Piedmont Forest History

Art Cooper

Professor Emeritus of Forestry

NCSU Dept of Forestry & Environmental Resources

Factors influencing forest management decisions

in the North Carolina Piedmont—where does

forest history fit in?

• What species are adapted to the area being managed

• What are the characteristics of markets in the area? What species are there markets for?

• Management objectives of the landowner– Timber—pulp wood vs. saw logs

– Wildlife

– Recreation

– Aesthetics

– A combination of these objectives, either on the same tract of land or on different tracts of land in the same ownership

• History of land use in the region—native Americans and European humans

• What is the pattern of natural succession in the area being managed?– Management of natural stands vs. plantation management

• Emphasizes how important understanding change—both natural and human-induced—is to managing forests

History of the Forests of the North Carolina

Piedmont

• History prior to settlement by native Americans– North American glaciation

– Was North Carolina glaciated?

– Changes in forests as North America was gradually deglaciated

• What did forests look like when native Americans entered the area and how did native Americans influence Piedmont forests– How big was the native American population and where did they

settle?

– What were their impacts on the forest?

• Fire

• Clearing for agriculture

• Impact of settlement by European humans

Map showing

maximum

extent of

Wisconsin Ice

Sheet in North

America (from

USFS Tech.

Rept. GTR

SRS-53)

Glacial ―striae‖ on Grandfather Mt., from Berkland and Raymond, Science 181:651-653. 1973

View across Spence Field toward Thunderhead in Great Smokies. Possible site

of glacial cirque? below bald in distance.

Stone polygon, Bluff Mt., NC. From Teeri and Smith, J. Elisha Mitch. Soc. 87(3): 124-126. 1971.

From Delcourt and Delcourt, Natural History, Sept. 1984, pp. 22-28

Vegetation change in Great Smokies, 20K-1.5K years BP. From SE-GSA Field

Trip Manual, March 1985, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN

Eastern North American

forest types 10000 BP

(from Delcourt and

Delcourt 1981)

Hypsithermal

Temperature trends following deglaciation in eastern North America,

showing Hypsithermal episode and Little Ice Age (from USFS Technical

Report GTR SRS-53)

Little Ice

Age

Present range of Betula alleghaniensis

Present range of

Fagus grandifolia

History of the Forests of the North Carolina

Piedmont

• History prior to settlement by native Americans– North American glaciation

– Was North Carolina glaciated?

– Changes in forests as North America was gradually deglaciated

• What did forests look like when native Americans entered the area and how did native Americans influence Piedmont forests– How big was the native American population and where did they

settle?

– What were their impacts on the forest?

• Fire

• Clearing for agriculture

• Impact of settlement by European humans

The ―New World‖ Settlement and Great Extinction

Dilemmas• Two theories. Originally was thought that Siberian natives crossed the

Bering Straits after glacial maximum and spread southward reaching the North American southwest by ~12-13,000 years ago. Folsom and Clovis sites. Apparent rapid spread across North and South America.

• However, research in various fields (archeology, linguistics, genetics) suggest that there might have been as many as 3 separate entries, the earliest occurring about the time of the glacial maximum. Possible travel by water along the west coast.

• The Americas were populated at a time when all of Europe north of southern France was covered with ice. So, which is in reality the ―New World.‖

• Rich native fauna of large mammals. Was decimated within a thousand years or so about 12,000BP

– What caused this? Hunting by Native Americans or some extra-terrestrial event

– Evidence for such an event exists, perhaps even in North Carolina (Carolina Bays)

• Regardless of the cause of the ―great extinction‖ by 10,000BP Native Americans had reached North Carolina and had begun to have an impact on the land.

• Impact was gradual until about 2-3,000 BP.

• Impact of the coming of Spaniards in mid-1500s and later English and French explorers—small pox. Perhaps the Indians traded syphilis for small pox.

Postulated pathways of migration for Homo sapiens from ancestral Africa,

with estimated time lines throughout the rest of the world (from Wickipedia)

Postulated route of travel of ―first‖ Native Americans (from Wikipedia)

The ―New World‖ Settlement and Great Extinction

Dilemmas• Two theories. Originally was thought that Siberian natives crossed the

Bering Straits after glacial maximum and spread southward reaching the North American southwest by ~12-13,000 years ago. Folsom and Clovis sites. Apparent rapid spread across North and South America.

• However, research in various fields (archeology, linguistics, genetics) suggest that there might have been as many as 3 separate entries, the earliest occurring about the time of the glacial maximum. Possible travel by water along the west coast.

• The Americas were populated at a time when all of Europe north of southern France was covered with ice. So, which is in reality the ―New World.‖

• Rich native fauna of large mammals. Was decimated within a thousand years or so about 12,000BP

– What caused this? Hunting by Native Americans or some extra-terrestrial event

– Evidence for such an event exists, perhaps even in North Carolina (Carolina Bays)

• Regardless of the cause of the ―great extinction‖ by 10,000BP Native Americans had reached North Carolina and had begun to have an impact on the land.

• Impact was gradual until about 2-3,000 BP.

• Impact of the coming of Spaniards in mid-1500s and later English and French explorers—small pox. Perhaps the Indians traded syphilis for small pox.

Eastern North American

forest types 10000 BP

(from Delcourt and

Delcourt 1981)

Pleistocene megafauna such as mastodons lived in North America until about

13,300-12,900 years ago and maintained open savanna-like vegetation. From

C. Johnson, Science 326:1072. 2009.

Appleman Lake time series for selected pollens Sporormiella (a fungus that

inhabits dung of large mammals) and charcoal counts. From J. L. Gill et al.

Science 326:1100-1104. 2009.

Carolina Bays, Bladen County, southeast of White Lake

The ―New World‖ Settlement and Great Extinction

Dilemmas

• Two theories. Originally was thought that Siberian natives crossed the Bering Straits after glacial maximum and spread southward reaching the North American southwest by ~12-13,000 years ago. Folsom and Clovis sites. Apparent rapid spread across North and South America.

• However, research in various fields (archeology, linguistics, genetics) suggest that there might have been as many as 3 separate entries, the earliest occurring about the time of the glacial maximum. Possible travel by water along the west coast.

• The Americas were populated at a time when all of Europe north of southern France was covered with ice. So, which is in reality the ―New World.‖

• Rich native fauna of large mammals. Was decimated within a thousand years or so about 12,000BP

– What caused this? Hunting by Native Americans or some extra-terrestrial event

– Evidence for such an event exists, perhaps even in North Carolina (Carolina Bays)

• Regardless of the cause of the ―great extinction‖ by 10,000BP Native Americans had reached North Carolina and had begun to have an impact on the land.

• Impact was gradual until about 2-3,000 BP.

• Impact of the coming of Spaniards in mid-1500s and later English and French explorers—small pox. Perhaps the Indians traded syphilis for small pox.

How did native Americans interact with the

forest?• The myth of the ―forest prime-evil‖, in which a squirrel could run from

the Atlantic to the Mississippi without touching the ground

• Records of early explorers—John Lawson

• Early settlers records of fire

• Density of native Americans.

– Once thought to be no more than 1-1.2 MM natives

– Recent studies suggest many millions, a density actually higher than that of settled parts of western Europe

– Density of clearings associated with villages and cultivation

• Openings for native American villages or fields

• Native American use of fire as a game management tool and to promote desirable plant species

• Forest often described as ―open, through which a man could drive a carriage and horses‖

• Thus, the ―forest prime-evil‖ actually developed since the 1500s after reduction of the Native American population by disease.

Aerial view of Haw River looking south toward area where Jordan Reservoir is

now located. Note ―unbroken‖ forest. Picture taken 1/1972.

Piedmont Prairies?• Were there ―prairies‖ (native grasslands) in

the Piedmont prior to European man?

– Eastern forests almost certainly were more open than now due to Native American activities

– Probably there were. Relict plant species

– Natural plus the effect of native American land use (agriculture, fire)

– Native grazing animals (bison, elk)

– Tendency for the central Piedmont to be subject to period droughts and lower rainfalls than the rest of the State

Detail from 1718 map of Carolina by Guillaume Delisle showing western Piedmont

as a large plain (―Grande Savane‖). From Betsill, NC Wildlife, 9/2002, p 6.

History of the Forests of the North Carolina

Piedmont

• History prior to settlement by native Americans– North American glaciation

– Was North Carolina glaciated?

– Changes in forests as North America was gradually deglaciated

• What did forests look like when native Americans entered the area and how did native Americans influence Piedmont forests– How big was the native American population and where did they

settle?

– What were their impacts on the forest?

• Fire

• Clearing for agriculture

• Impact of settlement by European humans

Forest Land in North Carolina

• 1600—unknown, probably at least 25MM acres

• 1865—probably no more than 13-15 MM acres (40-50%)

• 1885—~15 MM acres (44%)

• 1938—18.1 MM acres (58%)

• 1945—18.8 MM acres (60%)

• 1955—20 MM acres (64%)

• 1964—20.4 MM acres (65%)

• 1974—20 MM acres (64%)

• 1984—19 MM acres (61%)

• 1990—19.3 MM acres (62%)

• 2002—18.3 MM acres (59%)

Present day Piedmont landscape between Shelby and Gastonia.

Picture taken 4/12/1968.

Recovery of land following farming and

abandonment—‖Old field succession‖

• Has been occurring since Native American abandonment of farmed sites

• Has occurred in cycles, or waves, concurrent with historic events—economic downturns, Civil War, government programs, etc.

• Understanding succession and the sequence of plants occurring after land abandonment is crucial to forest management in the Piedmont.

• In fact, forest management in the North Carolina Piedmont is, in many ways, the management of succession, manipulation of various success-ional stages to produce a desired forest management outcome.

Oak-Hickory forest similar to that which is thought to have dominated the North Carolina

Piedmont before settlement by European man. Picture taken near Lake Raleigh in

October 1939

Old field in fall of year of abandonment. Corn stalks from crop and young seedlings of

plants of winter and next summer established. Picture taken in fall of late 1960’s on

road in what is now North Cary

Horseweed, summer of first year of abandonment. Picture taken by L. A. Whitford, August 1951

Old field in fall of first year of abandonment dominated by Horseweed with young White-top

aster plants established. Picture taken on road in what is now north Cary, November 1968

Old field two years after abandonment dominated by White-topped aster. Note occasional

stem of dead Horseweed. Picture taken near Pilot Mountain State Park in August 1970

Broomsedge-Goldenrod field, about 4-5 years after abandonment. Picture taken off Western

Boulevard in Raleigh in late 1950’s

Four-year old Loblolly pine in broomsedge in field 7 years after abandonment. Picture

taken in Raleigh, November 1949

Field dominated by young Loblolly pine and broomsedge about five years after abandonment.

Note patchy nature of pine reproduction. Picture taken on what is now Ridge Road in west

Raleigh in February 1957

Original range of Pinus taeda and presumed ―original forest‖ in

eastern North Carolina. From Ashe 1915.

Aerial photo of young (~25-30 year old) Loblolly pine stand in Umstead

State Park. Photo taken in May 1968

Loblolly pine stand about 30 years in age developed from old field in Umstead State Park.

Note collapsed tobacco barn in right of picture. Picture taken in winter of late 1960’s

Mature Loblolly pine forest with understory of oak and hickory. Picture taken near

Raleigh, source unknown

Unthinned 80-year old Pinus taeda

on old field pine site, Piedmont.

From Ashe 1915.

Mixed pine-hardwood forest of

Piedmont plateau. From Pinchot

and Ashe 1897. Plate XXII.

Present day forest types of North Carolina from Cooper 1979)

Culmination of old field succession in climax forest of Oak and Hickory. Picture taken

at Lake Raleigh, October 1939

What about the future?• Statistics show decline in North Carolina forests through

the last several US Forest Service inventories. All evidence suggests these trends will continue.

• In past main loss of forests was to agriculture. Now loss is primarily to urbanization.

• Urbanization constitutes a far-greater threat to North Carolina forests than all the ―unwise‖ forest practices because urbanization, once done, can never be undone but the restorative powers of nature, plus wise forest management can bring back the values and services we associate with our forests.

• In a sense the future of the State’s forest cover rests in the hands of private landowners, who own 67-80% of the State’s forest land. Their management decisions, or non-decisions will determine whether North Carolina remains a state with a rich, well-managed forest resource.

From: North Carolina Forests at a Crossroads (Environmental Defense Fund)