Early Forests in Northeastern United States

Early Forests in Northeastern United States

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TOPIC: Early Forest in NE United States
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/a6b750bed18a2a53?hl=en
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== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sun, Nov 11 2007 2:03 pm
From: edfrank@comcast.net

ENTS,

There has been some discussion ecently about the early forests of northeastern United States. One messaged pondered what teh forests would have looked like prior to the arrival of the native Americans in the region. (This is in regard to the idea that they used fire to clear areas of the landscape.) Prior to the arrival of natie Americans in the northeast, there were no forests. The area was covered by continental glaciers and tundra. There is a campsite at Meadowcroft shelter near Pittsburgh that contains a campsite dating from 16, 000 years ago, prior to the retreat of the last glacier.

Also discussed is how the forest appeared prior to the end of the 1800's and early 1900's when essentially the entier northeast was clearcut for timber. There are few good descriptions of teh forest and few photographs prior to that time. One resource worth considereing are landscape paintings and drawing from the mid 1800's and earlier. Many of these artists were consumed with maing an accurate rendering. http://www.tfaoi.com/articles/subjects/19land.htm On close-ups of tree it is often easy to distinguish species based upon bark pattern and limb structure. On broader views of teh landscape it may be possible to distinguish certain species by size and form.

One movemnet around the mid 1800's was the Hudson River School. http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/6aa/6aa4.htm
The Hudson River School emerged during the second quarter of the 19th-century in New York City, the booming port and commercial metropolis at the mouth of the Hudson River. There, a loosely knit group of artists, together with like-minded poets and writers, forged the first self-consciously "American" landscape vision and literary voice. That American vision -- still widely embraced today -- was grounded in the exploration of the natural world as a source of spiritual renewal and as an expression of national identity; this vision was first expressed through the magnificent historic scenery of the Hudson River Valley region, including the Catskills, accessible to all via the great river that gave the school its name. Collectively, the works of Hudson River School artists constituted the nation's first homegrown art to not only take root in this country, but also to garner world-wide recognition and fame. (left: George Henry Boughton (1833-1905), Hudson River Valley from Fort Putnam,
West Point, New York, 1855, oil on canvas. Gift of John V. and William F. Irwin, 1927.1)

I think this may something worth pursuing concerning the history of American forests. perhaps even an article in some Art Journal. There is a book about the movement available from Amazon (Search through the search box on the ENTS Bookstore http://www.nativetreesociety.org/bookstore/bookstore1.htm

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0517422824/sr=1-5/qid=1194734947/ref=olp_product_details/
104-7859430-8843907?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1194734947&sr=1-5&seller=
Ed Frank

== 2 of 3 ==
Date: Mon, Nov 12 2007 2:49 pm
From: edfrank@comcast.net

Josh,

yes teh glaciers advanced and retreated across the northern United States many times in the last million years. The forests would reach northward during the comparatively breif 10,000 -20,000 year interglacial periods and then be wiped out by the advancing ice sheets and the cold during the longer 100,000 glacial advances. The last retreat dates from about 10,000 years ago and the forest have again pshed northward along with the populations of this time of native Americans.

Ed

== 3 of 3 ==
Date: Mon, Nov 12 2007 3:11 pm
From: Elisa Campbell

Hi all,

I repeat me recommendation of a good book on the subject of trees
returning to at least SE US after the glaciers, only this time with more
exact information:

Forests in Peril: Tracking Deciduous Trees from Ice-Age Refuges into the
Greenhouse World (Paperback)
by Hazel R. Delcourt
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/104-2042034-5078342?%5Fencoding=
UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Hazel%20R.%20Delcourt>
(Author)

Elisa

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