Removing Trees in Culturally and Environmentally Sensitive Sites – Effigy Mounds
Written by Michael Lynch
“A contractor works with a low impact track loader on frozen ground to remove logs and tops from around the conical mounds on Fire Point high above the Mississippi River”
The Forest Stewards Guild has been working to support the National Park Service on forest stewardship projects throughout the eastern U.S. This month we are in the midst of a project to protect mounds at Effigy Mounds National Monument near Harpers Ferry Iowa. This site was designated as a National Monument in 1949 and preserves over 200 mounds built between 800 and 2,500 years ago. Mounds at this site include conical, linear, compound, and effigy mounds – constructed in the shape of animals. Please see the National Park Service page for more information about the mounds, the people who built them, and how to visit the site. The lidar images on that website of the Marching Bears and other mound groups are fascinating.
Many of the mounds are located on bluffs high over the Upper Mississippi River. Prior to land use change and fire suppression, these sites were likely sparsely treed or treeless promontories. Today many of the mounds have large trees growing in and around them. These trees present a threat to the integrity of the mounds as uprooting during a windstorm can destroy entire mounds.
The Guild is supporting the National Monument with a multiphase project to initially remove the trees that pose the highest risk to mound integrity with a long-range vision to create a more open landscape representing historical ecological conditions. In this initial phase we are focusing on the String of Pearls mound group on Fire Point – note the site name for an indication of the point’s history.
As part of this project, we are developing a protocol for removing hazard trees in culturally and environmentally sensitive areas. This methodology will be shared with other public lands, particularly those preserving Native American burial mounds but also other sensitive landscapes.
We have partnered with a contractor with a specialized low impact lift and other tracked equipment to ensure these trees are brought down and removed without damaging any of the mounds. Trees continue to be removed as I write this as we take advantage of the frozen ground in early February.
“Trees are being removed from Fire Point to protect the integrity of the mounds from possible windthrow and create a more open landscape representing historical ecological conditions.”
Sun is shining on these mounds in a way it hasn’t in over 100 years.
Please contact Michael Lynch, Great Lakes Region Director with questions about this project.