A History of People and Fire in the South
Fire history is closely linked to human history in the South. Understanding the history of fire and people in the South can help scientists and managers interpret today’s landscapes and design the best fire management plans.
The history of human-fire relationships in the South is more than 12,500 years long. The main groups of people who have played a role in the history of people and fire in the South are Native Americans, European explorers/settlers, American farmers and industrialists, and contemporary governmental and non-governmental land managers. Each of these groups used or use fire in certain ways to achieve particular goals and, consequently, has affected southern ecosystems in characteristic ways.
Readers can learn more about these groups in discussions of human-caused fires on the following pages:
- An Overview of the Fire History Section
- Prehistory describes fire use by Prehistoric Native Americans and the link between human history, fire use, and vegetation change in the South. The different Indians groups that lived in the South used fire to manage ecosystem goods and services.
- History describes the use of fire by first European settlers, Native American groups after contact, and Euro-American farmers. Major changes in fire regimes, linked to monumental social and environmental changes, occurred during the historical era.
- Fire Suppression outlines the movement to protect forests from fire that began in the late-1890s and ended when land managers began re-introducing fire between the 1940s and the 1980s depending on the location.
- Fire Control History focuses on the control and suppression of wildfires and includes a discussion of wildfire control in the wildland urban interface.
- Fire Management defines the current prevailing approach to land management in which prescribed fire is used to restore and maintain healthy ecosystems. New understandings of nature and changing cultural patterns led to governmental support for the use of fire to manage southern ecosystems.
- Research Issues discusses several major debates in the study of fire history and describes the types of evidence used to reconstruct fire history including ethnohistorical documents.
- Overview of the Fire History Section : Overview of the Fire History Section
- Human Use of Fire in Prehistory (12,500 BP to AD 1540s) : Describes fire use by prehistoric peoples including the Clovis Indians, Paleo-Indians, Woodland Indians, and Mississippian Indians. Scientists believe that prehistoric Native Americans increased fire frequency and expanded the seasonality of natural fires
- Human Use of Fire in History (1540s to 1900s) : This section describes the use of fire by first European settlers, Native American groups after contact, and Euro-American farmers. Major changes in fire regimes, linked to monumental social and environmental changes, occurred during the historical era.
- Ethnohistorical Descriptions of Indian Burning Practices : Explains value of historical documents for determining historical fire regimes and gives samples of clues in ethnohistorical writings from explorers and settlers who traveled through the South.
- The Period of Fire Suppression and Other Fire Regimes (1890s to 1980s) : Outlines human-caused fires in the late-1800s due to logging and railroads and farming, through the 1940s when land managers began using prescribed fires. The fire suppression movement began in the late 1890s on the platform that fire destroyed forests a
- Fire Management (1940s to Present) : “Fire management” refers to the current prevailing approach to land management in which prescribed fire is used to restore and maintain healthy ecosystems. Viewers will read about some of the philosophies and cultural changes that led to governmental
- Research Issues in History of Fire and People : Outlines research methods used to determine fire histories, the application of fire history, and debates about fire history.
Encyclopedia ID: p790
