The intersection of expanding human development and wildland landscapes—the “wildland–urban interface” or WUI—is one of the most vexing contexts for fire management because it involves complex interacting systems of people and nature. Here, we document the dynamism and stability of an ancient WUI that was apparently sustainable for more than 500 y. We combine ethnography, archaeology, paleoecology, and ecological modeling to infer intensive wood and fire use by Native American ancestors of Jemez Pueblo and the consequences on fire size, fire–climate relationships, and fire intensity. Initial settlement of northern New Mexico by Jemez farmers increased fire activity within an already dynamic landscape that experienced frequent fires. Wood harvesting for domestic fuel and architectural uses and abundant, small, patchy fires created a landscape that burned often but only rarely burned extensively. Depopulation of the forested landscape due to Spanish colonial impacts resulted in a rebound of fuels accompanied by the return of widely spreading, frequent surface fires. The sequence of more than 500 y of perennial small fires and wood collecting followed by frequent “free-range” wildland surface fires made the landscape resistant to extreme fire behavior, even when climate was conducive and surface fires were large. The ancient Jemez WUI offers an alternative model for fire management in modern WUI in the western United States, and possibly other settings where local management of woody fuels through use (domestic wood collecting) coupled with small prescribed fires may make these communities both self-reliant and more resilient to wildfire hazards.

不断扩大的人类发展和荒地景观的交集——“荒地-城市界面”或 WUI——是火灾管理最令人烦恼的环境之一，因为它涉及人与自然的复杂相互作用系统。在这里，我们记录了一个明显可持续 500 多年的古代 WUI 的活力和稳定性。我们结合人种学、考古学、古生态学和生态模型来推断 Jemez Pueblo 的美洲原住民祖先对木材和火的密集使用，以及对火灾规模、火灾-气候关系和火灾强度的影响。Jemez 农民在新墨西哥州北部的初步定居增加了在经历过频繁火灾的已经充满活力的景观中的火灾活动。用于家庭燃料和建筑用途的木材采伐以及丰富、小型、零星的大火创造了一个经常燃烧但很少大面积燃烧的景观。由于西班牙殖民影响，森林景观的人口减少导致燃料反弹，伴随着广泛蔓延、频繁的地表火灾的回归。超过 500 年的常年小火灾和木材采集以及频繁的“自由放养”荒地地表火灾的序列使得该景观能够抵抗极端火灾行为，即使在气候有利且地表火灾很大的情况下也是如此。古老的 Jemez WUI 为美国西部现代 WUI 的火灾管理提供了一种替代模式，并且可能在其他环境中，通过使用（家庭木材收集）对木质燃料进行本地管理，再加上小型规定的火灾，这些社区都可以自力更生并且更能抵御野火危害。