Eco-history tools

Whole Earth,  Spring, 2001  by Pw

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Historical documents Historic Maps

Census records, water filings, homestead filings, local newspapers, military diaries and reports, personal journals, mining company reports, weather bureau data. Government Land Office Surveys. The US General Land Office has 6,500 volumes of survey notes and plat maps of varying quality, going back to the 1600s. They cover as many as 25,000 acres.

The river moved, a road was built. Comparing maps by early settlers and explorers, Native Americans, federal and state agencies, and commercial outfits explains wounds and what once worked.

Archaeology and bone piles

Buried history in places humans burned, built, cut, and hunted. Ecology in places animals got stuck, fell, or were eaten in a lair. For 10,000-20,000-year perspective on humans and longer on the flora and fauna.

Ethnobiology

Talking to indigenous peoples. Experiment with old seed varieties. Find hunter-gathering artifacts in museums. Shape a 5,000-year perspective.

Oral History

Retirement interviews, old-timers and their children, local historians. You can squeeze 150 years from the audio tapes and diaries.

Photos and repeat photography

Repeat photography has blossomed. Portraits, partial and full landscapes, aerial and satellite photos; newspaper archives, and private collections provide remarkable 100-plus-year chronicles.

Field inventories

A field study shows gaps in ages of trees. The gap says cattle. The gap forecasts an era without trees for hole-nesting or large-nest birds. The richest single source of eco-history for a 200-year. 250-acre perspective.

Tree rings

Tree rings can tell stories of fire history, seasons, droughts, and rainfall. Great for studying climate change. A 1,000- to 2,500-year perspective is possible.

Plant "opals" (phytoliths)

Phytoliths are small crystals found in plants that can ID and date earlier plant communities, some from as long ago as 100,000 years.

Pollen and sediments

Pollen types form layers in sediment and soil. They tell the history of plant-life change and human uses. Up to a 100,000-year perspective.

Pack rat middens

These lovely rats collect seeds, twigs, and bones from near their, middens. They urinate on them and, after a while, the mass becomes a preserved "fossil." Great for local lists of flora. From recent history to over 50,000 years.

Aging soils and landscape surfaces

Determining the age of a soil can explain why it nurtures a particular plant community and what would be the best plants for recovery. Soils can also tell the history of floods from dam sediments.

COPYRIGHT 2001 New Whole Earth LLC
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning