Not surprised. People participate with God in creation. He gives us a bunch of little jobs to keep us busy. Like, for example, I read awhile back that the reason there are trees in the Everglades is that the native Americans had trash heaps. The trees got established on the little islands of soil that resulted from the decaying trash.
Also, the reason Yosemite Valley looks so nice, with space to walk between the trees, is that the native Americans did controlled burns to clear out the brush. Muir gets there and thinks it looks naturally “park-like”. It’s natural only in the sense that humans did what they naturally thought best. They deserve some credit for the fine result.
“”...read awhile back that the reason there are trees in the Everglades is that the native Americans had trash heaps. “””
I’m trying to figure out how they could have generated that much trash. Aren’t Indians supposed to be the most efficient consumers using every part of their kills and getting the most out of their resources?
The Indians burned off the forests annually just about everywhere. Burning the underbrush does not harm the established trees unless you wait until the underbrush is very dense, which it is in most of the American forests now due to diligent fire control. The 17th century settlers in New England marveled at the open forests that you “could march an army through.” They also thought the Indians were crazy, burning the forest every year. And the Great Plains- they burned off the grasslands to improve pasture for bison and other hunted large animals.
The early Native Americans were firebugs. They understood that the deer they hunted could not eat mature trees, that they lived at the interface between forest and meadow. So they set fires to create lots of meadows for deer habitation.