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People and the Land through Time
This page intentionally left blank
 EMILY W. B . (RU SSELL) SO UTHGATE

People and the Land

through Time
LINKING ECOLOGY AND HISTORY

SECOND EDITION

New Haven &

London
Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of
James Wesley Cooper of the Class of 1865, Yale College.

Copyright © 2019 by Emily W. B. (Russell) Southgate.

All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations,
in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the
U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without
written permission from the publishers.

Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, busi-
ness, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail sales.press@yale.edu
(U.S. office) or sales@yaleup.co.uk (U.K. office).

Set in Postscript Sabon type by Integrated Publishing Solutions.

Printed in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019932084

ISBN 978-0-300-22580-8 (paper : alk. paper)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of

Paper).

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
 Contents

Preface to the First Edition vii

Preface to the Second Edition xi
Acknowledgments xv

Part I Questions and Clues 1

1 History Hidden in the Landscape 3
2 Historical Records and Collections 18
3 Field Studies: Bringing Historical Records Down to Earth 34
4 The Sedimentary Record 48

Part II The Diversity of Human Interactions

with the Natural World 61
5 Fire: Mimicking Nature 63
6 Extending Species’ Ranges 83
7 Harvesting Natural Resources 104
vi  Contents

8 Agriculture and Its Residual Effects 126

9 Patterns of Human Settlement and Industrialization 150

Part III Contributions of Historical Ecology to

Understanding Ecological Issues 173
10 Diversity and Species Extinctions 175
11 Biospheric Sustainability in a Changing World 197
Conclusion
Toward the Future: Research and Applications 219
Notes 233
References 251
Index 299
 Preface to the First Edition

When I started studying ecology, I hoped to be able to explain the com-

position of plant communities by understanding the interactions of species’
physiology and population dynamics with microenvironments. Reading and
research, however, have convinced me that while these interactions are im-
portant for determining what species can grow somewhere, the history of a
site and region plays a major role in determining what species actually do
grow there. This idea is not new, even within the discipline of ecology, but
until recently ecologists have downplayed it in their efforts to discover gen-
eral laws that govern species distributions, ecosystem properties, and other
ecological processes, regardless of time or space. On the other hand, histo-
rians are realizing that the environment in which people live has influenced
human history, so that they too must be sensitive to changing environmental
conditions.
Concern about a deteriorating environment caused by human activities
pervades our current view of the world. Many people are of the opinion that
unless we mend our ways, we risk disaster. Many also see scientific research,
especially ecological research, as the potential source of solutions to environ-
mental problems. In dealing with scientific research related to the environ-
ment as altered by people, however, scientists are faced with an overlay of
causation that has varied over time and space with changing human culture.

vii
viii  Preface to the First Edition

I have written this book to help point to different aspects of current envi-
ronments that bear the imprint of various past human activities, which must
be considered in order to understand the current processes. The emphasis
is on remnant effects on current communities, ecosystems, and landscapes
and on how factoring these effects into ecological studies can help elucidate
processes. Along the way, it should become clear how differently people have
viewed, understood, and used the nonhuman environment and how these dif-
ferences contribute to impacts as well as, in complex webs of feedback, to
changing activities and attitudes.
In conducting historical ecological research, I have been convinced of the
importance of distinguishing between time as a measurable dimension of du-
ration, such as one day or one year, and historical time as a specific duration,
such as 6 June 1952 or 1735. The partitioning of the processes that we ob-
serve between those that are based on the nonspecific unit of time and those
that are historically constrained will help us tremendously in relating theo-
retical studies to actual responses of real ecosystems.
I have two main goals in this book, one related to research and the other to
environmental management. I hope to stimulate further research on the role
that history, specifically human history, has played in shaping communities,
ecosystems, and landscapes and conversely, the role that changing environ-
ments have played in human history. I have tried to do this by pointing to the
ubiquity of residual as well as current human interactions with the environ-
ment and by demonstrating that these impacts have changed over time, up to
and continuing in the present. Second, those who plan and manage natural
areas should learn that their systems are never static and that the present
conditions are merely stages in a continually changing mosaic. They cannot
be frozen in time.
My examples are drawn from all over the world, from a wide variety of bi-
omes, though emphasis is placed on temperate systems, especially in the eastern
United States and in western Europe, as these are the ones with which I am
most familiar. They are discussed as illustrations; references are given for
readers who would like more definitive discussions of the individual exam-
ples. The concepts apply, however, anywhere.
I expect this approach to be useful both as an introduction to historical
ecology for professional ecologists, environmental historians, historical ge-
ographers, and historical anthropologists and as an advanced undergraduate
and graduate textbook for such courses as historical ecology and environ-
mental issues. I start with an exposition of the importance of considering
the past of ecosystems and then introduce techniques that can be used for
reconstructing this past. I then discuss a variety of ways in which people have
 Preface to the First Edition  ix

affected the environment over time, from using fire to laying out property
boundaries. I conclude by discussing how a historical ecological approach
contributes to an understanding of some issues of current concern: changes
to lakes, biodiversity, and sustainability.
I hope that readers will carry away an excitement for including human his-
tory in ecological studies and ecology in historical studies. This integration of
the disciplines has great potential for both and presents challenges that must
be met if we are to deal responsibly with our role in the biosphere.
This page intentionally left blank
 Preface to the Second Edition

In the two decades since publication of the first edition of this book,
there has been an explosion in research in historical ecology. Google Scholar
sends me notification of one or more new publications that use the term his-
torical ecology every day, and the four hundred or so new references in this
edition are a small sampling of recent research. New technologies and a rec-
ognition that history is an important consideration in conservation decisions
have contributed both to interest in the field and to advances in our under-
standing of the importance of history for influencing current—and future—
landscapes and ecosystems. Recent academic meetings have included sessions
on historical ecology, and the Frontiers in Historical Ecology Symposium in
Switzerland in 2011 featured worldwide research in historical ecology that
went beyond case studies, but included these as well. Accelerated change in the
global environment over the last century has also stimulated appreciation for
the value of looking at the past to help understand how we have gotten to
where we are today.
There continues to be a dichotomy between those who view historical ecol-
ogy from an anthropological point of view and those who view it from the sci-
ence of ecology. The most recent book with an anthropological perspective on
historical ecology describes it as a research framework for studying the “hu-
man-environment relationship,” important for designing land management

xi
xii  Preface to the Second Edition

decisions that are “effective and equitable,” with a focus on specific loca-
tions.1 Environmental history also focuses on the human aspect, especially
how interactions with the natural world have affected human history. Most
ecologists who do historical ecology, on the other hand, focus more on eco-
logical processes, and how incorporating changing human impacts over time
can help explain current processes and patterns. Many ecologists, however,
especially in the United States, find it difficult to accept the importance of
history to the systems that they study. I hope that the wealth of studies that
I discuss in this book will show that historical ecology provides critical in-
sights into the structure and function of ecosystems as well as conservation
decisions.
With some regret, I have eliminated the chapter on lakes from this edition.
Since the first edition, there have been at least two books devoted to paleolim-
nology, written by limnologists who understand lake systems far better than
I do (two editions of J. P. Smol, Pollution of Lakes and Rivers: A Palaeoenvi-
ronmental Perspective, 2002, 2008; and A. S. Cohen, Paleolimnology: The His-
tory and Evolution of Lake Systems, 2003). The Journal of Paleolimnology
has been publishing specifically historical studies of lakes since 1988. I have
incorporated some lake studies in the other parts of the book, but have not
delved into detail on lake ecology as I did in that chapter of the first edition.
Most of my research and field experience has been in northeastern North
America, where the dominant vegetation is deciduous forest. This has led to
much of the illustrative material in the book coming from this biome, though
I include many examples of historical ecological research from other conti-
nents and other biomes. I hope that the abundance of examples will provide
sufficient evidence of the importance of research in these other regions as
well as an entrée into the historical ecological literature of these areas. I have
focused in the chapter on sediment more on pollen than on other records in
the sediment, also because that is where my experience lies. In my defense, I
think that pollen is a good character to emphasize, as it gives an apparently
simple representation of vegetation surrounding the sedimentary basin, while
actually having a very complex relationship with that feature of the envi-
ronment. The process of translating pollen data into meaningful interpreta-
tions of the contributing vegetation highlights the kind of analysis needed for
using any sedimentary proxy for the environment.
I originally thought that that revising the first edition required merely up-
dating some references in cases where work had been done on a topic since I
originally referred to it. It became abundantly clear to me, though, as I con-
sidered changes in the field since the late 1990s, that the fields of historical
ecology and environmental history had moved ahead to such an extent that
 Preface to the Second Edition  xiii

I would need to do a more extensive rewrite. I have learned a lot in doing

the research for the second edition, and I am more convinced than ever that
studying ecology without reference to history misses vital insights into the
functioning of ecological systems at all scales, from population to global.
Similarly, conservation decisions taken without regard to the history of a
region may be unsustainable. Based on the outdated concept of “climax veg-
etation,” they often ignore change in the past.2
This book is organized the same as the first edition, with an introduction
to the field followed by chapters on methodology. Subsequent chapters deal
with specific factors of human impact and the importance of history for un-
derstanding some important current ecological issues. The first four chapters
set the stage for the rest of the book; the subsequent chapters to some extent
can stand alone, though they do progress from the most long-running human
impacts to more recent ones to give a feeling for the pervasive role of people
in the environment since the evolution of Homo sapiens.
I hope that others will accept the challenge to add depth to their under-
standing by finding out more about the history of the systems that they study.
This page intentionally left blank
 Acknowledgments

My interest in historical ecology began when I was a child digging up

old horseshoes in our garden and finding old stone walls in the woods where
I played. I owe a great debt of gratitude to my parents, who were always
enthusiastic supporters of my interest in science. Many people have con-
tributed to the development of my ideas on historical ecology in addition to
those who have more recently commented on various versions of this book
and have contributed technical expertise. My teachers at the Baldwin School
and at Denison University required me to write and to study the human-
ities as well as the sciences, preventing too narrow a focus. A year’s study at
the University of Paris introduced me to the residual impacts of people on
the forests of France and to the idea that all forests have experienced some
human impact and that these impacts have changed over time. Further stud-
ies at Duke and Rutgers Universities continued this emphasis on the interplay
between people and their environments. This book grew directly from a joint
biology and history graduate seminar I taught at Duke University in 1990,
while I was supported by a National Science Foundation Visiting Professor-
ship for Women. The lively discussions among students with different intel-
lectual backgrounds inspired me to begin the long process of writing a text
that would build on and disseminate this enthusiasm for interdisciplinary
interactions.

xv
xvi  Acknowledgments

Over the years, discussions with many individuals have contributed to the
development of the ideas expressed here. I would like especially to acknowl-
edge W. Dwight Billings, Michael Binford, Grace S. Brush, Norman L. Chris-
tensen, Harold L. Cousminer, William Cronon, Ronald B. Davis, Edward S.
Deevey, Richard T. T. Forman, David R. Foster, Steven P. Hamburg, Warren
Hofstra, Sally P. Horn, Daniel A. Livingstone, Peter L. Marks, Mark J. Mc-
Donnell, David Mladenoff, Steward T. A. Pickett, Frederick H. Russell, Rob-
ert L. Sanford Jr., Péter Szabó, John C. F. Tedrow, George Theokritoff, Peter L.
Tobiessen, Charles Watkins, David Wigston, the attendees at the fourth Cary
Conference, “Humans as Components of Ecosystems,” and those at the “Fron-
tiers in Historical Ecology” international conference. Faculty and students
participating in seminars in Rutgers University’s Quaternary Studies Gradu-
ate Program reinforced the importance and exciting potential of interdisci-
plinary research. Thompson Webb III read and provided invaluable commentary
on the first edition, and Matthias Bürgi did the same with the second. Lars Öst-
lund and several anonymous reviewers provided especially helpful comments
on the manuscript. My editor, Jean E. Thomson Black, has been a wonderful
source of support, encouragement, and gentle pressure to keep moving on
this work.
For assistance with the illustrations I thank Susan Hochgraf, F. Mason Bar-
nett, James Gasprich, Joshua Schnalke, and William Nelson. I greatly appreci-
ate the generosity of all those who have allowed me to use data, photographs,
or illustrations from their publications; these are individually acknowledged
in the appropriate figure captions. Sarah Butler, Olivia Peterson, and Drew
Ferrier at Hood College helped with miscellaneous typing, organizing, and
technical assistance, and the Beneficial-Hodson Library of Hood College
provided invaluable support for my review of the current literature. For fi-
nancial support during various phases of this project, I thank Yale University
Press, the National Park Service, the National Science Foundation, the Mel-
lon Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, the Koven Foundation, the New
Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and the Loewy-Mohonk
Preserve Liaison Fellowship.
People and the Land through Time
This page intentionally left blank
 PART I

Questions and Clues

Reconstructing the past to evaluate its effects on present ecosystems is

like working on a puzzle for which the researcher knows the outcome but not
the rules. It requires the integration of vast amounts of diverse information.
Written records and oral histories, both observations of the natural world by
people, document past human activities. Some past human activities have left
traces on the landscape that persist to the present. And organisms themselves
have left a record by their remains in sedimentary deposits. Each kind of
record provides a unique type of information, each with its own spatial and
temporal scale. By integrating these sources, a historical ecologist can piece
together a picture of past activities and communities in order to formulate
and test hypotheses about causes of past changes and the contributions of
past processes to present ecosystems and landscapes. This process of integra-
tion requires careful attention to the compatibility of the different kinds of
information in terms of scale and biases, and an awareness of the appropriate
kinds of critical analysis used to interpret the various categories of data.
In the next four chapters, I introduce the three major categories of sources
that inform historical ecological studies: written records, field studies, and
sedimentary records. I suggest ways in which each makes unique contributions
to these studies as well as offer caveats relative to biases and limitations. These
2  Questions and Clues

chapters do not provide detailed instructions on how to use the different

sources; such detailed how-to information may be found in the various texts
I mention, and these should be supplemented by courses and consultation
with practitioners in the corresponding fields of study. But first I will raise
some of the questions that historical ecologists ask.
 1

History Hidden in the Landscape

From the vast boreal forests of Russia and Canada to the deserts of
Africa and North America, human impact on the earth is ubiquitous and
apparent. The prevalence and intensity of recent human impacts are so great
that designation of a new geologic epoch, the Anthropocene, has been pro-
posed to distinguish the current level of human impact from that of the past.
The impacts that are apparent today, however, are superimposed on millen-
nia of previous human activities and climate changes that have left legacies,
some subtle, some not. Reminders of these past human activities persist even
in such apparently pristine environments as the tropical forests of Africa and
South America and many regions designated as wilderness in North America
(fig. 1.1).1 Historical ecology seeks to explain many enigmatic features of
present ecosystems and landscapes by deciphering the legacies of past human
activities. It also yields insights into basic ecological patterns and processes
that cannot be understood by studying only the present or very recent past.2
Apparent forest age, for example, is often not correlated with the diversity
of native herbaceous ground flora even when soils, topography, and other fac-
tors are held constant. However, when one considers the kind of disturbances
in the past, such as plowing, logging, or grazing, even those that occurred
more than a century ago, the patterns become much clearer. Many highly
diverse ecosystems of Europe depend on human-driven processes for their

3
4  Questions and Clues

Figure 1.1. Buildings of the Maya city of Ek Balam in Mexico, engulfed by regen-
erated forest. (Photo by Mason Barnett, 2017.)

very existence, having developed over many millennia under the influence
of agriculture or wood harvesting. These human-imposed drivers interact
with climate to produce unique landscapes. To understand the processes that
maintain their diversity and stability, one must also understand the historical
processes that have created them—in other words, the underlying causes.3
Past human influences on ecosystems and landscapes are cumulative and
superimposed on one another and on changes in climate. This superposition
is often referred to as a palimpsest, but this concept does not capture the full
import of the relationship between the past of a landscape and the present.
With a palimpsest, traces of previous use of a canvas may be discernable, but
they do not usually form an integral part of subsequent work, while the past
often has a strong influence on the subsequent conditions of an ecosystem.
A typical suite of activities in many forested areas of eastern North Amer-
ica, for example, was logging in the nineteenth century, followed by fires,
often followed by grazing, and finally culminating in apparent recovery of
the forest. Logging favors some species such as chestnuts (Castanea dentata),
which sprout prolifically from cut stumps, or birches (Betula spp.), which
reproduce by seed in open sites. Fires eliminate the fire-sensitive hemlock
(Tsuga canadensis) and beech (Fagus grandifolia). Grazing eliminates palat-
able species. No one of these activities taken alone can explain characteristics
of the resulting forest, nor can several of them taken out of order. Similarly,
in the oceans, exploitation of marine resources in the past changed food webs
and population structure, which in turn influenced subsequent marine life
 History Hidden in the Landscape  5

and patterns of human use. One cannot understand the current communities
without considering the suite of past human-influenced alterations.4
The ubiquity of human impact means that it is very difficult, if not im-
possible, to find systems devoid of human influence. Two sites selected to
compare the effects of different species composition on nutrient cycling will
differ in past land use as well as in species composition, so a simple com-
parative study cannot yield results that are attributable simply to differing
species composition. Apparently “ancient” forests may conceal even more
ancient intense human activities that may still influence forest structure and
function.5
These consequences of human activities superimposed on past climate change
open up an exciting arena of integrative research. By interpreting the histor-
ical record, we can infer past human activities and climate, including spatial
and temporal patterns at various scales, and through comparative studies
we can establish how they have worked to shape the present. The study of
past human impact is an entry point into the great diversity of possible in-
teractions of species with their environments, which can assist us in making
predictions that are relevant to a world permeated by human influences.6

Humans as Geographical Agents

The idea that people have had an impact on the natural world, and that
that impact is not transient, is not new. In 1853, Mary Somerville observed
in Physical Geography that humans had exerted a major geographical in-
fluence on the earth. Several years later, George Perkins Marsh elaborated
on this topic in Man and Nature, noting, “Not all the winds, and storms,
and earthquakes, and seas, and seasons of the world, have done so much to
revolutionize the earth as Man, the power of an endless life, has done since
the day he came forth upon it, and received dominion over it.”7 Until that
time, the assumption had generally been that although people had local im-
pacts on the potential of land, the loss of agricultural potential in large areas
of the world was due to natural causes such as climate.8 Marsh correlated
the activities of people with loss of soil, silting of harbors, and other major
geographical problems. It was even possible that the actions of people had
changed local climates.
In many U.S. states around the mid-1800s, concern about such problems
led to the establishment of state geological surveys to catalogue natural re-
sources and to make recommendations for their preservation. Official recogni-
tion of problems such as erosion indicates that they were taken seriously. The
focus was on preservation of natural resources for human use, however,
6  Questions and Clues

rather than on understanding natural processes and conservation of natural

systems.
Changes in the intensity of human activities over space increasingly con-
front us today. Regionally, extensive forests alternate with towns and culti-
vated fields. For example, in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern North
America, apparently wild forests contrast with farm fields. In the deserts of
the American Southwest, isometric irrigated agricultural fields contrast with
the surrounding desert matrix. In Hawai’i, verdant rain forests differ mark-
edly from orderly, low-diversity pineapple plantations (fig. 1.2). The natural,
pristine appearances of the Appalachian forests, southwestern deserts, and
Hawai’ian forests are, however, to a large extent mirages; all bear distinc-
tive imprints of past human activities. Logging and agriculture have leveled
almost all the forests of the Appalachian Mountains sometime during the
past two hundred years. In the Southwest, overgrazing and the pumping of
water for irrigation have reduced many dry grasslands to desert shrublands.
Non-native species have decimated native populations of plants and animals
even deep in the forests of Hawai’i.9
Such past human activities have left both obvious and subtle imprints on
many aspects of these systems. Which species did logging favor, and which
did it eliminate? What have been the processes of extinction and introduc-
tions in the past, and how have they affected current community composi-
tion? How have these processes changed over time, and which characteristics
of the present communities and landscapes reflect them? How have these
human-caused changes interacted with fluctuations in climate? Historical
ecology addresses such questions to understand the processes that control
ecological systems.
Some major categories of ecosystems appear to the casual observer to be
undisturbed by humans. Most marshes in the northeastern United States,
from the pocosins of North Carolina to tidal marshes along the Chesapeake
Bay, have been ditched and drained in the past, though the ditches are often
no longer apparent. These abandoned ditches, however, have left lasting im-
pacts on the ecology of the extant ecosystems: a changed water table, fire im-
pacts in dried organic soils, and changed species composition from mowing
and grazing. On the other hand, over the past two centuries, human activities
have also indirectly created new marshes in areas such as the Piedmont of
Georgia in North America, by upland erosion and subsequent sedimentation
along streams.10 An apparently natural acid fen in Pennsylvania owes its
existence to logging less than a century ago, which changed the hydrology,
possibly permanently (fig 1.3).
Traces of abandoned human settlements both reveal and conceal past uses
a

Figure 1.2. Island of Maui, Hawai’i. Contrast (a) the lush vegetation in a valley
along the northeast coast with (b) pineapple plantations in the interior plains.
Non-native species, however, are common in the unmanaged as well as the
planted landscape. (Photos by the author, 1992.)
8  Questions and Clues

Figure 1.3. Spruce Flats Bog, Forbes State Forest, Normalville, Pennsylvania. The
cut stems in the foreground indicate logging in the past. (Photo by the author,
2016.)

of the land. “Lost villages” abound worldwide, revealed by place-names on

old maps, by physical remains, and by pictures (fig. 1.4). They are now, how-
ever, often hidden by pastures, plowed fields, or regenerated vegetation. To
historians and archaeologists these places are of interest for what they re-
veal about human behavior in the past. Why did they come into existence
and why did they disappear? More geographically oriented questions con-
sider the relation of village locations to spatial features of the landscape.
Deserted structures raise ecological questions as well. A village, for example,
represents a concentration of people who used natural resources for fuel and
food, disturbed the fauna and soil by hunting, plowing, or just trampling,
and produced wastes. The influence of these on the regenerated vegetation
may persist in patterns that are quite obscure when compared with the cur-
rent physical environment.

Historical Ecology Informing Conservation

Decisions about conservation involve both setting priorities and under-
standing processes. Both the priorities and the processes depend not only on
current values and conditions but also on the past.
Much riparian conservation today involves planting trees along stream-
banks. Where these were not forested in the past, such activities may actually
destroy natural communities. For example, eighteenth-century historical sur-
Figure 1.4. Site of Quartz Mill near Virginia City, Nevada. The top picture was
taken in 1868, the bottom one at the same place in 1979. Only a few stones
remain to mark the site of the structure a hundred years later. (Mark Klett for the
Rephotographic Survey Project.)
10  Questions and Clues

Figure 1.5. Survey of property on Abrams Creek in Winchester, Virginia, pur-

chased by Isaac Perkins, 1734. Survey lines superimposed on USGS 7.5 minute
topographic map by Galtjo J. Geertsma. Descriptions at points 1, 2, and 3 as
given in the survey notes: 1, hickory; 2, “cross a small meadow”; 3, black oak.

veys describe “meadows” along many streams in a limestone area of Virginia

(fig. 1.5). At least one of the surviving meadows, Abrams Creek Wetlands
Preserve, contains several plant species that are rare in the state, including
two that do not grow elsewhere in Virginia.11 Is it better to plant trees in this
wetland to improve water quality in this urbanizing watershed or to leave it
open to protect the rare plant community? Historical evidence bolsters the
floristic study to indicate that protecting the marsh in its open character is a
good strategy for conservation.
This decision may have even wider implications. Currently there are many
grassland birds in northeastern North America, such as the loggerhead shrike
(Lanius ludovicianus) and the grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savan-
narum), which have flourished since the extensive forest cover was converted
to farmland over the last few centuries. The numbers of almost all of these
species are, however, declining rapidly because of both intensification of ag-
riculture and reforestation. Preserving grassland habitats requires intensive
management, most likely because they are not located where natural features
prevented tree growth in precolonial landscapes. Study of native plant spe-
cies that prefer open habitats indicates that most of these grew in scattered,
at least semi-permanent open areas of various sizes where conditions are
either too wet or too dry for trees to grow, for example, Abrams Creek Wet-
lands.12 Conservation of these habitats, both large and small, will support
populations not only of these birds and often rare plants, but also the whole
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