Yards, corridors, and mosaics: how to burn a boreal forest

Journal Article · Mon Feb 29 23:00:00 EST 1988 · Hum. Ecol.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01262026· OSTI ID:6427047

Lewis, H T; Ferguson, T A

Ethnographic studies have established that, until shortly after World War II, Indians in northern Alberta regularly and systematically fired habitats to influence the local distribution and relative abundance of plant and animal resources. In ways similar to what has been reported for hunter-gatherers in other regions, this pyrotechnology contributed to an overall fire mosaic that, in this case, formerly characterized northern boreal forests. Cross-cultural comparisons of these practices with those in other parts of North America, as well as in several parts of Australia, illustrate functionally parallel strategies in the ways that hunter-gatherers employed habitat fires, specifically in the maintenance of fire yards and fire corridors in widely separated and different kinds of biological zones.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton (Canada)
• OSTI ID: 6427047
• Journal Information: Hum. Ecol.; (United States), Journal Name: Hum. Ecol.; (United States) Vol. 16:1; ISSN HMECA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290400* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Energy Resources
AMERICAN INDIANS
ANIMALS
AUSTRALASIA
AUSTRALIA
CALIFORNIA
ECOLOGY
ECOSYSTEMS
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
FEDERAL REGION IX
FEDERAL REGION X
FIRES
FORESTS
HABITAT
HUMAN POPULATIONS
LAND USE
MANAGEMENT
MINORITY GROUPS
NORTH AMERICA
PLANTS
POPULATIONS
RANGELANDS
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
RURAL POPULATIONS
TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS
USA
WASHINGTON