Landscape '"...Urban: Lanning
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Reprinted from URBANLANDSCAPE: LANNING ,....' " An International Journal of Landscape Ecology Landscape Planmng and Landscape Design J . ,,_i __ . : Landscape and Urban Planning 35 (1996) 247-267 .. Transformation of a landscape in the upper mid-west, USA: The .... history of the lower St. Croix river valley, 1830 to present Osh (Barbara) Andersen *,.Thomas R. Crow, Sue M. Lietz, Forest Stearns USDA Forest Servke, North Central Forest Experiment Station, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, 5985 Highway K, Rhinelander, W154501, USA Accepted 18 January 1996 ,. • . ELSEVIER ¢ ° LANDSCAPEAND URBAN PLANNING An International Journal of Landscape Ecology, Landscape Planning, and Landscape Design Aims and scope. A journalconcernedwithconceptual,scientific,anddesignapproachesto landuse. Byemphasizingecologi- cal understandingand a multi-disciplinaryapproachto analysisand planningand design,it attemptsto draw attention to the interrelatednature of problemsposed by nature and humanuse of land. In addition,papersdealingwithecologicalprocesses and interactionswithinurbanareas, and betweenthese areas and thesurroundingnaturalsystemswhichsupportthem,will be considered.Papers inwhichspecificproblemsare examinedare welcome.Topicsmightincludebut arenot limitedto landscape ecology, landscapeplanningand landscapedesign.Landscapeecologyexamineshowheterogeneouscombinationsof ecosys- tems are structured,howthey functionand howtheychange.Landscapeplanningexaminesthevariouswayshumansstructure their land Use changes. Landscapedesign involvesthe physicalstrategiesand formsby which land use changeis actually directed. Landscape and Urban Planning is basedon the premisethat researchlinkedto practicewill ultimatelyimprovethe humanmade landscape. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jon E. Rodiek,College of Architecture,Texas A & M University,College Station,TX 77843-3137, USA Associate Editor for Asia, Australia and New Zealand Denis A. Saunders, Western AustralianLaboratory,CSIRO Divisionof Wildlife& Ecology, LMB 4, PO Midland,W.A. 6056, Australia EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD I.D. Bishop(Parkville,Vic., Australia) P.A. Miller(Blacksburg,VA, USA) E.G. Bolen(Wilmington,NC, USA) D.L.Mitchell(Washington,DC, USA) D.Bruns (Freiburg,Germany) M. Nelischer(Guelph,Ont., Canada) J.L. Craig (Auckland, New Zealand) P. Newman (Murdoch,WA, Australia) T.C. Daniel (Tucson,AZ, USA) P.F.M. Opdam(Wageningen,Netherlands) R.M. DeGraaf (Amherst,MA, USA) A. Ramos (Madrid,Spain) J.G. Fabos (Amherst,MA, USA) W.A. Schmid(Zurich,Switzerland) B.H. Green (Ashford,UK) O.R. Skage (Alnarp,Sweden) S. Gonzalez Alonso(Madrid,Spain) R.C. Smardon(Syracuse,NY, USA) W.H. binHaji Wan Hariri (Selangor,Malaysia) F. Stearns(Rhinelander,WI, USA) W.G. Hendrix(Pullman,WA, USA) R.C.Szaro (Washington,DC, USA) R.J.Hobbs (Midland,WA, Australia) J.W. Thomas (LaGrande,OR, USA) P. Jacobs (Montreal,Que., Canada) P.J.Trowbridge(Ithaca,NY, USA) C.W. Johnson(Logan,UT, USA) W.V. Wendler(CollegeStation,TX, USA) D.S. Jones(Adelaide,S.A., Australia) P. Wolski(Warsaw,Poland) H. Lavery (Milton,QId., Australia) B.-E. Yang (Seoul,Korea) H.N. van Lier (Wageningen,Netherlands) E.H. Zube (Tucson,AZ, USA) W.M. Marsh (Flint,MI, USA) Book Review Editor F.R. Steiner, School of Planning& LandscapeArchitecture,College of Architectureand EnvironmentalDesign, Arizona State University,Tempe, AZ 85287-2005, USA Publication Information: Landscape and Urban Planning (ISSN 0169-2046). For 1996 volumes34-37 are scheduledfor publi- cation. Subscriptionpricesare available upon requestfrom the Publisher.Subscriptionsare acceptedon a prepaid basis only and are entered on a calendaryear basis. 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USA POSTMASTER: Send addresschanges to Landscape and Urban Planning PublicationsExpeditingInc., 200 Meacham Avenue, Elmont, NY 11003. AIRFREIGHT AND MAILING in the USA by PublicationsExpeditingInc.,200 Meacham Avenue, Elmont,NY 11003. Back volumes" Please contactthe Publisher. LANDSCAPE AND URBAN PLANNING HAS NO PAGE CHARGES . LANDSCAPE . AND URBAN PLANNING ELSEVIER Landscape and Urban Planning 35 (1996) 247-267 Ii Transformation of a landscape in the upper mid-west, USA: The : history of the lower St. Croix river valley, 1830 to present - • Osh (Barbara) Andersen * , Thomas R. Crow, Sue M. Lietz, Forest Steams ._i__,_ USDA Fot'est Service, North Central Forest Experiment Station, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, 5985 Highway K, Rhinelander, W154501, .... USA .,_ _. " _r ' Accepted 18 January 1996 .....:,_, _- . Abstract • i_ __, " Leaming _e history of a landscape is critical to understanding present land-use pattems. We document the history of _....: _z:,:; landscape change in .the lower St. Croix River valley from 1830 to the present. Significant changes in land use and cover _ _,_.'_:,o have occurred during this time. Because of the convergence of prairie, savanna and forest vegetation in this area, and because of the proximity of the St. Croix River valley to metropolitan Minneapolis/St. Paul (MN), the region is ecologically ' i__iii: and culturally very important. A variety of information sources was used to reconstruct the lower St. Croix landscape over . ..... time. The primary sources of material were federal census records, records of lumber and agricultural production, descriptive accounts by early settlers and historians, scientific reports, the General Land Office land survey records, maps and _i photographs. Two periods of rapid change were identified. Change was rapid from 1850 to 1880 as first loggers and then ........ ' farmers converted a lightly populated landscape of oak savanna, prairie, mixed hardwood and conifer forests and wetlands, -...._..... maintained by frequent fires, into a largely deforested agricultural landscape. A second period of rapid change was from "i_i_, 1940 to the present as the urban area has expanded outward. Urbanization has further fragmented the remaining areas of ...... natural habitat and has the potential to accelerate soil erosion, stream sediment transport, and oxidation of organic matter. ,iiIf,_ The results of this study illustrate how landscape change can have significant impacts on ecological systems. Understanding ; the history of landscape change in the lower St. Croix River valley provides an analogue to help understand how other mid-western US landscapes have changed over time. _" Keywords: Historical ecology; Landscape history; Land-use; Minnesota; St. Croix River; Wisconsin _:_i .._ 1. Introduction windmills and good roads and good schools and a i' ... rich and contented people." i__. "Ray," he .said, pointing with his whip, "I shall not ....... live to see the time, but you will, when all this I believed it of course if Father said it, but it seemed _-_:_ country will be covered with beautiful farms. There utterly impossible. On all sides were unbroken _!ii_ill will be fine painted houses and great barns and forests, great trees, jungles of brushwood, marshy _i_'_ brooks, miles and miles of them: even the road was ,_:,_ Correspondingauthor at: Universityof Wisconsin,Depart- all but impassable, ruts, mudholes and the remainder __'_ " mentof Geography, 550 North Park Street, Madison, Wl 53706. of huge stumps and roots. And yet, not so long ago, I ......_, .... Tel.608-262-2138;Fax. 608-265-3991. drove out that very road with my brother Harry in _:,_;:_ 0169-2046/96_$15.00 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. :i!i PH SO 169-2046(96)00304-0 248 O. Andersen et al./ Landscape and Urban Planning 35 (1996) 247-267 his automobilema fine pavement all the way. Every St. Croix River valley. Although some of these word my father said had come true. Great barns and impacts--such as burning the prairies and savannas silos, fields overflowing with corn and oats and peas, mmay have been significant, the extent, frequency and herds of cattle as fine as there are to be found in and intensity of early human activities were limited North America. All the things he had dreamed had (Curtis, 1959; Whitney, 1994). However, during the come to pass and many more that no man, at that past 150 years, the landscapes of the St. Croix River time, could have dreamed: an automobile in every valley have experienced major changes--converting garage, radios and telephones and electric lights in to cutover forest land, farmland and urban land with every house, and even airplanes Whirring overhead, remnant patches of prairie, oak savanna and mixed The wilderness we knew as Milltown is now one of coniferous-deciduous forest. the best dairying centers in the state of Wisconsin. The history and the ecological effects of these And all in fifty or sixty years! (Baker, 1941, p. 18, changes are not widely