CHAMPAIGN, Ill., March 14 (UPI) -- A 226-year history of fires in southern Illinois has been constructed from an examination of fire scars in old-growth tree stumps, researchers say.
Scientists say the history reveals the ecology of the region was permanently altered by a change in the frequency of fires dating back to the time of early European settlement, a University of Illinois release reported Monday.
"I was just amazed at the fire scars in these trees," said William McClain, a botanist with the Illinois State Museum who led the study with researchers from the Illinois Natural History Survey at the University of Illinois. "I knew that the information that was in these tree trunks was really, really valuable."
McClain is an expert on the fire history of the region and has collected accounts of fires from numerous historical records.
"These are written accounts of observed fires that record the date and location of each fire," he said. "And there are a significant number of Indian-started fires."
The study of growth rings and fire scars confirms the people who lived in Illinois before European settlers arrived were in the habit of setting fires in the region nearly every year, McClain said.
This repeated burning actually stabilized the prairies and open woodlands that dominated the region until the late 19th century, when the fire-suppression efforts of the new settlers allowed different plant species to take over, changing the ecology of the region, the researchers said.
