
Aboriginal Hunters’ Fires Help Restore an Australian Desert - pseudolus
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/08/science/australia-aboriginal-fires-martu.html
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kaikai
Indigenous folks using fire beneficially isn't unique to Australia; it's also
used by folks native to California. I've helped with burns used to knock back
plants like hazelnut so they'll produce long thin branches ideal for basketry.
Here's an article that discusses the same idea in a north american context:
[https://www.hcn.org/articles/tribal-affairs-california-
wildf...](https://www.hcn.org/articles/tribal-affairs-california-wildfires-
werent-always-this-destructive)

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pvaldes
Restore is a relative word. It seems that all the ecosystem not tolerant to
fire or acumulating water was wiped long time ago, thousands of plants,
animals and fungi went extinct and is not possible to restore it anymore, so
we stick with the second best forever

When all was turned into a frypan, adding oil and burning it regularly helps,
but this does not mean that other ways weren't possible.

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a_bonobo
If you want to know more, there are two related books you can read:

The Greatest Estate On Earth, Bill Gammage, on how Australian indigenous land
management was much more extensive than commonly thought

Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe - this one cites the above substantially and is much
more polemic, but it looks at more aspects of Australian indigenous life,
hunting, trade etc.

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YUMad
Great books, I recommend them too.

