fire for many purposes did, however, increase the frequency of fires above the low levels caused by lightning, and thus had some effect on the vegetation; for example, grasses characterized the ground cover at small, local, frequently burned sites.