Schematic of the Fish Lake Plateau landscape over the last 1,200 years (IMAGE)
Caption
A schematic of what the authors think the landscape and human activity was like over the last 1,200 years in the Fish Lake Plateau region. A) 1,200 to 500 years ago, high density of people hunting, harvesting wild plants and cultivating crops. They controlled the fire regime with cultural burning that created a landscape dominated by the plants for sustenance rather than dense forest typical of the elevation. B) 500-100 years ago, farming activity ceased abrupt. Forgers and hunters still practiced cultural burning, although much less than farmers had previously. Trees began to slowly expand their range. C) Past 100 years, European settlers made cultural burning illegal, and the landscape became dominated by forests, setting up conditions for catastrophic wildfires.
Credit
S. Yoshi Maezumi
Usage Restrictions
non commercial, with attribution
License
Licensed content