Blackwood Division Management History
Duke Forest FACE/Pine Plantation AmeriFlux site
Deciduous Forest AmeriFlux site
Old Field AmeriFlux site
Compiled by R. Broadwell, June 2002
- ACQUISITION HISTORY
- MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES
- Cedar posts cut from some sections 1965-66 (Map 2).
- Portions thinned 1966-67 (Map 2).
- Southern portion burned 1979 (Map 3).
- Entire site clear-cut, drum-chopped, and burned 1982 (Map 3).
- Entire site planted with loblolly pine seedlings (Piedmont provenance) at 2m x 2.4m (6' x 8') spacing 1983.
- Cedar posts were cut from some of the surrounding hardwood forest 1965-66 (Map 2).
- VEGETATION TYPES
The land that now comprises the three Duke AmeriFlux sites and the Duke FACE site in the Blackwood Division was acquired by Duke University in a series of land purchases from 1944 to 1947. See accompanying map (Figure A).
|
Tract |
Purchase Date |
|
|
Old Field |
Johnston |
5/26/1944 |
|
FACE/Pine Plantation |
Johnston Kirkland – 2 |
5/26/1944 6/30/1944 |
|
Deciduous Forest |
Johnston [Gardiner] Bishop |
5/8/1944 10/8/1947 |
There are no known existing management records for the Blackwood Division lands prior to their acquisition by Duke University.
Old Field
FACE/Pine Plantation
Deciduous Forest
Much of the land now classified as Old Field, FACE/Pine Plantation, and Deciduous Forest occupies an area once known as the Big Meadows (Figure B). The following passage is from the 1921 Soil Survey of Orange County, North Carolina (E.S. Vanatta, U.S. Department of Agriculture, pp. 30-31):
"The largest single area of Iredell loam is mapped between Blackwood and Balls Mountains. It comprises about 2 square miles, and is locally known as "Big Meadows."
… It is said that some of the larger areas of this soil were natural prairie, and that at the time Hillsboro was first settled the farmers each year came down to the area now known as the "Big Meadows" and cut and cured hay from the native grasses. Since then the area has grown up to forest."
Although the Blackwood Division is primarily forested today, the preceding passages suggest that much of the land was grass-covered during the late 1700s and early 1800s. It is possible that this was the result of frequent burning by both the early European settlers and the Native Americans that preceded them.
Old Field
The area currently comprising the "grassy field" was occupied by several individual stands of pine and mixed hardwoods prior to its clearing in 1979/80. See Map 3 for timber types before conversion.
FACE/Pine Plantation
Before its conversion to a loblolly pine plantation, the site was made up of many small stands of loblolly pine, Virginia pine, and mixed hardwoods. See Map 3 for timber types as they existed prior to being clear-cut in 1982.
Deciduous Forest
Mixed hardwood stands have occupied the forests since the land’s acquisition by Duke University in the 1940s.