An Ethnobiological Approach to Reconstructing Indigenous Fire Regimes in California: Focusing on the Foothill Chaparral as a Case Example

In this talk we will discuss the importance of foothill chaparral to the indigenous people of the western Sierra Nevada for food, clothing, basketry, firewood, medicines, cordage, household utensils, etc. Over 250 plants, insects, small and large mammals, reptiles, and birds that come from these shrublands were transformed into the food and material culture of tribes.  The audience will learn about the tremendous stewardship legacy of Sierran Tribes: How the Sierra Miwok, Mono, Foothill Yokuts, Maidu and other cultural groups set fires in foothill chaparral for six ecologically-based cultural purposes. Through an ethnobiological analysis we will examine the suite of useful products that could be garnered from the chaparral community at each stage of its successional development after a disturbance by fire. We will show how a stand of chaparral offered a different set of raw materials and food and a different kind of animal habitat at each stage of its post-fire development. Creating this kind of mosaic on the landscape required using fire as a management tool with forethought, intention, and deep knowledge of fire’s ecological effects.