Posted on 10/11/2019 12:55:59 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
For thousands of years, Native Americans living in the Sierra Nevada routinely set small, controlled fires to manage the forest, increase visibility and herd wild game.
Is it time to embrace the old strategy anew? Should forest managers turn back to those techniques, ramping up prescribed burns to decrease forest density and the threat of catastrophic wildfires?
New research by Anna Klimaszewski-Patterson, a Sacramento State assistant professor of geography, suggests the answer is yes.
“We should be taking Native American practices into account,” said Klimaszewski-Patterson, whose dissertation on the subject recently won the prestigious J. Warren Nystrom award from the American Association of Geographers (AAG).
“After all, they are stakeholders who have been here a heck of a lot longer than we have,” she said. “We should probably be looking at their traditions and incorporating them” into forest management.
Klimaszewski-Patterson uses paleoecology – the study of past ecosystems – as well as environmental archaeology and predictive landscape modeling in her current work, which is funded by the National Science Foundation. She won the Nystrom award after presenting her paper at the AAG’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C., earlier this month.
Using computer models and pollen and charcoal records to track changes in the forest over time, she has found that forest composition dating back 1,500 years likely was the result of deliberate burning by Native Americans, rather than natural phenomena such as lightning strikes. Those forests featured wide open spaces, resembling parks. Today, the same landscape is thick, dense and prone to catastrophic fires that have caused widespread devastation in California in recent years.
Wildfires burned 875,000 acres in the state last year.
For decades, federal forest managers have aggressively used firefighting aircraft, fire lines and other tactics to extinguish wildfires and protect the natural landscape. That approach has resulted in too many trees, which have been weakened by drought. As a result, forests have turned into tinderboxes.
Land managers around the country are increasing the use of prescribed fires to tame the forest. But the approach is controversial, particularly in California, said Klimaszewski-Patterson.
Smoke and flames are “scary” for members of the public, she said, and can drastically affect air quality. Timing of prescribed burns is critical; high winds during certain times of the year can turn deliberate burns into runaway disasters.
But the Sac State geography professor’s research suggests that, done purposefully and carefully, fighting fire with fire makes sense, she said.
“It’s an argument for prescribed burns that are done with intention, with careful consideration of the timing and quantity and the resources that you are managing,” said Klimaszewski-Patterson. “It’s an approach more in alignment with Native American practices, and it’s something we should consider.”
I know this is off topic but Shepard Smith just said goodbye from Fox. Great Day!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk6aGg7iZ8M
Any interesting video...never new we were doing this...
Trees in the SE are powering England
You really need to keep on topi - look, there’s a squirrel!
Oh, you so much smart and I so dumb!
Lighten up! It was a joke!
If you read accounts from the colonial period you can find references to the Indians teaching the pale faces the need for controlled burns.
That seems like a bit of imaginative thinking and maybe a wishful conclusion. Rather flimsy evidence.
Those forests featured wide open spaces, resembling parks. Today, the same landscape is thick, dense and prone to catastrophic fires that have caused widespread devastation in California in recent years.
That is certainly true here in the Inland Northwest. Forests are choked with weak, small diameter, and short trees. Aggressive thinning is underway in many areas to space the trees out at 20 to 30 feet allowing them to grow a lot taller, thicker, and a lot stronger. That way the fires don't reach into the canopy and consume the entire forest. This has been known for a long time. Good old Smoky Bear really screwed up his native habitat.
Wildfires burned 875,000 acres in the state last year.
= = =
Better put a multiplier on that.
LA and idiot trash track drivers and arsonists have upped that number just since last night.
Put those college kids to work during the summer....and other kids who never attended college.
“They have been here a heck of a lot longer than we have”
No they haven’t. The individuals who were here before evil Whitey arrived are gone. There are other individuals here now who descended from the original ones. They are part of “us” now. Stop separating people into groups of “us” and “them”.
Interesting reading here.
https://www.archaeology.org/issues/272-1709/letter-from/5826-letter-from-california-fires
“We’re going to do controlled burns.”
“How dare you!”
“The Indians did it.”
“Oh. Alrighty then.”
When I was in engineering school, many yeas ago, the approved protocol for a fire in a garbage truck was to dump the load on the side of the road. I doubt it has changed.
You really don't want the truck, its contents, the fuel in it and the hydraulic fluid to all burn like a torch.
Now maybe the protocol needs to be changed, but the driver was following best practices.
The amazing thing to me is that fires inside garbage trucks are reasonably common.
Oh yes I’m sure they the native Americans conducted controlled burns overseen by the Fire Chief! Okay now to address the issue, yes we need to return to clearing the underbrush and have vest trees and yes conduct burns, though I think we were lucky if half of them were actually controlled.
Oh yes I’m sure they the native Americans conducted controlled burns overseen by the Fire Chief! Okay now to address the issue, yes we need to return to clearing the underbrush and have vest trees and yes conduct burns, though I think we were lucky if half of them were actually controlled.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.