Understanding how forests have been managed in the past in California can help landowners understand how forests came to look as they do now. An important aspect of past forest management was carried out by Native Americans present in California before European and American settlement.
Forests and woodlands have been producing
important food staples and commodities for human use all over the
world for many millennium. As people use forests, these uses affect
the shape of forests. This situation is no different in California,
where human habitation and use goes back at least 10,000 years.
The native tribes present in California at the time of European and American settlement, known as California Indians, were a diverse group made up of over 100 tribes, speaking many languages. Anthropologists estimate that around 300,000 California Indians were living throughout all of the major ecological regions of the state when the first European settlements were established by the Spanish in 1769. Native population density varied according to ecological zone, with the highest population densities, over 10 people per square mile, within the Central Valley along the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, due to the abundant fisheries there. In other areas, population density estimates are 5-7 people per square mile for the North Coast range and the Sierra Nevada foothills, 3-5 in the northern redwood region and the Central coast, 2-3 in the Central Valley away from the river basins, and 0-2 in the Sierra Nevada.
Before european settlement, California’s
forests were used primarily to meet the subsistence needs of
indigenous native tribes. These subsistence needs included food,
shelter, and raw materials for tools, basketry, and cooking
fires.
The main food staple of most tribes, the acorn,
was abundant in forests and woodlands. Eight of the 19 species of
oaks native to California were used for their acorns. Because acorns
contain tannic acid, collected nuts were first be ground into meal,
and flushed with warm water in baskets or sand pits. The meal was
then be cooked and eaten.
The preferred species of acorn included tan oak
(Lithocarpus densiflora) in the Pacific Coast range, and black oak
(Quercus kelloggii) in mountainous areas. Other important species
included blue oak (Quercus douglasii) in the foothills, valley oak
(Quercus lobata) in the valley and lowland areas, and Oregon oak
(Quercus garryana) in the northern mountains. If these species were
inadequate then acorns from live oaks including canyon live oak
(Quercus chrysolepis), interior live oak (Quercus wislizenii), and
coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) were used.
Acorns are an amazingly productive resource which
yielded an abundant and secure food supply. One large oak tree can
produce from 500 to 1000 pounds of acorns every two to three years.
One estimate calculates that the total annual acorn crop from Central
California ran into the millions of tons. Most of this probably
remained unharvested and were used by deer and other wildlife as an
important food source.
Other forest commodities were important to California Indians,
including foods such as wild game, berries, and roots. Forests also
supplied crucial raw materials for native housing, clothing, and
tools.
Given their reliance on forests and forest goods,
it is not difficult to understand that native people had an active
interest in managing the forest. Contrary to the popular stereotype
of the North American continent as a vast untamed wilderness before
European settlement, anthropological research has shown that in fact,
many Native peoples actively managed their landscapes. This is
especially true in California.
Although most California Indians did not practice intensive agriculture (except perhaps for cultivation of tobacco), evidence suggests that they did actively manage forests to meet their subsistence needs. Although native population densities were low and technology (stone tools, digging sticks and baskets) was simple compared to today’s standards, Native Americans had one outstanding tool that allowed them to manage relatively large areas of forest with limited labor. That tool is fire.
Many tribes in California used fire as a method of
managing forests for a variety of goals, all aimed at improving
forests’ capacities to provide for native subsistence needs.
Forest vegetation could be actively manipulated through the use of
fire. Fire was used by natives to reduce fuel accumulations, clear
brush from the forest floor, maintain prairies and grasslands,
promote the growth of grass and shrub shoots, and enhance food
production.
Burning of brush and debris on the forest floor
was carried out to reduce forest fuels and the chances of severe
fires. Removing underbrush also allowed easier travel through the
forest for people and wildlife, and enabled people to see longer
distances.
Grasslands or meadows were valued for their
production of wild roots including wild onions (Allium sp.), yampah
(Perideria sp.), brodiaeas (Brodiaea sp.) and blue camass (Camassia
quamash) which were sources of food to many tribes. Burning these
areas kills small tree seedlings and saplings which colonize new
areas, keeping grasslands from becoming forested. Burning may also
increase the productivity of wild roots.
Fire was used by some groups to enhance acorn
production. Light ground fires also kills diseases and insects in the
forest litter and clears the ground under trees making it easier to
pick up acorns.
Fires were set to drive small game into the open
and allow them to be more easily captured by hunters. Fires also
encouraged new plant shoots to sprout, to improve food supplies for
deer and other wildlife.
Baskets were critical for cooking and other domestic uses. Fire was used to remove old brittle branches on woody shrubs and stimulate growth of the long straight and supple shoots which are essential for making tightly woven baskets.
One thing that we can learn from Native American
forest management history is that human caused fires have probably
been an important factor influencing the shape of California forests
for a very long time.
Fires set by native Americans, in combination with
natural fires started by lightening were a frequent occurrence in
much of California’s forests. The majority of European and
American immigrants who settled California did not value or
understand fire as a management tool. On the contrary, modern forest
management has placed an emphasis on removing fire from the forest
ecosystem through fire prevention and suppression.
As a consequence, the incidence of fire in California forests has
been dramatically reduced from the prehistoric period. This reduction
in fire incidence has consequences for forest ecosystems and current
forest landowners.
Before the wilderness: environmental management by
native Californians, 1993. Compiled and edited by Thomas C. Blackburn
and Kat Anderson. Ballena Press, Menlo Park, California. 476
pages
Native American land-use practices and ecological
impacts, 1996. M. Kat Anderson, Michael J. Moratto. Sierra Nevada
Ecosystem Project: Final Report to Congress Volume II: Assessments
and Scientific Basis for Management Options. University of
California, Centers for Water and Wildland Resources, Report No. 37,
Davis, California. 1528 pages.
The California Indians, a source book, 1971.
Compiled and edited by R. F. Heizer and M. A. Whiple. University of
California Press, Berkeley, California. 619 pages.
The natural world of the California Indians, 1980.
Robert F. Heizer, and Albert B. Elsasser. California Natural History
Guides Number 46. University of California Press, Berkeley,
California. 271 pages.
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Publication of this series was in part funded by the
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
under Contract numbers 8CA96027 and 8CA96028