An Ecological History of the Hudson Valley

Charles D. CanhamSenior Scientist

Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

abbreviated, with emphasis on Dutchess County…

and a view to lessons for land stewardship in the 21st century…

Disclaimers…

• I’m not a historian…

• Perspective of a forest ecologist on human land-use that has transformed a forested landscape…

Setting the Stage: The Hudson Valley prior to European Settlement

• Largely unbroken forest, dominated by oaks

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Oaks Hickories Hemlock Pine Maples

Presettlement Forests

Current Forests

“witness trees” recorded in original deeds (1750 – 1790) for the current property of the Cary Arboretum in Millbrook

Per

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Tree Species

Transformation of Dutchess County by early European agriculture…

From homestead to intensive wheat farming(1750 – 1825)…

(Photos of the Harvard Forest

Dioramas)

The Erie Canal and the exodus west…

Land abandonment and farm consolidation (1825 – 1875)

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1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

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n Erie Canal

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Population in the Town of Clinton, Dutchess Co. NY1750 - 2000

Reestablishment of forests (1825 – 1925)

First white pine harvests on

abandoned fields

Hardwoods regenerating after a pine

harvest

Poughkeepsie

Trends in forestcover

1700: ~ 100%1825: ~ 25%1915: ~ 16%2000: ~ 55%

Current forest land

? Have the forests “recovered”?

(and, should we let

them?)

What’s missing…?

Dutchman’s breechesMaidenhair fern

Trout lily

What’s new….?

Garlic mustard

Tree of heaven

Invasive species

What else is new…?

A new habitat:

“oldfields”

Are “oldfields” our most endangered habitat?

View from

Stissing Mounta

in

Where have all the fires gone? (and can we bring them back?)

• Is fire suppression responsible for a reduction in the regional dominance of oak species in many parts of the eastern US?

• Has the reduction in the abundance of oaks over the past 200 years fundamentally altered the flammability of these forests?

http://oaksavannas.org/fire-fuel.html

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Oaks Hickories Hemlock Pine Maples

Presettlement Forests

Current Forests

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Tree Species

Catskill and Adirondack Logging: First Wave

1800 - 1890

Harvesting conifers from the river valleys, using horses and water for transportation

Photos from B. McMartin. 1994. The Great Forest of the

Adirondacks

The Tanning Industry…

• Catskills– Slopes completely logged in search of hemlock bark

(1830 – 1870)

• Adirondacks– Tanning industry on

periphery of the Park(1850 – 1890)

Source: B. McMartin. 1992.Hides, Hemlocks, and Adirondack History

Logging: Mechanization

The advent of railroads (circa 1890)

Clearcutting of hardwood forests

(and the advent of fires…)

Logging: the modern forest products industry

• Development of the modern forest products industry

– Pulp and paper (disappearing?)

– Selective loggingfor sawlogs (the ideal?)

– Biomass fuel (the future?)

What did we do to the forests inadvertently…?

• Arguably the most pervasive human impacts* on eastern US forests over the past century have been from the introduction of new pests and pathogens…

– Chestnut blight– Dutch elm disease– Gypsy moth– Beech bark disease– Hemlock wooly adelgid– Emerald ash borer– Asian longhorned beetle– …? (including changes in

outbreaks of native pestsand pathogens)

Heavily diseased and resistant beech trees

*on distribution and abundance of specific tree species

Lessons…

• We have created entirely new ecosystems, and landscape configurations that are without historical precedent…

• This is good! (or at least not necessarily bad…)

A burden of stewardship...

…If we have the power to so completely transform nature, don’t we have a responsibility to guide the changes…?

… If we can’t recreate the past, what are our goals for the future of the landscape…?