Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / The extent and nature of human modification of vegetation were studied in the middle portion of the Appalachian Highland. The area of study, from the New River and Roanoke Gap in southern Virginia to the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary includes portions of the Inner Piedmont, Blue Ridge, Great Valley, Parallel Ridges, and eastern Allegheny upland. The vegetation at various periods of history, and the human activities that have caused it to change, were studied by historical methods. The cultural influences effective today and the resulting types of cultural vegetation were studied by field observation.
The primeval vegetation of the region was continuous forest except in a few places that were too rocky to support trees, small areas that were temporarily deforested by natural cataclysms, and scattered areas of grass on marshy, seasonally inundated land. Indians modified this vegetation to some extent in the precolonial period, chiefly by the use of fire, but the degree of modification varied considerably from one part of the area to another. In the period of settlement, the principal man-made changes in vegetation were caused by clearing of valley lands for agriculture and the introduction of exotic species that became naturalized. Large-scale exploitation followed the Civil War, causing nearly complete deforestation of the mountains [TRUNCATED]
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/28133 |
| Date | January 1960 |
| Creators | Robison, William Condit |
| Publisher | Boston University |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | Based on investigation of the BU Libraries' staff, this work is free of known copyright restrictions. |
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