INDIAN BURNING AND WILDLIFE HABITAT PATTERNS OF THE OREGON COAST RANGE, 14912004

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INDIAN BURNING AND WILDLIFE HABITAT PATTERNS OF
THE OREGON COAST RANGE, 1491-2004

• Oregon Chapter of the Wildlife Society Annual
  Meeting
• Bend, Oregon, February 12, 2004
• Bob Zybach, PhD, Forest Fire History Land Use
  Ecologist
• OSU Department of Forest Sciences
• Five Rivers Landscape Management Study
• USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research
  Station

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• Current evidence suggests patterns of late-15th
  to mid-19th century Indian burning and other land
  management practices had a direct effect on
  Oregon Coast Range wildlife populations and
  habitat conditions.
• The cultural legacy of these practices persist in
  transitional forest and grassland patterns of the
  present time.

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Sources of Information
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Historical Drawings Photographs
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• Aerial
• Photographs

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Historical Maps
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Living Memory and Oral Traditions
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1895-96 USGS Coos Bay 30 min Quadrangle Map
GIS C O N V E R S I O N

• Bottomland Prairies
• 1868 Coos Fire

• 1770 Millicoma Fire
• Wagon Roads and Trails

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Types of Indian Burning Practices
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Northern Coast Range
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Eastern Coast Range
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• Willamette
• Valley, Oregon
• 1845
• 1885

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• Soap Creek
• Valley,
• Oregon
• 1914
• 1989

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Western Coast Range
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• Indian Trail from Willamette Valley to
  Tidewater
• Alseya Valley General Land Office survey map,
  1856

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Alsea Valley North Fork Prairie Trail Network,
1775-2003
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Southern Coast Range
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Indian Burning Patterns, Oregon Coast Range, ca.
1800
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• Oregon Coast
• Range Fuels
• Spruce/hemlock
• Douglas-fir
• Oak grasslands

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CONCLUSIONS Precontact Indian burning practices
had a direct effect on Oregon Coast Range
wildlife populations and habitat patterns. The
cultural legacy of these practices persist in
transitional forest and grassland patterns of the
present time.