Rebecca Vail, California State University, Sacramento
Anna Klimaszewski-Patterson, California State University, Sacramento
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Abstract
Fire is a key component of California’s Mediterranean ecosystems. But fire can occur both naturally and through human activities. Native Americans have used surface fires as a low-cost tool to manage California’s terrestrial resources for millennia. Ethnographic records indicate that these low-intensity fires were used to encourage plant growth that would attract deer, make hunting easier, and to clear out undergrowth. Distinguishing human-set fires from natural ones is difficult, but critical in understanding the role Native Americans played on shaping forests. This study uses sedimentary charcoal to reconstruct 4,000 years of fire history at Markwood Meadow to lay the foundation of identifying effects of natural fires from human-set ones.
Reconstructing 4,000 years of fire at Markwood Meadow, Sierra National Forest, California
