Excerpt: “In a landmark treatise on the ecology of Indian burning practices in California, Henry Lewis suggested an investigative approach involving “the collection and examination of the few and desultory ethnographic and historic statements about Indian burning to fit these into the findings and recommendations of contemporary ecological research.”
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Abstract (excerpt): The open oak woodlands described in the accounts of Spanish explorers were in large part created by land use practices of the California Indians, particularly burning. Extensive ethnographic evidence documents widespread use of fire by indigenous people to manipulate plants utilized for food, basketry, tools, clothing, and other uses. Fire helped maintain oak woodlands and reduce expansion of conifers where these forest types overlapped. There is no clear evidence that the Spanish or subsequently the Mexican land uses had any significant impact on the distribution or abundance of oak woodlands. The introduction of livestock led to dramatic changes in understory species, which may have had some effect on oak regeneration, but this first wave of European settlement left California’s oak woodlands largely intact. During the American period, impacts on oak woodlands intensified. Oaks were cleared for fuel and charcoal, to open land for agriculture, and to improve rangeland. Fire suppression favored conifers where oaks and confers co-occur, leading to loss of oak woodlands.    
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Abstract excerpt: "There is a need for more intensive multi-disciplinary study of prehistoric "hunter-gatherer" burning patterns in temperate regions. Calilbrnia is presented as a case study to demonstrate how powerful, effective, and widely employed fire was in the native repertoire for directly manipulating the wildland environment. It is highly likely that the magnitude of burning in other temperate regions as well as in California, has been underestimated by anthropologists."      
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