Forest, Frost, and Agriculture: Measuring Three Centuries of Environmental Change at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest

Summary

This paper highlights ecological discoveries made during a survey of natural and cultural resources along a new 2.2 mile parkway at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest. Poplar Forest is Thomas Jefferson’s former retreat home and plantation located in Bedford County, Virginia. In addition to locating archaeological sites and mapping aboveground features, 10 forest plots were established within stands of increasing age adjacent to the proposed path of the parkway. By measuring tree diameter, identifying tree species, and using dendrochronology to sample trees from three different positions in the forest canopy, these plots are providing interpretations about how the present day landscape relates to past agricultural activities, landscape design, and processes of succession that have taken place over the past 250 years. Additional insights are gained by examining these plots in light of historic documents and maps as well as archaeological remains, including charcoal fragments recovered from the plantation’s slave quarters and pollen profiles associated with the creation of both agricultural fields and Jefferson’s retreat. Samples taken from plantation-era building timbers and tulip poplar trees associated with the ornamental landscape are also being used to extend our knowledge of significant climatic events and forest dynamics back to the decades before colonial settlement.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22239