Living Landscapes: Plateau

Across a territory of tens of millions of acres, and throughout a land tenure of many thousands of years, Salish and Pend d’Oreille people used fire to shape and care for their homeland in the northern Rockies. They more than doubled the frequency of natural fires, so much so that the plant and animal communities we have inherited today are in large measure the legacy of Indian burning. This was land management on a vast scale. Tribal people applied fire in various years, and at various times of year, and for various reasons, across the full range of the ecosystems of the Plateau, Northern Rockies, and high plains. Those fires profoundly shaped plant and animal communities.

It is difficult to imagine today. The suppression and exclusion of fire, and the tribal use of fire, has erased much of the fire-shaped landscape that once characterized much of western Montana. Beginning early in the twentieth century, fire policies of the U.S. government halted the practice of tribal burning and began suppressing and excluding natural fires.

Now climate change is creating a whole new set of challenges. By increasing the frequency and severity of wildfires it promises to bring even more dramatic change to our landscapes. On average, the western fire season is now 78 days longer each year compared with the period between 1970 and 1985, and has been accompanied by a four-fold increase in the number of large fires (>1000 acres) and a six-fold increase in the number of acres burned each year. Major factors in this increased frequency and severity include: significantly earlier snowmelt and hotter summer temperatures. Additionally, the longer fire season as well as the expanded vulnerable area of high-elevation forests (largely due to the earlier snowmelt) — are combining to produce the increase in frequency and severity of wildfires.

In the videos at right, you can learn from tribal elders about Salish and Pend d’Oreille burning in the northern Rockies and the impacts of a policy of fire exclusion. Watch and listen to what the elders have to say about the traditional use of fire, why the Tribes burned and where, the importance of native-set fires to hunting and plant harvesting, and the changes that have occurred in the last century.

After watching the videos, reflect on how a changing climate will affect tribal cultures that have practiced burning for thousands of years and whose cultural traditions and landscapes have been shaped to a very large degree on the use of fire.