Dr. Christopher Roos, Southern Methodist University presents his talk Living with Fire: Archaeological Lessos of Coexistence with Fire-Prone Forests, this Thursday, December 5 at 3:30 pm in Hibben 105. 

In the Southwest US, a century of fire suppression has turned old growth forests into tinderboxes that burn in increasingly destructive ways as the climate warms. But do all fire-climate-society relationships conform to this story? Southwestern pine forests have been home to American Indian communities for millennia. How did these communities cope with – and impact – these flammable forests through variable climates? What lessons might we learn from these experiences? Dr. Christopher Roos brings archaeological, dendrochronological, paleoecological, and modeling information together to weave a story of human and climatic impacts on Southwest US forests over the last millennium. Coexisting with fire in the past, ancient Native American communities illustrate sustainable pathways for living with fire.