Vicksburg National Military Park: Environmental Assessment for Landscape Rehabilitation, Vicksburg National Military Park, National Park Service
MACTEC Engineering and Consulting, INC. 2009. Vicksburg National Military Park: Environmental Assessment for Landscape Rehabilitation, Vicksburg National Military Park, National Park Service. Cultural Landscape - Miscellaneous. NPS Southeast Regional Office. Southeast Regional Office/Kennesaw, Georgia
Vicksburg National Military Park (NMP) and Vicksburg National Cemetery comprise a National Park Service (NPS) unit in western Mississippi. The park landscape contains an abundance of monuments, 16 miles of tour roads, and historic structures and features such as earthen fortifications and bridges. These reflect the landscape’s associations with the Civil War siege of 1863, subsequent movements in commemoration, and ongoing efforts for interpretation and recreation. The NPS prepared a Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) and Environmental Assessment (EA) to assist in the long-term management of cultural and natural resources at Vicksburg NMP. The CLR provides assessment of the character-defining features of the landscape, documentation of historic and existing conditions, and development of treatment recommendations. The EA analyzes the preferred treatment alternative and other proposed alternatives in the CLR, as well as the impacts on the environment. Two of these alternatives are assessed to have adverse effects on wetlands. This particular report is a Statement of Findings in compliance with Executive Order 11990 (“Protection of Wetlands”), which requires the NPS and other agencies to evaluate the likely impacts of their actions on wetlands. The current Vicksburg NMP landscape has little resemblance to its appearance during the time of the siege. Since the park was established, many areas that were once cleared have been allowed to naturally return to forest. Further vegetation regeneration occurred in the 1930s to minimize soil erosion. Although these spaces provide an important wildlife habitat, the park misrepresents the historic battlefield and can potentially detract from visitor understanding of the events it aims to commemorate. The preferred alternative (Alternative C) proposes an action to preserve the historic landscapes of the Civil War siege in areas that represent key resources at military engagement sites. The area was primarily characterized fields, pasture, and meadows at that time. The EA examines options involving rehabilitation of significant large-scale elements of the park’s historic landscape, including removing non-historic vegetation to replicate the pattern of open fields and wooded areas that was significance to the Civil War events at Vicksburg. While Alternative C would introduce adverse impacts to a portion of forested wetlands as a result of their conversion, it would advance the interpretive aims of the park and have a much smaller impact on wetlands than Alternative D.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- MACTEC Engineering and Consulting, INC
- Date of Issue
- 2009-08-03
- Publisher
- NPS Southeast Regional Office
- Units
- SER , VICK
- Keywords
- Battlefield, CCC, Civil War, Civilian Conservation Corps, Commemorative Landscape, Comprehensive Long-Range Interpretive Plan, Confederate, EA, earthen fortification, Environmental Assessment, Executive Order 11990, Floodplain Management, forested wetland, Interpretive Landscape, Landscape, landscape management plan, Military, Mississippi, monuments, National Cemetery, Non-Historic Vegetation, Preservation, Protection, Protection of Wetlands, Rehabilitation, siege, Soil Erosion, Spacial Patterns, Statement of Findings, Tour Road, union, vegetative regeneration, Visitor Experience, Wetlands, Wildlife Habitat