Resource intensification and late Holocene human impacts on Pacific coast bird populations: evidence from the Emeryville shellmound avifauna

Anthropologists and conservation biologists have commonly assumed that the distributions and abundances of vertebrate resources recorded during the early historic period in North America reflected a "pristine" condition. This view follows from the perception that Native American population densities and technological capabilities were simply too low to deplete or extirpate vertebrate populations, or, alternatively, that native peoples were "children of nature" and the original conservationists (Alvard 1993, 1994; Kay 1994). In fact, these perceptions underlie modern wildlife management policies and practices. For example, because pre-Columbian environments are routinely viewed as "primordial wilderness" (Hewes 1973:150), restoring ecosystems to their "original condition" simply requires the elimination of European influences; this is the principle behind "hands-off" or "natural regulation" management (Kay 1994).