Research Issues in History of Fire and People

Research Methods

Some types of evidence that scientists use to learn about fire history are:

• Ecological profiles reconstructed from assemblages of pollen, charred wood/charcoal fragments, seeds, and other evidence
• Archaeological data from Prehistory and History such as assemblages of charred wood, seeds, and tools
• Ethnohistorical records from explorers, settlers, historians, county land records, maps, drawings
• Life histories of trees reconstructed through the examination of fire scars
• Dendropyrochronology, or the study of tree rings to date previous
• Vegetative patterns such aspatterns in the growth of fire-dependent species

Applications of Fire History

Fire history has several important applications, including the following:

• Managing contemporary forests: An accurate understanding of the evolution of southern ecosystems is necessary for proper management of contemporary landscapes (Foti and others 1999; Kennedy and Shelburne 2002). Determination of historical fire return intervals will be helpful for planning appropriate prescribed fire programs. Fire history will be important for researchers, managers, and policy makers who are attempting to determine how to restore and maintain healthy forests. Indeed, knowledge of fire history is necessary for defining concepts such as “healthy” and “natural” fire regimes. When we talk about restoration of Appalachian forests, is our goal to restore the mixed-oak stands that emerged from Indian fire regimes? Are the ideal Coastal Plain forests longleaf pine-wiregrass stands like the ones Indian fires helped establish? Many southern foresters agree that fire exclusion is not the best policy because, as Williams (2002) wrote, “the lack of fire usually creates an environment or ecosystem that has never before existed”.
• Understanding forest characteristics: Fire history helps us understand the characteristics of today’s forests (Williams 2000). Historical fire return intervals are also key for understanding contemporary stand composition and structure. The reverse is also true. Scientists use forest characteristics to infer fire histories and fire return intervals.
• Understanding ecological processes: Fire history expands our understanding of ecological processes such as succession by showing how and why people maintain pre-climax forests. Fire history helps us understand why vegetative communities change through time; for instance, why boreal forests preceded oak-pine-chestnut forests or why oak dominance increased and decreased through time.
• Understanding human-environment interactions: Fire history can expand our understandings of the effects of long-term human-environment interactions (Guyette and Dey 2000). Fire history reflects human population densities (Guyette and Dey 2000) and climatic fluctuations. In reconstructing past fire regimes, we learn something about human culture and vice versa, in investigating the human past we learn something about fire.

Research Debates

Some authors discount the influence of pre-European human activities in southern landscapes. Many European explorers and settlers perceived the southern landscape as “pristine” and viewed southern forests as “virgin.” Still today, many Americans share the belief that Indians had very little impact on the environment prior to the arrival of Europeans. Archaeologists, historians, and other scientists, however, argue that since the first Indians arrived in the South, people have had a “profound impact” (Chapman and others 1982) on the environment.

Some historians argue that the extensive pine forests that are found in the Piedmont and Southern Appalachians today are the result of the landscape management practices of early European settlers. The extensive pine forests of today’s southern Coastal Plain differ dramatically from the fire climax forests that existed here before Europeans arrived. Loblolly pines and perhaps other species in today’s forests grow on land that was farmed, abandoned, and then starved of fire for decades. According to other historians and ecologists, pines have been so successful because periodic droughts and lightning fires encourage their growth. Another suggestion that has been made is that Indian burning practices are responsible for the expansion of pine forests across the landscape. Most likely, the distribution of pines and other species have been shaped the activities of all groups of people who have occupied southern landscapes through time plus the effects of meteorological forces.