1. INDIAN BURNING AND WILDLIFE HABITAT PATTERNS OF THE OREGON COAST RANGE, 1491-2004 Oregon Chapter of the Wildlife Society Annual Meeting Bend, Oregon, February 12, 2004 Bob Zybach, PhD, Forest Fire History & Land Use Ecologist OSU Department of Forest Sciences Five Rivers Landscape Management Study USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station

2. Current evidence suggests patterns of late-15th to mid-19th century Indian burning and other land management practices had a direct effect on Oregon Coast Range wildlife populations and habitat conditions. The cultural legacy of these practices persist in transitional forest and grassland patterns of the present time.

3. Sources of Information

4. Historical Drawings & Photographs

5. Aerial Photographs

6. Historical Maps

7. Living Memory and Oral Traditions

8. 1895-96 USGS Coos Bay 30 min Quadrangle Map Bottomland Prairies 1868 Coos Fire 1770 Millicoma Fire Wagon Roads and Trails GIS C O N V E R S I O N

13. Types of Indian Burning Practices

16. Northern Coast Range

21. Eastern Coast Range

22. Willamette Valley, Oregon 1845 1885

23. Soap Creek Valley, Oregon 1914 1989

25. Western Coast Range

26. “Indian Trail [from Willamette Valley] to Tidewater” “Alseya Valley” General Land Office survey map, 1856

29. Alsea Valley North Fork Prairie Trail Network, 1775-2003

33. Southern Coast Range

36. Indian Burning Patterns, Oregon Coast Range, ca. 1800

37. Oregon Coast Range Fuels *Spruce/hemlock *Douglas-fir *Oak grasslands

38. CONCLUSIONS Precontact Indian burning practices had a direct effect on Oregon Coast Range wildlife populations and habitat patterns. The cultural legacy of these practices persist in transitional forest and grassland patterns of the present time.