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
Little Ice
Age
Temperature trends following deglaciation in eastern North America,
showing Hypsithermal episode and Little Ice Age (from USFS Technical
Report GTR SRS-53)
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 extraterrestrial 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 extraterrestrial 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 extraterrestrial 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 successional 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 nondecisions 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)