Register

February 22, 2023
1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Eastern time

In this hour-long webinar we will hear from Madi Landrum, a Ph.D. student in the Ecology and Environmental Sciences Program and Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, as she explores the role of paleoecology in fire management decisions on the land in the northeast.

The need to understand long-term natural and human influences on fire is becoming increasingly important as global climate change increases the frequency and severity of forest fires in the northeastern United States. Meanwhile, there is a growing appreciation for the role Indigenous peoples have played in maintaining ecosystems over millennia. While climate is largely thought to be the main driver of regional ecosystem processes in the northeast, the role of fire, including Indigenous fire management, is actively debated. Historical accounts and Indigenous oral knowledge (e.g. place names) indicate that Native peoples have used fire to create mosaic landscapes throughout the northeast, which is likely to have influenced local diversity and species composition, altering overall forest structure. Read more at the link above…