Investigating the historical dynamics of Indigenous forest stewardship in a western Oregon Cascades landscape

该项目调查了土著社区对温带雨林的历史管理。该研究探讨了传统的管理做法，如文化焚烧和选择性采伐自然资源，如何促进森林健康，提高对灾难性野火和气候变化的适应能力。过去的土著土地管理及其遗产对温带雨林的了解并不多。在历史上，土著社区成功地管理了数千年的土地。最近野火发生频率和严重程度的增加使人们重新关注需要提高森林对这些不断变化的条件的适应能力。这项研究有助于提高森林复原力的努力，使森林规划者了解人们过去如何成功地与这些危害共存并管理这些危害，并展示这些做法如何指导当代森林管理做法。它还支持部落社区努力保护和解释他们的文化遗产，并重新参与恢复和管理他们的传统土地。以前的研究已经研究了温带雨林和野火的长期交织的历史，但很少有关注火灾和其他文化活动的记录保存在树木的年轮。更少的研究将这些树木年轮历史与土著人民的传统收获和燃烧做法联系起来-无论是通过口头传统还是通过使用考古证据。该项目与传统的土著文化从业人员合作，将树木年轮研究和考古证据结合起来，重建土著森林管理的历史。通过综合这些不同的信息来源，本研究调查了土著文化习俗如何在面临潜在的灾难性野火时帮助建立森林健康和复原力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project investigates the historical management of temperate rainforests by indigenous communities. The research asks how traditional management practices such as cultural burning and selective harvesting of natural resources may have contributed to forest health and increased resilience to catastrophic wildfire and changing climate. Past indigenous land management and its legacies are not well understood for temperate rainforests. Historically indigenous communities successfully stewarded lands for thousands of years. Recent increases in the frequency and severity of wildfires have focused a new spotlight on the need for improving forest resilience to these changing conditions. This research contributes to efforts to improve forest resilience by informing forest planners about how people successfully lived with and managed these same hazards in the past, and by showing how such practices could guide contemporary forest management practices. It also supports Tribal community efforts to preserve and interpret their cultural heritage, and to re-engage in restoration and stewardship of their traditional lands.Previous studies have examined the long term, intertwined history of temperate rainforests and wildfires, but few have focused on records of fires and other cultural activities preserved within the annual growth rings of trees. Still fewer studies have linked these tree ring histories to the traditional harvesting and burning practices of Indigenous peoples – either through oral tradition or by using archaeological evidence. In collaboration with traditional indigenous culture practitioners, this project integrates tree ring studies and archaeological evidence to reconstruct the history of indigenous forest management. By synthesizing these diverse sources of information, this research investigates how Indigenous cultural practices may have helped build forest health and resilience in the face of potentially catastrophic wildfires. The results contribute detailed knowledge that informs current forest management strategies and supports efforts to mitigate the growing threat of extreme wildfires under climate change.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.