In small-scale human societies, a variety of factors contribute to the sustainability of subsistence economies, including premeditated conservation measures, low human population levels and predation pressure, and limited technological capacity to adversely impact environments. Here I suggest that it is worthwhile to look beyond simple characterizations of small-scale societies as being “low impact” in terms of their limited population, predation, and technology. Instead, we should look more closely both at the degree to which primary prey species are resilient to human predation and at the extent to which the niche construction efforts of small-scale human societies may modify vegetation communities in ways that result in their capture of a larger percentage of an ecosystem's total biotic energy. The small-scale Pre-Columbian societies occupying the Mississippi River Valley provide a case study. Throughout the Middle and Late Holocene, indigenous groups in this major north-south environmental corridor relied for protein to a substantial degree on a set of animal species/species groups (white-tailed deer, fish, migratory waterfowl) that combined both a high biotic potential and relative immunity from over-exploitation. At the same time, they practiced an integrated overall strategy of restructuring vegetation communities in ways that enhanced and expanded the habitats of many important food sources.

Anthropogenic prairies or meadows along the Northwest Coast of North America are herbaceous lowland openings in a forest-dominated landscape that were historically maintained by indigenous people through intentional burning and other management techniques. These anthropogenic ecosystems were once relatively common in the Northwest, but today are threatened because of the cessation of traditional resource management practices often coupled with widespread development and fire suppression. In this study, we explore the long-term history of Ebey's Prairie, an anthropogenic prairie on Whidbey Island, WA. We use analyses of soils, cultural features, archaeobotanical remains, and artifacts to demonstrate that people have been using the Ebey's Prairie locale for a variety of activities over a broad time scale (about 10,000 to 250 years B.P.). Within at least the last 2,300 years people began setting fires to create and maintain a “prairie” landscape. From that time onward, people used this landscape to harvest a range of open ecosystem resources. Understanding the long-term cultural and natural history of Ebey's and other prairies is a fundamental first step to managing these ecosystems for the future.

There is growing interest in the ecology of the Maya Forest past, present, and future, as well as in the role of humans in the transformation of this ecosystem. In this paper, we bring together and re-evaluate paleoenvironmental, ethnobiological, and archaeological data to reconstruct the related effects of climatic shifts and human adaptations to and alterations of the lowland Maya Forest. In particular, we consider the paleoenvironmental data from the Maya Forest area in light of interpretations of the precipitation record from the Cariaco Basin. During the Archaic period, a time of stable climatic conditions 8,000–4,000 years ago, we propose that the ancestral Maya established an intimate relationship with an expanding tropical forest, modifying the landscape to meet their subsistence needs. We propose that the succeeding period of climatic chaos during the Preclassic period, 4,000–1,750 years ago, provoked the adaptation to settled agrarian life. This new adaptation, we suggest, was based on a resource management strategy that grew out of earlier landscape modification practices. Eventually, this resulted in a highly managed landscape that we call the Maya Forest Garden. This highly productive and sustainable system of resource management formed the foundation for the development of the Maya civilization, from 3,000 to 1,000 years ago, and was intensified during the latter millennia of a stable climatic regime as population grew and the civilization developed. These strategies of living in the forest evolved into the milpa cycle—the axis of the Maya Forest garden resource management system that created the extraordinary economic value recognized in the Maya Forest today.

Culturally modified trees, or CMTs, are a phenomenon of forest-dwelling peoples worldwide, from North America to Scandinavia, to Turkey, to Australia. Living trees from which materials are harvested (edible inner bark, pitch and resin, bark, branches), or which are modified through coppicing and pollarding to produce wood of a certain size and quality, or which are marked in some way for purposes of art, ceremony, or to indicate boundary lines or trails, all represent the potential of sustainable use and management of trees and forested regions. Often their use is associated with particular belief systems or approaches to other life forms that result in conservation of standing trees and forests, and preserving or enhancing their habitat value and productivity, even while they serve as resources for people. Various types of culturally modified trees have religious or spiritual significance, tying people to their ancestors who used the trees before them, and signifying traditional use and occupancy of a given region. Although some CMTs are legally protected to some extent in some jurisdictions, many are at risk from industrial forestry, urban expansion and clearing land for agriculture, and immense numbers of CMTs from past centuries and decades have already been destroyed. The diverse types, and the patterns of CMT creation and use, need further study; these trees, collectively, are an important part of our human heritage.

This article describes contemporary landscape management practices in a Rarámuri community in northern Mexico. Learning from Rarámuri concepts and teachings, I investigate Rarámuri landscapes from a relational rather than instrumental perspective. In particular I introduce the concept of subtle ecologies, explored in this article with the heuristic devices of spheres of relations (the effects of collective human action), and lines of interaction (trajectories of intersections between people and plants over lifetimes). I highlight the central ecological importance of children's traditional roles as caretakers of the livestock that make maize farming tenable in this arid environment, as well as widespread practices such as tending, transplanting and tolerating plants in ‘wild’ and semi-domestic spaces; live-harvesting from junipers, oaks and pines; burning and caretaking of the land; and protection/avoidance of certain plants for pragmatic/spiritual reasons. An ethnographic approach foregrounds the often overlooked subtle ecologies of everyday experience, and contributes to a more complete accounting of indigenous landscape and resource management.

Este artículo describe las prácticas contemporáneas de gestión del paisaje en una comunidad Rarámuri del norte de México. Apoyada en los conceptos Rarámuris, investigo sus paisajes desde un punto relacional en vez de instrumental, dejando a un lado el vocabulario de ‘manejo de recursos’ en el cual el paisaje se figura aparte de y manipulado por los seres humanos. En particular introduzco el concepto de ecologías sutiles, es decir aquellas relaciones que se dan por causalidad difusa comúnmente invisibles que se ocupa de causas difusas e invisibles. Utilizo dos heurísticas interrelacionadas: las esferas de relaciones, o los efectos de la acción colectiva en el paisaje—y las líneas de interacción, que describen las trayectorias de interacción específicas entre los individuos y las plantas a través de la vida. Subrayo la acción ecológica de niños y jóvenes cuyo trabajo de ‘cuidar chivas’ contribuye como un fertilizante básico para la milpa. Describo las prácticas contemporáneas de cuidar el paisaje, incluyendo el cuidado, transplante, y tolerancia de plantas en el bosque y al borde de la milpa; la cosecha-viva de madera de los táscates, robles y pinos; la roza y quema, y otras protecciones de plantas por razones prágmaticas y espirituales.

Conventionally, the Klamath and Modoc Indians of south-central Oregon and northeastern California are depicted as hunter-gatherers, who took no active role in the management of plant communities. In the course of a multi-year ethnographic effort, however, tribal elders have identified a complex of interrelated plant management practices that are consistent with contemporary definitions of plant cultivation. These include the management of black huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum) yields in subalpine environments, the management of marsh-edge environments for yellow pond lily (Nuphar polysepalum), the tending of “epos” or yampah (Perideridia spp.) digging sites, and the selective harvest of tree cambium, sap, and wood – especially from pines (Pinus spp.) and junipers (Juniperus spp). Together, these accounts suggest that plant management was widespread, that it often served to geographically concentrate culturally preferred species, and that it was rooted as much in cosmological motivations as economic ones. Factors contributing to the decline of traditional management practices are also briefly addressed.

Located within the boreal forest of northern Alberta, the Cree, Dene and Métis community of Fort McKay lies at the center of a large-scale oil sands (bitumen) extraction area. For people who view human and environmental health as inextricably linked, the effects of developmental activities, including subsequent restoration or reclamation processes, are experienced on both social and ecological levels. Consequently, for reclamation efforts to be meaningful to local people, they must take into consideration more than ecological functionality and address the linked social factors. This paper assesses the use and value of the Cultural Keystone Species (CKS) model in the community of Fort McKay, Alberta as a mechanism to address social, ecological and spiritual values in regional land reclamation. As salient species with a defining influence on culture, CKS offer a culturally meaningful tether for communities with landscapes in transition. As part of the Fort McKay Traditional Environmental Knowledge Project, a literature review and extensive community interviews identified seven CKS which were used to focus discussions and ultimately recommendations for relevant land reclamation within Fort McKay traditional territory. This community-based collaborative project illuminated environmental, social and policy implications for Fort McKay.

The idea of “management” is central to our understanding of how people interact with their resources, but many challenges have arisen to traditional concepts of western, science-based resource management. Management is a set of actions taken to guide a system towards achieving desired goals and objectives. A Management System is the sum of these actions, goals and objectives, the process through which they are legitimized by social norms, and the institutions and actors involved in carrying them out. Reframing the concept from management to management system provides a tool for better understanding how social and ecological dynamics act as coupled drivers of managed ecosystems. Seen from this perspective, there are strong parallels between the traditional resource management systems of indigenous peoples and western science-based management systems. Stewardship is a western concept which resonates with the foundations of traditional resource management systems. Both systems of management can be understood on gradients of human influence on ecosystems and of management intensity. Sustainability can emerge across various locations along these gradients. Achieving an integrated understanding of the coupled dynamics of social and ecological systems is a central challenge for both managers and for researchers.