T HE P RESETTLEMENT L ANDSCAPE The subject of North America’s “presettlement landscape” has long been a topic of research, speculation, and debate. Among ecologists, historians, and others there exists a desire to understand the composition and structure of the vegetation at the time of European settlement. Such information can inform about the land’s ecological function and the ecological role of indigenous people. But understanding the presettlement landscape can also inform restoration efforts including the composition of native flora (and fauna), natural communities, and ecological processes. The central questions regarding the presettlement landscape include: what was the composition and structure of the northern Virginia Piedmont? Was it all forest? Were there
open areas? What was the disturbance regime? And what can be said about composition and populations of the fauna? Information regarding the landscape at Virginia’s founding 400 years ago comes from a variety of sources. Explorer’s journals and logs provide first hand qualitative descriptions, while surveyor’s witness tree records represent a random (somewhat) survey of trees from a given property. Paleoecological studies that typically use fossilized pollen to reconstruct historic or prehistoric landscapes can provide information on changes from presettlement to postsettlement times. I have not found palynological studies from the northern Virginia Piedmont. A study from the southern
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