The late 1800s Bitterroot Valley, Montana, landscape and settlement patterns were summarized and mapped using the General Land Office (GLO) surveyors' field notes. Surveyors' observations of six townships from Hamilton to the Stevensville vicinity were examined in several ways. A total of 3321 points of ecological and geographic information and 422 miles of vegetation were mapped from the field notes. Surveyor information, vegetation composition, tree abundance, vegetation spatial structure and distribution of vegetation types were characterized in a multi-part historic vegetation data assemblage of point, line and polygon feature classes. Aquatic, topographic and cultural aspects of the area contributed to the historic landscape configuration. A GLO land cover classification was derived using surveyors' terminology and crosswalked with current land cover classes. The culmination of this research produced historic vegetation maps and evaluations, summaries of historic cultural, topographic and aquatic features and an unpretentious comparison of GLO vegetation to current land cover. GLO vegetation along all section lines compared to current land cover revealed differences between historic and current vegetation conditions. Highest differences were decreases in Upland Timber and Prairie-No Timber, and increases in GLO Field and Bottomland Timber near-equivalents. The current conditions of land that surveyors described as GLO Upland Timber and Prairie-No Timber were reported. The methodology applied to the Bitterroot Valley could be used to map extensive areas of Montana, providing quantitative and descriptive observations of a pre-satellite landscape.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MONTANA/oai:etd.lib.umt.edu:etd-12122012-182430 |
| Date | 04 February 2013 |
| Creators | Shelly, Karen M. |
| Contributors | Dr. Woodam Chung, Dr. Anna Klene, Dr. Paul Wilson |
| Publisher | The University of Montana |
| Source Sets | University of Montana Missoula |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-12122012-182430/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Montana or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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