PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 37: Forest Ecology.

Thursday, August 5 Presentations from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall A 1.

The influence of historic logging activities in Giles County, Virginia.

Pittman, Judd^*,1, Copenheaver, Carolyn¹, ¹ Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA

ABSTRACT- Giles County lies in the Ridge and Valley physiographic province of southwestern Virginia. The first Europeans settled the area in 1742 and the first saw mill was constructed in 1750 on Sinking Creek. The objective of this project was to identify whether the presence of saw mills in Giles County altered the subsequent land-use and vegetation patterns in the areas where they were located. We hypothesized that the saw mills would be located near streams and therefore riperian forests would have been disproportionally harvested compared to other forest types. We also hypothesized that areas around saw mills would have been more likely to be converted to agricultural land because they would have been cleared of timber. Our final hypothesis was that the areas around saw mills experienced more soil erosion because they would have been the first areas converted for agriculture and therefore were abandoned during the two main land abondonment periods (the Civil War 1860s and the Great Depression of the 1930s). To test these hypotheses, we examined historical deeds, business records, diaries, and conducted interviews with long-term residents of Giles County to identify the location and period of operation of historic saw mills. We then used historical records and aerial photographs to track vegetation changes in areas where saw mills were located and compared the land use and vegetation changes to areas outside of the influence of saw mills.

Key words: logging history, land-use history