The use of historical land survey records for studying past Indigenous land use in the eastern US
Huck Ecology Seminar Series

  April 20, 2026 @ 01:25 pm to 02:15 pm

  Steidle 114
  University Park

Abstract:

The geographic extent and intensity of Indigenous land use in eastern US forests prior to European-American settlement remains debated. Some argue that Indigenous forest management was minimal and local-scale, but others argue that their impacts via agricultural clearance and cultural burning were considerable and regional. This talk covers the use of historical land survey records for assessing the geographic extent of Indigenous land use. Historical land surveys were conducted during the 17th-19th centuries CE in the eastern US, and they produced unintended ecological data in the form of timber descriptions and "witness tree" tallies. After covering land survey records, their uses, and limitations, this talk will summarize studies that have applied quantitative techniques to assess the degree to which tree species distributions (e.g. fire-tolerant trees such as oak and pine) and open forest ecosystems (e.g. oak savannas and pine savannas) were the result of environmental and/or anthropogenic factors. The presenter's research and other peer-reviewed papers will be introduced.

About the Speaker:

Stephen J. Tulowiecki, Ph.D. is a geographer who studies forested ecosystems, with a focus on forests prior to European-American settlement in the eastern US His research examines the factors that shaped past geographic distributions of tree species, as well as methodological issues surrounding this area of inquiry (e.g. data quality, positional uncertainty in species data). His research utilizes geospatial tools and quantitative methods, such as geographic information systems (GIS), predictive modeling, statistical computing, and programming. His research utilizes – and studies the usefulness of – unconventional or “found” data sources, such as original land survey records of the 17th to 19th centuries CE. Topics of inquiry include: Native American land use and its impacts, the historical range of the American chestnut, and the pawpaw tree. His teaching centers upon GIS. He has published in journals such as Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Forest Ecology and Management, Plant Ecology, and Progress in Physical Geography.

Contact

  Elijah Freiman
  edf5204@psu.edu