Nov. 19, 2025
Sedimentary DNA Uncovers Deep History of Human-Driven Forest Stewardship
New evidence shows hunter-gatherers managed Central European forests with fire
Research led by Dr. Matt Walls reveals that hunter-gatherers in Central Europe used fire to shape forests over 10,000 years ago, boosting biodiversity and directly influencing the way forests respond to change today. This work, powered by new sedimentary DNA techniques, highlights how ancient people actively stewarded their environments — a lesson increasingly important as we rethink modern wildfire management and conservation strategies.
Recent research led by Dr. Walls shines new light on how people have shaped Europe's forests for thousands of years, suggesting that ancient hunter-gatherers in Central Europe actively used fire to manage woodlands and boost biodiversity more than 10,000 years ago. By using cutting-edge sedimentary DNA analysis, scientists are uncovering just how much these early communities influenced the plants, animals and fungi living in post-Ice Age forests — a process that helped build the rich and responsive ecosystems we see today. This work fundamentally challenges the popular belief that Europe’s most biodiverse forests are untouched “primordial” landscapes, showing instead that careful human stewardship played a crucial role in their evolution.
The project’s international team, spanning archaeology, paleoecology, and genetics, is analyzing soils from Bohemia (in what is now the Czech Republic) to reconstruct forest management at the dawn of the Holocene, about 12,500–7,700 years ago. Their findings reveal that the creative use of fire — especially low-intensity burns — encouraged a mosaic of plant, animal and microbial life, generating habitats that adapted to both natural and human-driven change. This deep-time perspective is especially urgent today as climate change and wildfire risk threaten forests; understanding how humanity once sustained healthy, diverse woodlands with fire management offers vital lessons for conservation and land stewardship in an era of environmental upheaval.
Thanks to a newly awarded SSHRC Insight Grant, this research is expanding to train new scholars and foster global collaboration in forest ecology, conservation and archaeology. By highlighting the active role people have played in building and maintaining forest resilience, the work helps shape contemporary debates about rewilding, sustainable resource use, and how best to safeguard forests for future generations.