DOCSLIB.ORG

This Document Does Not Meet the Current Format Guidelines of The

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
This Document Does Not Meet the Current Format Guidelines of The DISCLAIMER: This document does not meet current format guidelines Graduate School at the The University of Texas at Austin. of the It has been published for informational use only. Copyright by Jesse Harrison Ritner 2019 The Report Committee Jesse Harrison Ritner Certifies that this is the approved version of the following report: A More Perfect Nature: The Making of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, 15,000BP - present APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Erika Bsumek, Supervisor Robert Olwell A More Perfect Nature: The Making of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, 15,000BP - present by Jesse Harrison Ritner Report Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin May, 2019 Acknowledgements I would be remiss if I did not thank Dr. Erika Bsumek for the academic and emotional support she has so kindly offered me throughout the past two years. I would also like to thank Dr. Robert Olwell for serving on my committee. iv Abstract A More Perfect Nature: The Making of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, 15,000BP - present Jesse Harrison Ritner, MA The University of Texas at Austin, 2019 Supervisor: Erika Bsumek This report explores the history of the Minisink Valley and the stories told about it. I examine how stories about the place influenced how people understood the past, and how these pasts were used to imagine potential futures. I pay special attention to discourses about nature as well as settler-colonial discourses. Lastly, I contemplate what this study may add to current discussions around the Anthropocene. v Table of Contents List of Illustrations ............................................................................................................ vii Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Finding a Beginning ...........................................................................................................11 Forming and Populating the Valley ---------------------------------------------------------- 14 River People ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19 Colonial Discourses and Archival Silences .......................................................................23 Interlude: Rivers, Floods, Rafts, and Canals ------------------------------------------------ 29 Nineteenth Century Tourism ..............................................................................................36 Creating Dual Origin Stories ------------------------------------------------------------------ 38 Urban Disconnect: Canoes and Trains ------------------------------------------------------- 43 Species Introduction ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 50 Tocks Island Dam: Anthropocentric Nature ......................................................................54 Interlude: Cars, Camps, and Floods ---------------------------------------------------------- 54 New York’s Clean Water ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 55 The Army Corps of Engineers ---------------------------------------------------------------- 56 An Anthropogenic Wilderness ---------------------------------------------------------------- 59 Still Present Pasts ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 62 Epilogue .............................................................................................................................68 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................73 vi List of Illustrations Figure 1: A map of settlements during the colonial period. ------------------------------------- 13 Figure 2:A topographical map of the Appalachian Mountain Range. -------------------------- 16 Figure 3: This postcard demonstrates the large size of the hotels at the Water Gap. --------- 52 Figure 4: Map of Interstates going to the region. -------------------------------------------------- 57 vii We are stuck with the problem of living despite economic and ecological ruination. Neither tales of progress nor talks of ruin tell us to think about collaborative survival. Not that this will save us – but it might open our imaginations. -Anna Tsing, Mushroom at the End of the World Introduction We awoke and drove east. The bus crossed the river, rattling over the Roebling Aqueduct at Berryville, and followed the river north towards Hancock. It was still an hour before sunrise, when we arrived in Long Eddy. Our canoes unloaded and filled, we paddled down the Delaware. The fog was thick. Only one canoe in front and behind were visible through it. Together our six boats made a chain linkeD by vision like children holding hands. Then we felt the first rays of warmth. The fog did not dissipate; rather, it lifted. Like a veil, it rose into the sky, minute by minute, until it cleared the ridgelines of the Shawangunk’s to our left and the Pocono Plateau to our right. For the first time I watched the Delaware River emerge in front of me. There were still 90 odd miles left on our trip down the river to the Water Gap, and the access point at the Park Service’s southern welcome center. It was 2008 and I was fourteen. In 1969, Winifred Luten in the New York Times wrote that the Delaware’s “landscape alternates between a rugged wilderness of forested mountains and steep cliffs, and pastoral fields and towns.” Shallow, rocky, and often wadable, the river hiding on the fringes of New York City’s and Philadelphia’s ever spreading metropolitan areas, still felt free from the “ravages of civilization.”1 Eighty-three years earlier, Ralph K. Wing in Forest and Stream wrote that “the most notable thing about the Delaware is the limpid purity of its waters… we were able to find a spring at any time… [and] discover a basin 1 New York Times, April 27, 1969. 1 of water sweeter and more refreshing than anything city people could imagine.”2 And over one-hundred years before him, Sven Roseen described the messages he received through God’s grace, as he walkeD slowly through the Minisink Valley, preaching to believers and non-believers alike. All four of these are variations of a place-stories which celebrate the uniqueness of the Minisink Valley. They are neither true nor false. But the cultural and environmental history of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (DEWA) was built around them. They are by no means the only place-stories about the Delaware River. Philadelphia, the first truly cosmopolitan city in the United States, sprung up along its banks. Washington crossed it. The river floated some of the first timber in America’s early logging boom. And, despite failing to qualify as one of the nation’s twenty largest rivers, the Delaware and its tributaries supply water to approximately thirty-million people, between 5% and 10% of the U.S. population.3 Its water cools some of the most important power generators in the country, and its water is heating up faster than any other river in the country.4 But, those are stories for another time, often based on a preference for large cities and wide rivers. These stories are peripheral, rather than central to the history of DEWA and the Minisink Valley in which it sits. 2 Forest & Stream, “PaDDle anD Current,” Nov. 18, 1886. 3 RicharD Albert estimates the number at 10% of the population, while Susan Beecher anD Will Price estimate the portion of the population at 5%. Richard C. Albert, Damming the Delaware: The Rise and Fall of Tocks Island Dam, 1; Will Price and Susan Beecher, “Climate Change Effects on Forests, Water Resources, anD Communities of the Delaware River Basin,” in Forest Conservation in the Anthropocene: Science, Policy, and Practice, 195–208. 4 https://www.nps.gov/dewa/index.htm; Price anD Beecher, “Climate Change Effects on Forests, Water Resources, anD Communities of the Delaware River Basin,” 381. 2 Understanding the history of the valley and the reasons the National Park was built, requires a study of how people thought about the place. Keith Basso writes, “understanding of external realities are fashioned from local materials… knowing little or nothing of the latter, one’s ability to make sense of “what is” and “what occurs” in another’s environment is bound to be deficient.”5 The inverse is also true. Understanding the history of “external realities” in a specific local requires an understanding of what people think and thought “occurred,” and what they think “was.” Coll Thrush, wrote that “place-stories are the easy way out, allowing us to avoid doing our homework. In other words, they make appealing fiction but bad history.”6 The propagation of place-stories through antiquarian and pop-culture literature suffuse myths of Indigenous disappearance, pristine wilderness, and agrarian societies with “legitimacy.” The trend is exaggerated in places like DEWA were local historians and journalist supply the vast majority of literature on the river and its past. Journalist Frank Dale, in Bridges over the Delaware: A History of Crossings, and Delaware Diary: Episodes in the Life of a River, offers anecdotal and sporadic accounts of the “history” – which for him starts with colonization – of the Delaware. Others, such as Mary A. Shafer, in Devastation on the Delaware: Stories and Images of the Deadly Flood
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Delaware River Restoration Fund 2018 Grant Slate
    Delaware River Restoration Fund 2018 Grant Slate NFWF CONTACTS Rachel Dawson Program Director, Delaware River [email protected] 202-595-2643 Jessica Lillquist Coordinator, Delaware River [email protected] 202-595-2612 PARTNERS • The William Penn Foundation • U.S. Forest Service • U.S. Department of Agriculture (NRCS) • American Forest Foundation To learn more, go to www.nfwf.org/delaware ABOUT NFWF Delaware River flowing through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area | Credit: Jim Lukach The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) protects and OVERVIEW restores our nation’s fish and The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and The William Penn Foundation wildlife and their habitats. Created by Congress in 1984, NFWF directs public conservation announced the fifth-year round of funding for the Delaware River Restoration Fund dollars to the most pressing projects. Thirteen new or continuing water conservation and restoration grants totaling environmental needs and $2.2 million were awarded, drawing $3.5 million in match from grantees and generating a matches those investments total conservation impact of $5.7 million. with private funds. Learn more at www.nfwf.org As part of the broader Delaware River Watershed Initiative, the William Penn Foundation provided $6 million in grant funding for NFWF to continue to administer competitively NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS through its Delaware River Restoration Fund in targeted regions throughout the 1133 15th Street, NW Delaware River watershed for the next three years. This year, NFWF is also beginning to Suite 1000 award grants that address priorities in its new Delaware River Watershed Business Plan. Washington, D.C., 20005 Delaware River Restoration Fund grants are multistate investments to restore habitats 202-857-0166 and deliver practices that ultimately improve(continued) and protect critical sources of drinking water.
    [Show full text]
  • The Principal Indian Towns of Western Pennsylvania C
    The Principal Indian Towns of Western Pennsylvania C. Hale Sipe One cannot travel far in Western Pennsylvania with- out passing the sites of Indian towns, Delaware, Shawnee and Seneca mostly, or being reminded of the Pennsylvania Indians by the beautiful names they gave to the mountains, streams and valleys where they roamed. In a future paper the writer will set forth the meaning of the names which the Indians gave to the mountains, valleys and streams of Western Pennsylvania; but the present paper is con- fined to a brief description of the principal Indian towns in the western part of the state. The writer has arranged these Indian towns in alphabetical order, as follows: Allaquippa's Town* This town, named for the Seneca, Queen Allaquippa, stood at the mouth of Chartier's Creek, where McKees Rocks now stands. In the Pennsylvania, Colonial Records, this stream is sometimes called "Allaquippa's River". The name "Allaquippa" means, as nearly as can be determined, "a hat", being likely a corruption of "alloquepi". This In- dian "Queen", who was visited by such noted characters as Conrad Weiser, Celoron and George Washington, had var- ious residences in the vicinity of the "Forks of the Ohio". In fact, there is good reason for thinking that at one time she lived right at the "Forks". When Washington met her while returning from his mission to the French, she was living where McKeesport now stands, having moved up from the Ohio to get farther away from the French. After Washington's surrender at Fort Necessity, July 4th, 1754, she and the other Indian inhabitants of the Ohio Val- ley friendly to the English, were taken to Aughwick, now Shirleysburg, where they were fed by the Colonial Author- ities of Pennsylvania.
    [Show full text]
  • . Hikes at The
    Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area Hikes at the Gap Pennsylvania (Mt. Minsi) 4. Resort Point Spur to Appalachian Trail To Mt. Minsi PA from Kittatinny Point NJ This 1/4-mile blue-blazed trail begins across Turn right out of the visitor center parking lot. 1. Appalachian Trail South to Mt. Minsi (white blaze) Follow signs to Interstate 80 west over the river Route 611 from Resort Point Overlook (Toll), staying to the right. Take PA Exit 310 just The AT passes through the village of Delaware Water Gap (40.978171 -75.138205) -- cross carefully! -- after the toll. Follow signs to Rt. 611 south, turn to Mt. Minsi/Lake Lenape parking area (40.979754 and climbs up to Lake Lenape along a stream right at the light at the end of the ramp; turn left at -75.142189) off Mountain Rd.The trail then climbs 1-1/2 that once ran through the basement of the next light in the village; turn right 300 yards miles and 1,060 ft. to the top of Mt. Minsi, with views Kittatinny Hotel. (Look in the parking area for later at Deerhead Inn onto Mountain Rd. About 0.1 mile later turn left onto a paved road with an over the Gap and Mt. Tammany NJ. the round base of the hotel’s fountain.) At the Appalachian Trail (AT) marker to the parking top, turn left for views of the Gap along the AT area. Rock 2. Table Rock Spur southbound, or turn right for a short walk on Cores This 1/4-mile spur branches off the right of the Fire Road the AT northbound to Lake Lenape parking.
    [Show full text]
  • A-Brief-History-Of-The-Mohican-Nation
    wig d r r ksc i i caln sr v a ar ; ny s' k , a u A Evict t:k A Mitfsorgo 4 oiwcan V 5to cLk rid;Mc-u n,5 3 ss l Y gew y » w a. 3 k lz x OWE u, 9g z ca , Z 1 9 A J i NEI x i c x Rat 44MMA Y t6 manY 1 YryS y Y s 4 INK S W6 a r sue`+ r1i 3 My personal thanks gc'lo thc, f'al ca ° iaag, t(")mcilal a r of the Stockbridge-IMtarasee historical C;orrunittee for their comments and suggestions to iatataraare tlac=laistcatic: aal aac c aracy of this brief' history of our people ta°a Raa la€' t "din as for her c<arefaal editing of this text to Jeff vcic.'of, the rlohican ?'yews, otar nation s newspaper 0 to Chad Miller c d tlac" Land Resource aM anaagenient Office for preparing the map Dorothy Davids, Chair Stockbridge -Munsee Historical Committee Tke Muk-con-oLke-ne- rfie People of the Waters that Are Never Still have a rich and illustrious history which has been retrained through oral tradition and the written word, Our many moves frorn the East to Wisconsin left Many Trails to retrace in search of our history. Maanv'rrails is air original design created and designed by Edwin Martin, a Mohican Indian, symbol- izing endurance, strength and hope. From a long suffering proud and deternuned people. e' aw rtaftv f h s is an aatathCutic basket painting by Stockbridge Mohican/ basket weavers.
    [Show full text]
  • Climate Change, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area Patrick Gonzalez
    Climate Change, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area Patrick Gonzalez Abstract Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities have caused global climate change and widespread impacts on physical systems, ecosystems, and biodiversity. To assist in the integration of climate change science into resource management in Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (NRA), particularly the proposed restoration of wetlands at Watergate, this report presents: (1) results of original spatial analyses of historical and projected climate trends at 800 m spatial resolution, (2) results of a systematic scientific literature review of historical impacts, future vulnerabilities, and carbon, focusing on research conducted in the park, and (3) results of original spatial analyses of precipitation in the Vancampens Brook watershed, location of the Watergate wetlands. Average annual temperature from 1950 to 2010 increased at statistically significant rates of 1.1 ± 0.5ºC (2 ± 0.9ºF.) per century (mean ± standard error) for the area within park boundaries and 0.9 ± 0.4ºC (1.6 ± 0.7ºF.) per century for the Vancampens Brook watershed. The greatest temperature increase in the park was in spring. Total annual precipitation from 1950 to 2010 showed no statistically significant change. Few analyses of field data from within or near the park have detected historical changes that have been attributed to human climate change, although regional analyses of bird counts from across the United States (U.S.) show that climate change shifted winter bird ranges northward 0.5 ± 0.3 km (0.3 ± 0.2 mi.) per year from 1975 to 2004. With continued emissions of greenhouse gases, projections under the four emissions scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicate annual average temperature increases of up to 5.2 ± 1ºC (9 ± 2º F.) (mean ± standard deviation) from 2000 to 2100 for the park as a whole.
    [Show full text]
  • THE INDIANS of LENAPEHOKING (The Lenape Or Delaware Indians)
    THE INDIANS OF LENAPEHOKING (The Lenape or Delaware Indians) By HERBERT C.KRAFT NCE JOHN T. KRAFT < fi Seventeenth Century Indian Bands in Lenapehoking tN SCALE: 0 2 5 W A P P I N Q E R • ' miles CONNECTICUT •"A. MINISS ININK fy -N " \ PROTO-MUNP R O T 0 - M U S E*fevj| ANDS; Kraft, Herbert rrcrcr The Tndians nf PENNSYLVANIA KRA hoking OKEHOCKING >l ^J? / / DELAWARE DEMCO NO . 32 •234 \ RINGVyOOP PUBLIC LIBRARY, NJ N7 3 6047 09045385 2 THE INDIANS OF LENAPEHOKING by HERBERT C. KRAFT and JOHN T. KRAFT ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN T. KRAFT 1985 Seton Hall University Museum South Orange, New Jersey 07079 145 SKYLAND3 ROAD RINGWOOD, NEW JERSEY 07456 THE INDIANS OF LENAPEHOKING: Copyright(c)1985 by Herbert C. Kraft and John T. Kraft, Archaeological Research Center, Seton Hall University Museum, South Orange, Mew Jersey. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book--neither text, maps, nor illustrations--may be reproduced in any way, including but not limited to photocopy, photograph, or other record without the prior agreement and written permission of the authors and publishers, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Dr. Herbert C. Kraft, Archaeological Research Center, Seton Hall University Museum, South Orange, Mew Jersey, 07079 Library of Congress Catalog Number: 85-072237 ISBN: 0-935137-00-9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The research, text, illustrations, and printing of this book were made possible by a generous Humanities Grant received from the New Jersey Department of Higher Education in 1984.
    [Show full text]
  • LENAPE VILLAGES of DELAWARE COUNTY By: Chris Flook
    LENAPE VILLAGES OF DELAWARE COUNTY By: Chris Flook After the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, many bands of Lenape (Delaware) Native Americans found themselves without a place to live. During the previous 200 years, the Lenape had been pushed west from their ancestral homelands in what we now call the Hudson and Delaware river valleys ­ first into the Pennsylvania Colony in the mid­1700s and then into the Ohio Country around the time of the American Revolution. After the Revolution, many Natives living in what the new American government quickly carved out to be the Northwest Territory, were alarmed of the growing encroachment from white settlers. In response, numerous Native groups across the territory formed the pan­tribal Western Confederacy in an attempt to block white settlement and to retain Native territory. The Western Confederacy consisted of warriors from approximately forty different tribes, although in many cases, an entire tribe wasn’t involved, demonstrating the complexity and decentralized nature of Native American political alliances at this time. Several war chiefs led the Western Confederacy’s military efforts including the Miami chief Mihšihkinaahkwa (Little Turtle), the Shawnee chief Weyapiersenwah (Blue Jacket), the Ottawa chief Egushawa, and the Lenape chief Buckongahelas. The Western Confederacy delivered a series of stunning victories over American forces in 1790 and 1791 including the defeat of Colonel Hardin’s forces at the Battle of Heller’s Corner on October 19, 1790; Hartshorn’s Defeat on the following day; and the Battle of Pumpkin Fields on October 21. On November 4 1791, the forces of the territorial governor General Arthur St.
    [Show full text]
  • Ramapough/Ford the Impact and Survival of an Indigenous
    Antioch University AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive Student & Alumni Scholarship, including Dissertations & Theses Dissertations & Theses 2015 Ramapough/Ford The mpI act and Survival of an Indigenous Community in the Shadow of Ford Motor Company’s Toxic Legacy Chuck Stead Antioch University - New England Follow this and additional works at: http://aura.antioch.edu/etds Part of the American Studies Commons, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, Environmental Health Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Indigenous Studies Commons, Toxicology Commons, United States History Commons, and the Zoology Commons Recommended Citation Stead, Chuck, "Ramapough/Ford The mpI act and Survival of an Indigenous Community in the Shadow of Ford Motor Company’s Toxic Legacy" (2015). Dissertations & Theses. 200. http://aura.antioch.edu/etds/200 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student & Alumni Scholarship, including Dissertations & Theses at AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations & Theses by an authorized administrator of AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Department of Environmental Studies DISSERTATION COMMITTEE PAGE The undersigned have examined the dissertation entitled: Ramapough/Ford: The Impact and Survival of an Indigenous Community in the Shadow of Ford Motor Company’s Toxic Legacy presented by Chuck
    [Show full text]
  • How the Gap Formed
    Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area How the Gap formed What is a water gap? Several words in the English language The Delaware Water Gap is justly famous for denote a “break” or “cleft” in the moun- its depth, width, and scenic beauty. The Gap tains. Chasm and notch are popular in New is a mile wide from New Jersey’s Mount England; pass and gorge in the South and Tammany (1,527 feet) to Pennsylvania’s West of the United States. Gap is especially Mount Minsi (1,463 feet.) The Gap is about common in this part of the country. 1,200 feet deep from the tops of these mountains to the surface of the river, which A gap or wind gap is a break or pass through at this point is 290 feet above sea level. The the mountains, in this case the Appalachian maximum depth of the river at the Gap is Mountains. A water gap is a pass that a river about 55 feet. runs through. How does a gap form? Geology is the study of the earth’s forma- Starting with Native American legend, there tion. Though the geologist’s time frame may have been many ideas about how the seem vast and remote, the results of Delaware Water Gap formed. One current geological processes are the mountains we theory explains the Gap through a series of hike on, the river we swim in, and the processes: continental shift (involving plate scenery we admire. tectonics), mountain building (orogeny), erosion, and the “capturing” of rivers and streams.
    [Show full text]
  • Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area: Outstanding Basin Waters
    Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area: Outstanding Basin Waters Delaware River Basin Commission Page 122 2502 ICP Delaware River at DWGNRA Northern Boundary Delaware River Basin Commission Page 123 2502 ICP Delaware River at DWGNRA Northern Boundary Latitude 41.343611 Longitude -74.757778 by GPS NAD83 decimal degrees. No nearby USGS or State monitoring sites Watershed Population figures were not calculated for main-stem Delaware River sites. Drainage Area: 3,420 square miles, Delaware River Zone 1C Site Specific EWQ defined 2006-2011 by the DRBC/NPS Scenic Rivers Monitoring Program. This site is located at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area northern boundary Classified by DRBC as Significant Resource Waters (Outstanding Basin Waters downstream of this location) Nearest upstream Interstate Control Point: 2547 ICP Delaware River at Port Jervis Nearest downstream Interstate Control Point: 2464 ICP Delaware River at Montague Known dischargers within watershed: Undefined Tributaries to upstream reach: Major tributary 2536 BCP Neversink River, NY; small tributary 250.8 Rosetown Creek, PA. No Stream Stats web site data available (drainage area too large to calculate on web site). Flow Statistics (calculated by drainage area weighting from Port Jervis USGS gage data): Max Flow 90% Flow 75% 60% 50% 40% 25% Flow 10% Flow (CFS) Min (CFS) (CFS) Flow Flow Flow Flow (CFS) Flow (CFS) (CFS) (CFS) (CFS) (CFS) 172,966 12,088 6,752 4,531 3,587 2,860 2,074 1,720 884 Delaware River Basin Commission Page 124 Existing Water Quality: 2502 ICP
    [Show full text]
  • Land Title Records in the New York State Archives New York State Archives Information Leaflet #11 [DRAFT] ______
    Land Title Records in the New York State Archives New York State Archives Information Leaflet #11 [DRAFT] __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Introduction NEW YORK STATE ARCHIVES Cultural Education Center Room 11A42 The New York State Archives holds numerous records Albany, NY 12230 documenting title to real property in New York. The records range in date from the early seventeenth century to Phone 518-474-8955 the near present. Practically all of the records dating after FAX 518-408-1940 the early nineteenth century concern real property E-mail [email protected] acquired or disposed by the state. However, many of the Website www.archives.nysed.gov earlier records document conveyances of real property ______________________________________________ between private persons. The Archives holds records of grants by the colony and state for lands above and under Contents: water; deeds issued by various state officers; some private deeds and mortgages; deeds to the state for public A. Indian Deeds and Treaties [p. 2] buildings and facilities; deeds and cessions to the United B. Dutch Land Grants and Deeds [p. 2] States; land appropriations for canals and other public purposes; and permits, easements, etc., to and from the C. New York Patents for Uplands state. The Archives also holds numerous records relating and Lands Under Water [p. 3] to the survey and sale of lands of the colony and state. D. Applications for Patents for Uplands and Lands Under Water [p. 6] This publication contains brief descriptions of land title records and related records in the Archives. Each record E. Deeds by Commissioners of Forfeitures [p. 9] series is identified by series number (five-character F.
    [Show full text]
  • Hemlock Woolly Adelgid and the Disintegration of Eastern Hemlock Ecosystems
    Hemlock woolly adelgid and the disintegration of eastern hemlock ecosystems By Richard A. Evans An alien insect is causing decline in eastern hemlock forests, many species of wildlife. In contrast, the species most leading to the loss of native biodiversity, and opening the likely to expand in declining hemlock stands include way for invasions of alien plants deciduous trees, white pine (Pinus strobus), and invasive alien plants like “tree-of-heaven” (Ailanthus altissima), Hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae) is an aphid- Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii), and Japanese like insect native to Asia that feeds exclusively on hem- stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) (Orwig and Foster lock (Tsuga spp.) trees. First documented in Richmond, 1996, Battles et al. 1999). These species will not provide Virginia, in 1951, hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) now habitat or ecological functions resembling those of east- occurs in 13 states, from Georgia to New Hampshire. ern hemlock (fig. 1). During the past decade, HWA has been associated with widespread, severe decline and mortality of eastern hem- lock (T. canadensis) trees. The insect also debilitates Carolina hemlock (T. caroliniana), the other hemlock species native to the eastern United States. The geograph- ic range of Carolina hemlock is limited to the southern- most Appalachian Mountains, which has just recently been infested by HWA. Examples of National Park System areas affected by HWA include Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah National Parks, New River Gorge National River, Catoctin Mountain Park, and Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Eastern hemlock is an ecologically important and influ- ential conifer that for thousands of years was a major component of forests over much of the eastern United States.
    [Show full text]