27 reliance on the waterway and cultivation of the soil.24 The Potawatomi tribe is a prime example of a mutually beneficial relationship between humanity and the environment. The tribe dwelled in woodlands and groves in the Fox River Area, which provided them necessary provisions of shelter from wind, a permanent source of water, and coverage for shade.25 In exchange, the Potawatomi helped maintain the natural landscape of the area by developing an important process utilizing fire. Through slash and burn agriculture, they deliberately started fires to “reduce unwanted, harmful vegetation and animals, while promoting the health of vegetation and animals that are naturally part of the community.” 26 Employed originally as a cultivation method, fire became a natural conservation method. As such, the physiognomy and vegetation structure of many native plant communities depends on fire, and fire absence can change the composition of the land. For example, “vegetational changes common throughout Illinois, such as from prairie to shrub thicket or forest or oak-dominated woodland to maple-dominated forest, are attributable to reduced fire frequency and fire absence.”27 The Potawatomi tribe introduced what was for them a form of sustainable agriculture that has now become a natural component of the earth system, using the Earth’s resources while preserving it. In the same way that the Potawatomi used a natural conservation method, we too must practice sustainable management and, even further, help restore the land to its original state. Restoration efforts are an optimal management strategy that can mitigate climate change and halt, if http://indians.org/articles/potawatomi-indians.html; Nationalgeographic.org. “The Ecological Benefits of Fire.” National Geographic, https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/ecological-benefits-fire. 24 Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Fox River Area Assessment. Office of Scientific Research and Analysis, 1998. https://friendsofthefoxriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/fox-3-Living-Resources.pdf. 25 Mpm.edu. “Potawatomi History.” Milwaukee Public Museum, https://www.mpm.edu/content/wirp/ICW-152. 26 Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Fox River Area Assessment. Office of Scientific Research and Analysis, 1998. https://friendsofthefoxriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/fox-3-Living-Resources.pdf. 27 Ibid.
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