In Search of the Elusive: Traditional Native Prescribed Burning in the Northeastern Wood Buffalo National Park Area

Abstract

This project was designed to explore the traditional use of a prescribed burning technique by native people in the Ft. Smith - Ft. Fitzgerald area. Previous research in northwestern Alberta had demonstrated that resident Beaver, Slave and Cree peoples had used prescribed burning in the early part of the 1900's to enhance the productivity and predictability of yield of many of their resources, both plant and animal (Ferguson 1979; Lewis 1977; 1982a). Similiar results from the Wood Buffalo National Park area were expected to contribute to the University of New Brunswick Fire Science Center's fire management project through the documentation of one important anthropogenic factor in the fire and vegetation history of the area.