Pyrogeography: Spatial and temporal relationships of fire, nature, and culture

For millennia indigenous groups globally have utilized fire as a tool for management and conservation of resources at a landscape scale. Prescribed fire represents a valuable tool for fulfilling resource management and conservation objectives such as increasing and maintaining biodiversity, increasing the production and quality of floral resources, reducing fuels, and minimizing nuisance species. Despite the benefits prescribed fire can yield, little has been done to research the applicability and effects of indigenous prescribed fire on riparian ecosystems.

The primary objectives of this dissertation research are as follows: (1) study the effects of indigenous prescribed fire on riparian ecosystems in central California through implementation of comparative wet and dry season fires; (2) integrate participation and expertise of traditional cultural practitioners and other knowledgeable individuals into the applied and investigative research; (3) comparatively analyze indigenous burning practices from central California and Australia's Northern Territory; and (4) facilitate an understanding of how indigenous land management practices might benefit contemporary resource management and conservation within the study region and perhaps globally.

It is intended that this research will provide land managers, cultural practitioners and others the tools and documentation to implement prescribed fires for resource management and conservation purposes. Additionally, it is hopeful that this research will provide a platform for discussion with respect to policy and management of riparian ecosystems.