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

该项目调查土著社区对温带雨林的历史管理。这项研究询问，文化焚烧和选择性采伐自然资源等传统管理做法如何有助于森林健康，提高对灾难性野火和气候变化的适应能力。对于温带雨林，过去的土著土地管理及其遗产并没有得到很好的理解。在历史上，土著社区几千年来成功地管理着土地。最近野火发生频率和严重程度的增加使人们重新关注提高森林对这些不断变化的条件的复原力的必要性。这项研究通过让森林规划者了解人们在过去如何成功地生活和管理这些相同的灾害，并通过展示这种做法如何指导当代森林管理实践，为提高森林复原力的努力做出了贡献。它还支持部落社区努力保护和解释他们的文化遗产，并重新参与他们的传统土地的恢复和管理。以前的研究考察了温带雨林和野火的长期交织历史，但很少有人关注保存在树木年轮内的火灾和其他文化活动的记录。更少的研究将这些年轮历史与土著人民的传统采伐和焚烧做法联系起来--要么是通过口头传统，要么是通过考古证据。该项目与传统土著文化从业者合作，整合树轮研究和考古证据，以重建土著森林管理的历史。通过综合这些不同的信息来源，这项研究调查了土著文化习俗如何帮助建立森林健康和面对潜在灾难性野火的复原力。这些结果提供了详细的知识，为当前的森林管理战略提供信息，并支持在气候变化下缓解日益增长的极端野火威胁的努力。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.