PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #32: Plant Ecology I.
Wednesday, August 8, 2001. Presentation from 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM. Exhibition Hall

Influences of Native Americans and surveying irregularities on metes and bounds witness tree distribution.

Black, Bryan¹, Abrams, Marc¹, ¹

ABSTRACT- Techniques are developed to quantify and mitigate the effects of irregularities in metes and bounds witness tree data in Lancaster County, southeastern Pennsylvania. Corrected witness tree data are then used to describe presettlement forest cover and the effects of Native American and early European settlement land uses. Spatial irregularities were identified by comparing the number of witness trees recorded on contrasting topographic regions and landforms. Species survey dates were compared to identify community changes during the survey period. Influences of Native Americans were evaluated by comparing forest composition within five and seven kilometers of major villages with edaphically similar sites in regions of low Native American populations. The number of witness trees was significantly greater in mountainous topographic regions and on easily navigated landforms. Some minor early successional species became more abundant late in the thirty-year survey period, possibly as a result of early settlement land uses. Near Native American village sites, black locust, hickory and walnut were more abundant than on control sites, possibly as a result of cultivation or disturbance. To mitigate the effects of spatial irregularities, witness tree data must be divided into topographic regions, and then into landforms before analysis. Early successional species may be slightly over represented. Combined, these techniques increase the accuracy of metes and bounds witness tree data and quantify the nature and extent of Native American forest impacts.

KEY WORDS: witness trees, Native Americans, presettlement forests, surveyor biases