Pre-European aboriginal burning significantly shaped Chilean lowland forest patterns

Evidence

Although lightning-ignited fires may be infrequent relative to the human life span, they have probably occurred frequently enough during the 400- to 500-year potential life spans of Nothofagus spp. to have had a significant impact on the development of forest composition and structure. Human-set fires, on the other hand, have had a definite impact on the Lake District forests. Prior to European colonization in the mid-nineteenth century, the Lake District was occupied by an aboriginal population that used fire to clear forests in order to practice small-scale agriculture (Encina, 1954; Lauer, 1961). It is likely that pre-European burning had a major effect on forest patterns, particularly at the lower elevations (i.e., below c. 600 m) where agriculture was possible. — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 316

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to the disturbance-history thread: pre-European human fire as a landscape agent parallels the tamarisk/OSage-orange lived infrastructure piece and the reader’s ‘what happened here’ landscape diagnosis.
• XREF: connects to: Man-controlled burning can still yield a natural ecosystem — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 477; Indigenous burning was a creative landscape-shaping art and science — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 1338

Broader Connections

• Indigenous burning was a creative landscape-shaping art and science #corroborates (0.95) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1338