Ancient indigenous New Mexican community knew how to sustainably coexist with wildfire
(WorldNews Environment)

Wildfires are the enemy when they threaten homes in California and elsewhere. But a new study led by SMU suggests that people living in fire-prone places can learn to manage fire as an ally to prevent dangerous blazes, just like people who lived nearly 1,000 years ago. `We shouldn`t be asking how to avoid fire and smoke,` said SMU anthropologist and lead author Christopher Roos. `We should ask ourselves what kind of fire and smoke do we want to coexist with.` An interdisciplinary team of scientists published a study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences documenting centuries of fire management by Native American farmers. The team included scientists from SMU, the...