UPLAND HARDWOOD FORESTS AND RELATED COMMUNITIES OF THE ARKANSAS OZARKS IN THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY Thomas L. Foti1 Abstract—Historic accounts of the 19th Century Arkansas Ozarks mention such communities as oak forests, pine forests, barrens and prairies. I document the region-wide distribution of these types based on data from the first land survey conducted by the General Land Office (GLO). Structural classes used here include closed forest, open forest, woodland, savanna, open savanna and prairie or herbaceous-dominated. The analysis is based on subsections of the Ozark Mountains within Arkansas. These provide areas small enough to represent the landscape level diversity of the Ozark ecoregion, but large enough to encompass a relatively large number of GLO corners, the basic unit of analysis. As of the 1820s and 1830s, there were differences in the proportion of structural classes within these subsections: the Boston Mountains had more closed forest than the Ozark Highlands to the north, but communities were more open than today, probably as a result of recent fire suppression. INTRODUCTION flora was comprised of species typically found in prairies. Understanding the composition, structure and processes Steyermark (1959) issued a spirited and devastating of natural communities of the past may provide valuable rebuttal, also quoting from historic sources and surveyor’s perspectives for developing appropriate forest management notes to argue his position that the patterns of vegetation approaches and understanding of current issues such as structure in Missouri had changed little from the early oak decline and red oak borer. This does not mean that the historic time to the present. Many later researchers (Ladd goal of management today must be the restoration of past 1991, Nigh and Pallardy 1983, Schroeder 1981) have conditions; accomplishing that goal may be impossible given provided more support for the Beilmann and Brenner view current social, economic or ecological constraints. Know- than that of Steyermark, and have provided considerable ledge of past conditions may simply inform managers and insight into the role of fire in maintaining the open condition. decision makers about how much change has occurred in the landscape and what some of the implications of that Most of the debate over historic condition of oak woodlands change may be. of the Ozarks has been limited to the Missouri portion of the region. The conclusions reached there may apply to the The presettlement character of the Ozark Mountain region Arkansas Ozarks as well, but there may be differences. has been the subject of considerable and sometimes acri- While the physiography of part of the Arkansas Ozarks is monious debate. A central issue has been the structure of the same as that of adjacent areas of Missouri, the Boston the wooded areas, specifically whether they were open Mountains Subdivision (Foti 1974) does not extend into woodlands with herbaceous ground cover or whether they Missouri. The Boston Mountains and the Ozark Highlands were closed-canopy forest. A further question involves the have been recognized as separate sections (Foti and processes that may have led to a previously more open Bukenhofer 1998, Foti and Bukenhofer 1999, Keys and condition, especially fire frequency. These issues have others 1995) as a result of the significant differences substantial implications today for deciding on “appropriate” between them. In turn each of these sections has been management for public lands, for achieving silvicultural subdivided into subsections, each of which varies somewhat objectives such as oak regeneration, and for understanding from the others, in terms of both physical and biological current forest health problems. features (fig. 1). Therefore the descriptions and analyses presented here will be stated in terms of these finer geogra- The typical view of the vegetation of the Ozark region that phic regions. Subsections are still large enough to contain dominated the scientific literature of the first half of the 20th many of the GLO survey section corners, but are small Century was that most of the non-prairie areas were dense enough to reduce the landscape and plant community forest (e.g., Braun 1950). This view was challenged by variation within each. Beilmann and Brenner (1951), who presented historic descriptions and notes of the first land surveyors from the HISTORIC DESCRIPTIONS OF THE ARKANSAS early 19th Century that provided evidence that much of the OZARKS non-prairie area of the Missouri Ozarks was not closed The most comprehensive map of the vegetation of Arkansas forest but rather was open woodland often termed “barrens.” including the Ozarks in the 19th Century was provided by Such areas had trees spread widely enough to allow sunlight Sargent (1884) who mapped pine forest, hardwood forest to reach the ground, dramatically increasing the density and prairie. However, he did not map structural differences and diversity of vegetation in that stratum. In many cases, of the forest types. particularly in the most open woodlands, the ground-layer 1 Chief of Research, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, Little Rock, AR 72201. Citation for proceedings: Spetich, Martin A., ed. 2004. Upland oak ecology symposium: history, current conditions, and sustainability. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS–73. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 311 p. 21 Figure 1—Subsections of the Arkansas Ozarks referred to in this study, along with the locations of GLO corners analyzed. In the White River Hills Subsection of the Ozark Highlands PREVIOUS STUDIES BASED ON GLO SURVEY Section Schoolcraft in 1818 found cane thickets and forests NOTES of oak, ash, maple, walnut, mulberry, sycamore, hickory, General Land Office (GLO) notes of the original land survey and elm on alluvial soils. He found prairies of coarse grass of the Ozarks from 1818 to the 1850’s provide quantitative and “scanty” timber on the limestone hills and “bald data on forest composition at that time. Surveyors traversed mountains” (Rafferty 1996). the east and south sides of each 6 mile by 6 mile township and then the east and south sides of each mile-square Owen (1858) described traveling north from Huntsville, section within each township. Direction and distance from Madison County, through the Boston Mountains and each section corner and quarter-section corner (that is, Springfield Plateau, saying one travels first through barrens halfway along each section side traversed) to two or four and then prairie (p. 103). He described the land between bearing trees were measured and species were identified the White River and Bentonville (Benton County) in the (Bourdo 1956). Diameter of each tree was also recorded. Springfield Plateau as being mainly barrens interspersed Location of additional line trees and qualitative descriptions with prairies. He expressed the opinion that the prairies of the topography, soil, forest, and undergrowth along each there had been of much greater extent and had been mile line surveyed were also recorded. Although there were reduced by human activity. no doubt biases in the selection of bearing trees and some- times errors in measurements, these surveys are the most Near the White River in the Upper Boston Mountains complete quantitative data set on vegetation in the early Subsection, Gerstacker (1881) described forest rather than 19th Century. barrens: “There was no trace of fir [cedar]; the mountains were covered with oak, beech, and hickory . It struck me These surveys offer several ways to characterize vegetation: as extraordinary that the best and most fertile land was on (1) Compilation of numbers of trees by species can provide the hill tops, where in other places, it is generally the worst; information on composition, (2) Diameters of bearing trees here grew black walnut, wild cherry, with stems sometimes can provide estimates of size, (3) Distances to bearing trees twenty inches in diameter, black locust, and sugar maple, can provide estimates of total density and density by species, trees which generally grow only on the richest soils” (p. 282). (4) Diameter and distance combined can provide estimates of basal area or dominance, (5) Mile notes can provide quali- tative assessment of land, timber and undergrowth, and (6) Plat sheets of each township provide maps of notable features such as streams, prairies, fields and ridgelines. 22 Prairies are often well delineated both in the notes and on Red oaks and white oaks were the most frequently recorded plat sheets because these were considered valuable in tree species groups within the study area at 374 and 365 land selection decisions. Other measures must be deter- trees respectively, and post oak was third with 145 trees. mined from the written data and notes. The Class III savanna areas that contained 18 percent of the total trees contained 29 percent of the total post oaks, Of particular interest in the present study is the density of 0.6 percent of the white oaks and 24 percent of the red trees in the non-prairie areas. Most previous studies have oaks. Thus post oak and the red oaks were more important used methods developed in Illinois to characterize the open- than average in these areas and white oak much less ness of the areas with trees based on average distance of important. bearing trees from the corner (Anderson and Anderson 1975, Rodgers and Anderson 1979). According to these studies, The vegetation of Benton and Washington counties, in the savanna is defined as having less than 50 percent canopy Springfield Plateau and both Upper and Lower Boston cover of trees, a density of 1 tree per 5 acres to 19 trees Mountains subsections, was mapped from the GLO notes per acre, and average distance from the corner greater than interpreted with the assistance of topographic maps by Miller 32 feet (48 links). Open forest varies from 19 to 40 trees (1972). Five generalized communities were interpreted and per acre, average distance from 22 feet (33 links) to 32 feet, mapped: (1) oak barrens (also called open woodlands and and closed forest has a greater density.