Pyroculture

Montanus (1671:22) however commented that: “Greenery would abound more if the natives did not burn the areas where they wander”, without at all appreciating the pyroculture that had been practiced by the Tasmanians for millennia as an innovative and successful environmental management strategy (Bird et al. 2008).

Source: wiktionary

Despite the absence of farmed crops (i.e., maize, beans, and squash) and agriculture, it is clear that the western North American landscape was highly managed through fire maintenance (or pyroculture) for thousands of years (e.g., articles in Blackburn and Anderson 1993).

Source: wiktionary

In the words of a recent scientific review of the effects accomplished by the ‘ecological engineering’ of traditional fire practitioners, ‘pyrodiversity begets biodiversity’. This a conscious cultural economy of fire in stark contrast to the organised irresponsibility of industrial pyroculture toward the ecological consequences of its burnings, of enclosed fires hidden behind ignition switches and powerpoints.

Source: wiktionary

The driving force of pyroculture was a flow of light-giving heat from burning firewood; thus converted solar energy. But for the first time in the history of life, the prime shaping force of an energy-dissipating structure sprang from human ingenuity. Fire masters created technological artefacts such as the torch and the fireplace to conduct their new energy economy, which soon established ecological dominancy. Pyroculture happened to be a very successful evolutionary strategy.

Source: wiktionary