RECONSTRUCTING HUMAN-FIRE-VEGETATION RELATIONSHIPS IN MAINE

Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of fires in the northeastern United States, making the study of long-term natural and human influences on fire more critical. While climate change is thought to be the main driver of regional fire-related processes in the northeast, the use of fire by Indigenous people and its role in shaping ecosystems is actively debated. Indigenous place names and oral knowledges, as well as historical accounts by European settlers, indicate the Wabanaki peoples may have used fire to create mosaic landscapes, which would support diverse forest structure, diversity, and composition. Braiding Indigenous knowledge and western science is an increasingly used approach to reconstruct the role Indigenous communities played in shaping ecosystems.

During the summer and fall of 2021 we collected two lake cores: one from Perch Pond (Old Town, Maine) and one from coastal Witch Hole Pond (Bar Harbor, Maine) to investigate sediment accumulation over the last 14,000 years. These sites were selected because they are located near culturally significant archaeological sites and allow for the comparison of fire record sensitivity across coastal and inland systems. This work focuses on using Wabanaki place names and new paleoecological data, including pollen and charcoal, to reconstruct changes in plant communities and fire regimes. Additionally, lipid biomarkers are used as a way of determining presence/absence of humans. The results from these analyses will help us understand how Indigenous people in the region interacted with, and potentially shaped, their landscape before European arrival.