Did Native Americans Significantly Alter Forest Structure in California? A Paleoecologic Reconstruction of Vegetation and Fire History from Two Different Ecosystems

有充分的证据表明，美国各地的印第安人使用火来操纵环境。火是清除树木或清除灌木丛的主要工具，如果广泛使用，可以从根本上改变景观。人们对更好地了解印第安人使用火的程度非常感兴趣，但在他们对美国西部森林的影响程度上存在广泛分歧。一种由植被和气候变化的古生态学证据支持的观点认为，这种影响仅限于村庄遗址周围的小区域，气候是对西部森林的主要控制。另一种观点得到人类学证据的支持，认为火对美洲原住民的生存至关重要，森林结构受到人类的严重控制。很少有研究试图弥合这一分歧，然而，这种方法对于更好地了解美洲原住民使用火对西部森林的影响是必不可少的。该项目将使用古生态学方法重建过去的植被和火灾历史，以及来自美洲原住民土地利用历史记录良好的地区的人类学数据。该项目将从湖泊和草地收集沉积物岩心，并使用花粉和木炭分析来重建过去4000年的植被和火灾历史。通过核心遗址附近的火灾痕迹树，重建近200 - 300年的火灾历史，建立现代火灾动力学。该项目还将使用现有的考古证据来记录美洲原住民在研究区域的到达和分布。项目地点的长期气候历史将来自该地区以前的古生态研究。然后，项目地点的植被变化和火灾历史记录将与美洲原住民技术和土地利用实践的变化进行比较，以确定气候记录无法解释的森林结构的异常变化。这些变化可归因于美洲原住民的影响。这项研究是专门设计来验证印第安人在通过使用火来塑造森林组成和结构方面比以前认为的更重要的作用。研究结果有可能通过更好地了解欧洲以前的森林动态，直接促进土地管理决策，因为目前的管理做法往往没有考虑到可能的人为干预。这项研究将进一步证明，过去印第安人的土地利用方式可能在多大程度上造成了现代土地利用管理者所继承的森林结构。关注保护对其文化至关重要的生存方式的美洲土著群体可能会从更好地了解森林如何受到过去类似活动的影响中受益。

It is well-documented that Native Americans across the United States used fire to manipulate the environment. Fire is a primary tool for clearing trees or removing brush and if used extensively can fundamentally alter the landscape. There is great interest in better understanding the degree to which Native Americans used fire but broad disagreement over the extent of the impact they had on forests in the western United States. One argument, supported by paleoecological evidence of vegetation and climate change, states that the impacts were limited to small zones of occupation around village sites and that climate was the primary control on western forests. The other argument, supported by anthropological evidence, notes that fire was essential to Native American subsistence and forest structure was heavily controlled by people. There are few studies that have tried to bridge this divide, however such an approach is imperative to obtain a better understanding of the impacts that Native American use of fire had on western forests. This project will use paleoecological methods for reconstructing past vegetation and fire history as well as anthropological data from areas with well-documented histories of Native American land-use. The project will collect sediment cores from lakes and meadows and use pollen and charcoal analysis to reconstruct vegetation and fire history during the last 4,000 years. Fire history during the last 200 to 300 years will be reconstructed from fire-scarred trees near the core sites to establish modern fire dynamics. The project will also use existing archeological evidence to document the arrival and distribution of Native Americans across the region of study. The long-term climate history for the project sites will come from previous paleoecological studies in the region. The records of vegetation change and fire history for the project sites will then be compared to changes in Native American technology and land use practices in an effort to identify anomalous shifts in forest structure that are not explained by the climate record. Such changes would be attributed to Native American impacts.This study is specifically designed to test the assertion that Native Americans had a larger role than previously supposed in shaping forest composition and structure through the use of fire. The results have the potential to contribute directly to land management decisions through a better understanding of pre-European forest dynamics, since current management practices often do not account for possible human intervention. The research will further demonstrate the extent to which past Native American land use practices may have been responsible for creating the forest structure inherited by modern land use managers. Native American groups concerned with preserving subsistence practices important to their culture may benefit from a better understanding of how forests were affected by similar activities in the past.