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Indigenous knowledge reveals history of fire-prone California forest

A collaboration between scientists and Native American tribes finds tree density in parts of the Klamath Mountains is at a record high, and at risk of serious wildfires.
  1. Jude Coleman
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Indigenous oral accounts have helped scientists to reconstruct a 3,000-year history of a large fire-prone forest in California. The results suggest that parts of the forest are denser than ever before, and are at risk of severe wildfires1. The research is part of a growing effort to combine Indigenous knowledge with other scientific data to improve understanding of ecosystem histories.

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Nature 606, 447 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01232-x

References

  1. Knight, C. A. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 119, e2116264119 (2022).

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