Land Use and Wildlife Resources (1970) / Chapter Skim
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1 Historical Perspective
1 Historical Perspective
Pages 1-28
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From page 1... ...
The progression of changes was monitored by climate, conditioned by the substrate, and often modified or suspended by the influences of animals or aboriginal man. Although the dynamics of natural ecosystems are too little understood, biological investigations since 1920 have revealed relationships sufficiently consistent for guidance in many aspects of resource use.
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From page 2... ...
At each step of succession there is a countering and buffering of the degrading action of water, wind, heat, cold, and animal life. In terms of the general thrift and coverage of vegetation, it is hardly to be doubted that in the late fifteenth century the land surface of this continent was undergoing a slower rate of change than at any time after the white man's enterprise became effective.
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From page 3... ...
Disturbance Communities As noted in the foregoing, conditions of the immediate prehistoric period were largely an expression of postglacial vegetation successions induced by climatic change. Associated with, or added to, this predisposing influence were disturbance factors responsible for recurring cycles of developmental plant-animal communities.
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From page 4... ...
Particularly in grasslands, they respond to disturbance factors that induce the spread of fortes and annual grasses (see review by Bond, 1945) , and by their own burrowing and other activities they may help to maintain such conditions, the prairie dog being an outstanding example (Koford, 19583.
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From page 5... ...
Responses occur from step to step in the energy-exchange linkage originating in the primary production of green plants. When key food supplies-such as ground-cover~ng types of herbage-flourish, the lower consumer levels (prey animals)
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From page 6... ...
. if the bison held some of the mixed prairie in a short grass stage, then short grass is the bioecological climax and its proper bioecological designation is BoutelouaBison, even though the climax with bison excluded is something different."
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From page 7... ...
7 It is probable that another creature, largely restricted to the eastern deciduous forest region, had important and widespread effects on vegetation and associated animal life in pre-Columbian times. That the passenger pigeon was inconceivably abundant is attested by all original descriptions.
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From page 8... ...
concentrations occurred in a given area in response to temporarily favorable conditions (especially large food crops)
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From page 9... ...
As Komarek remarked (19641: The antiquity of fire seems apparent in that the most ancient of tree families, such as the conifers, and the apparently oldest genera of grasses, such as Aristida, Stipa, Andropogon, etc., have the greatest concentration of those genes responsible for resistance and adjustment to a "fire environment." In fact, it appears that during long periods of time fire type communities of plants and animals have covered vast areas of the earth's land surface. While this factor must have been ever-present in dry climates, it is likewise influential in areas of light soil and other xeric sites in temperate and relatively moist climates.
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From page 10... ...
Lightning strikes, especially on trees or stubs, undoubtedly were a common natural cause of fires. Hanson cites sources indicating that lightning caused 41 percent of fires on and adjacent to California forests (obviously in a period when fires of human origin also were prevalent)
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From page 11... ...
. Basic changes brought about by repeated burning and resulting in the establishment and maintenance of fire disclimax communities have been described by Sauer (19561: Pyrophytes include woody monocotyledons, such as palms, which do not depend on a vulnerable cambium tissue, trees insulated by thick corky bark, trees and shrubs able to reproduce by sprouting, and plants with thick, hard-shelled seeds aided in germination by heat.
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From page 12... ...
Griffin (1967) remarked that "the major impetus for agricultural development is clearly from Mexico, where agriculture already had had a long history." Indian agriculture had particular biotic significance in the deciduous forest region of the East as a disturbance factor supplementing the widespread effects of fire.
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From page 13... ...
Some of these show clearings planted to agricultural crops on level lands adjoining stockaded Indian villages (Loran", 19651. Relative to the dependence of southeastern tribes on their cultivated crops, Swanton (1946: 256)
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From page 14... ...
The bobwhite quail undoubtedly extended its range wherever openings were created in the forest, and it throve on the seed-bearing herbs and brushy fringes of cultivated areas. Wherever the Indian abandoned his fields or was wiped out by disaster, the invading vegetation went through a stage highly productive of ruffed grouse, rabbits, and deer, and the openings fitted nicely into the life pattern of the wild turkey.
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From page 15... ...
The first exploratory efforts were motivated by the quest for plunder and riches, but the real wealth of America was manifest to many observers, whose extravagant accounts of a heavily fruited land, rivers full of fish, rich soils, and abounding animal life led to successful colonization during the 1600's. Thereafter, however, for some 200 years the penetration of the continent was stimulated primarily by the lure of peltries, principally beaver, for which the European market was good.
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From page 16... ...
Through this work the world was first reliably introduced to the grizzly bear, various races of black-tailed and white-tailed deer, kit fox, prairie dog, white-tailed jackrabbit, white-fronted goose, sage grouse, great gray owl, blue-backed salmon, and the prairie rattlesnake. The original observations on these and other fauna of the region have been extracted, classified, and indexed and are now generally available for scientific use (Burroughs, 19611.
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From page 17... ...
In the United States, for the most part east of the Great Plains, the population was more than 23 million by 1850. By 1880 the cattle industry was taking over the central grasslands vacated by the buffalo
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From page 18... ...
The industrialization, mechanization, and specialization of American agriculture came rapidly after the Civil War, and the permanent landuse pattern was well established by the turn of the century. Potentially, nearly a third of the land area of the 48 contiguous states (about 600 million acres)
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From page 19... ...
Over the Midwest, the raven, gray squirrel (especially the black phase) , and gray fox were reduced in number with the forests, while the crow, fox squirrel, and red fox increased with the openings.
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From page 20... ...
From coast to coast across the North, and southward in both eastern and western mountains, ruffed grouse spread and multiplied in the vigorous growth of cutovers, old fields, and edges. Western blue grouse responded similarly.
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From page 21... ...
The most knowledgeable agriculturists recognized the quality difference between "pine land" and "hardwood land." But pioneer settlers commonly had little familiarity with the soil they wished to till, and their only sources of guidance were the representations of speculators or state land agents. In the three upper Lake States-Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota-more than 38 million acres of the public domain were granted to the states (Lee and Wooten, 1958)
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From page 22... ...
By 1948, 34 states had enabling legislation on zoning, and in eight states there were counties with specific rural zoning restrictions. Among leading states in this field, Wisconsin used zoning ordinances in combination with the State Forest Crop Law to close some 5 million acres of forest land to agricultural development (Ruess et al., 19481.
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From page 23... ...
It is well known that the most extensive and thorough application of land-use capability principles has been by the Soil Conservation Service. At the inception of this program in 1933, it was evident that there must be a systematic and objective basis for appraising sites of different potential on the same cropping unit.
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From page 24... ...
There can be no doubt, however, concerning the key role played by vegetation in determining the nature of animal communities and the density of populations. We may accept it as elementary in wildlife management that a desired species must be produced by first understanding its place in the succession of communities and then finding the means of renewing, through effective and practicable kinds of "disturbance," the conditions in which it lives.
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From page 25... ...
1961. The natural history of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
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From page 26... ...
1964. Potential natural vegetation of the coterminous U.S.
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From page 27... ...
1948. Forest sequence and climatic change in northeastern North America since early Wisconsin time.
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From page 28... ...
1964. Aboriginal relationships between culture and plant life in the Upper Great Lakes region.
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