Ancient Deer Management
Research and Information Related to How Deer Populations Have Been Managed Over Thousands of Years
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‘There’s good fire and bad fire.’ An Indigenous practice may be key to preventing wildfires December 18, 2020 California, National Geographic
... The Indigenous Peoples Burn Network focused on a single goal: setting forests on fire.... [ancestors] burned young trees and brush to create and maintain meadows that would attract deer and elk... As these flames ceased, a new kind of forest emerged: a nearly fire-free ecosystem that was unlike anything that had existed since the end of the Ice Age...
New York Deer Management Plan November 27, 2020 DEC
... When European settlers arrived in New York, white-tailed deer were apparently present throughout the state, but densities varied greatly by region. Relatively high densities of deer lived in open areas maintained by Native Americans primarily through periodic burning....
As It Was: Ashland, Ore., Forest Plan Reduces Wildfire Danger August 5, 2019 Oregon, ijpr.or
... Until settlers began arriving in the 1850s, the indigenous people used low-intensity fire to herd [and feed] deer, reducing fuel content in the watershed. As settlers pushed aside the Indians, the forest thickened, becoming susceptible to wildfires...
Even in 1542, Southern California's air quality was in question August 22, 2015 The San Luis Obispo Tribune
... During the 19th century, many recent arrivals from the East and Midwest thought the fires were deliberately started by Native Americans to facilitate their killing of wild game ... historical documents, indicate that Native Americans employed extensive burning of chaparral and shrub lands as a means of land management. They sought to turn the former into native grasslands to promote the proliferation of deer, antelope and small game...
Fire and agroforestry revive California indigenous groups' traditions October 11, 2018 Mongabay.com
... For centuries, the Karuk tribe has nudged this interlocking ecosystem toward producing these beneficial plants through practices known as agroforestry... we cultivate them with fire ... Fire clears oak groves of encroaching conifers and kills the weevils that ruin acorns. It renews the meadow grasses for grazing deer and elk...
Wildlife Encounters by Lewis and Clark: A Spatial Analysis of Interactions between Native Americans and Wildlife Andrea S. Laliberte William J. Ripple BioScience, Volume 53, Issue 10, 1 October 2003, Pages 994–1003,
... Native people used fire, modified vegetation, and influenced animal populations, with the result that North America was not a pristine wilderness (White and Cronon 1998)...
Setting Fires and Restoring an American Landscape April 23, 2018 Illinois, New York Times
... For thousands of years, indigenous Americans ignited the landscape. Fire, they knew, brought bison and deer to hunt, and berries and tubers to harvest. European colonizers took these strategies and practiced them for centuries — but things changed in the early 20th century... The United States Forest Service started the Smokey Bear campaign, which portrayed all fire as destructive...
Climate change stokes fiery future for California September 17, 2018 Santa Rosa Press Democrat
... fire shaped the drought-prone landscape for thousands of years, as Native Americans used it to maintain meadows and forests that provided deer, elk and acorns for food as well as grasses for basketry...
Ancient West Virginia forests once a mosaic of landscapes January 3, 2020, West Virginia Explorer
... Historians once assumed West Virginia had been shaded by a vast unbroken forest ... Records from the 1700s and archaeological evidence uncovered more recently indicate that vast areas had been burned to create grasslands to make hunting and farming easier ... Only about one percent of forest fires were started by lightning strikes, and the rest were manmade...