Indigenous Land Use and Fire Resilience of Southwest USA Ponderosa Pine Forests
Open accessAbstract
The inability of many dry conifer forests in western North America to recover from modern wildfires has highlighted the impacts of land-use history (fire suppression, logging, overgrazing) and climate change on the resilience of these otherwise fire-adapted forests. Although spatially and temporally variable, Indigenous populations could have influenced historical fire regimes for centuries to millennia, even when those influences were subtle enough to be nearly indistinguishable from lightning-only fire regimes in the paleoecological record. Here, we combine archaeology, paleoecology, and paleoclimate records to show that Indigenous land use in at least two regions of the Southwest US improved the fire resilience of dry ponderosa pine ( Pinus ponderosa ) forests relative to spatially distant lightning-dominated landscapes. Native American fire management that involved high frequency, small patch burning in environments that already experienced frequent lightning ignitions helped to limit the risk to severe fires in variable climates, suggesting that we can similarly reduce the risk of future high-severity fires by applying similar strategies today.
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This study highlights the important role of Indigenous populations in sustaining resilient forests and wildlife populations for centuries.
“it highlights the important role of Indigenous populations in sustaining resilient forests and wildlife populations for centuries (26).”
From Tree rings reveal persistent Western Apache (Ndee) fire stewardship and niche construction in the American Southwest (2025) · cites this paper as [26]
The Introduction and Historical Ecology, Climate, and Resilience sections describe Indigenous burning as enhancing the fire resilience of occupied Southwest ponderosa pine forests over a long historical period. The Archaeological and Environmental Context section mentions promoting habitat for preferred game animals, but our copy does not establish that Indigenous populations sustained resilient wildlife populations for centuries. Page numbers are not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredSeveral studies indicate that while Indigenous fire stewardship might not be distinguishable from lightning fire regimes in terms of frequency, Indigenous burning might be evident in altered fire-climate associations, burn patch size or synchroneity, and ecological impacts.
“Nevertheless, several studies indicate that while Indigenous fire stewardship might not be distinguishable from lightning fire regimes in terms of frequency, Indigenous burning might be evident in altered fire–climate associations (20, 21), burn patch size or synchroneity (22–25), and ecological impacts (26, 27).”
From Tree rings reveal persistent Western Apache (Ndee) fire stewardship and niche construction in the American Southwest (2025) · cites this paper as [26]
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References 54 · Cited by 4
Research works printed but not linked: 16
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- Authors
- Roos, C. I., Swetnam, T. W., & Guiterman, C. H.
- Venue
- Climatic and Ecological Change in the Americas
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Published
- 2023-08-10
- Pages
- 87-103
- OpenAlex
- W4385740874
- Cited by
- 4
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 1.11
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Routledge eBooks (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1114898)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Fire effects on ecosystems
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Forest Management and Policy
- Keywords
- indigenous land use, fire resilience, ponderosa pine forests, ponderosa pine, fire suppression, paleoclimate, paleoecology, fire history, high-severity fire, climate change, southwestern United States
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