This is a shagbark hickory tree from New Jersey, and the likes of this species used to be far more common to America’s eastern forests than they are today. The same holds true for pignut hickory, black oak, and white oak trees (as well as beech, pine, hemlock and larch). And these all have some common qualities — they are relatively drought-tolerant and do well with “sandy glacial debris” soils. They are also in relative decline compared to species like red maple and black cherry, (along with poplar, ash, and fir) which like a relatively high degree of year-round moisture. And the reason for the change is likely because of Indigenous American forestry burning practices.
Before the arrival of the Europeans, American Indians in the eastern part of North America regularly used controlled burning as a way to navigate their environment. The earlier forest tree types actually benefit from small-scale forest fires. The Indigenous Americans benefited from the nuts of oak and hickory, and used pine wood and resin for canoes.
Not all Native American ecological practices were sustainable: after all, there were many, many groups that changed over the thousands of years. For instance, after aspen trees in Manitoba, Canada, were burned to the ground, their roots were unable to regenerate.
The degree to which Indigenous Americans shaped the environment before European contact is definitely debated, but the enormous impact that Europeans had on North America’s ecosystems is not. The depopulation caused by smallpox brought by Europeans (up to 90% of American Indians died in the hundred years after Columbus) caused so much growth of trees and other vegetation that some scholars estimate that the earth’s temperature cooled by 0.15C between the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
Sources: The Guardian, “European colonization of Americas killed so many it cooled the Earth’s climate,” Jan 31, 2019, Oliver Milman. _Binghamton University State University of New York, BingUNews, “Native Americans did not make large-scale changes to environment prior to European contact,” Jan 17, 2020, John Brhel. CW Dick Lab, “Oak-hickory forest: a vestige of Native American land use?” Christopher William Dick, March 27, 2016. Penn State, “Eastern forests shaped more by Native Americans’ burning than climate change,” Jeff Mulhollem, May 21, 2019. Review of _Forgotten Fires, Native Americans and the Transient Wilderness_, by Omer Stewart etc al, Oklahoma Press 2002, in _Natural Resources Journal_, Pablo Padilla, Fall 2004 vol 44 issue 4. _Scientific American_ “Don’t downplay the role of Indigenous people in moulding the ecological landscape,” Marc Abrams, Aug 5, 2020.
