There is a book titled 1491 in whcih the author reviews the evidence that native Americans (North, South and Central) were quite sophisticated and active managers of the natural environment. Their practises apparently included not just the use of fire, but may also have included many other active ways to alter the mix of plants to favor certain ones, like chestnuts, that provided good quality forage.

The author does stress that such new ideas of the past can be subject to misuse, in particular this new evidence of past environmental management has been used to excuse the very different, more destructive, and less proven management practises used in our present day economy, such as strip mining, clear-cutting, and wetlands drainage.