Heritage plants at former homesteads in the Queets Valley, Olympic National Park
Acker SA, Tetreau MD, Allen DW. 2015. Heritage plants at former homesteads in the Queets Valley, Olympic National Park. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/OLYM/NRDS—2015/968. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Stewardship of cultural resources is one of the core responsibilities of the National Park Service, and these resources include biological entities such as plant communities and individual plants, such as historic orchards or individual fruit trees. Euroamerican settlement of the Queets Valley, much within Olympic National Park, commenced in 1890 and included approximately 64 homesteads along the lower Queets River. Homesteaders cleared land for subsistence farming, livestock pasture, and grew vegetables and planted fruit trees. This report documents the identity, location, and condition of culturally-significant plants in the former homesteads in the Queets valley which are legacies of the homesteading era (“heritage plants”). We made use of aerial photography and other geographic data to identify the persistent clearings associated with the former homesteads and selected for field observation all 19 fields determined to occupy an opening of at least one acre in 2006. We carried out field observations in 2009, 2010, and 2013. We observed heritage plants in 10 of the 19 fields included in the study. We observed a total of 56 individual heritage plants, representing at least 11 species. Apple trees (including crabapple) accounted for more than half of the observed stems; fruit trees as a group accounted for almost 90% of the heritage plants.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Acker, Steven; Tetreau, Michael; Allen, David
- Date of Issue
- 2015-08
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- NRSS , OLYM
- Keywords
- Cultural, EuroAmerican settlement, Farming, heritage, homestead, Olympic National Park, pasture, Plants, Queets Valley, Resource, Shrubs, Trees
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Vegetation Complex , Ecological Framework: Human Use | Cultural Landscapes | Cultural Landscapes