Of course in our many American parks and National forests we have just the opposite problem. A century or so of rigorous fire suppression has made the land an explosion waiting to happen, as indeed they have been in recent years. I know I've read the Native Americans on our east coast created and managed meadows by burning, although I don't think that affected very much acreage compared to the surrounding forests.

So I just wondered how much of the "open acreage" could be ascribed to ancient management, and how much to more modern?