Native Americans In New England Left `Essentially Invisible` Ecological Signal On Landscape Before European Colonization
(WorldNews Environment)

Native Americans were in New England for at least 14,000 years, but new research suggests their `ecological signal was essentially invisible,` flipping our previous narratives about controlled fire burns and providing a possible blueprint for better land management in the region. `We were a bit surprised by our results,` lead author Wyatt Oswald, from Emerson College, told IFLScience. `The generally accepted view is that, before European colonization of New England, Native Americans cleared forests for agriculture and used fire to manage the landscape. `This understanding of the past was popularized in the 1980s by William Cronon´s book Changes in the Land, and it has provided the rationale...