Cover Story
By John Kmitta
Hallowed
Ground
The landscape restoration
and maintenance of
Gettysburg National Military Park
nature and human
Since1863, development have
changed the appearance of the landscape and
historic battlefields at Gettysburg National
Military Park (NMP). Now, as the 150th anniversary of that historic battle draws near,
Gettysburg NMP staff members share their
insights into the ongoing efforts to preserve
the topographic, landscape and cultural features that were significant to the outcome of
the battle.
The battlefield is now a vast national park, and the
landscape is a mosaic of woodlands and woodlots,
agricultural fields, pasturelands and intermittent
streams. And although most of the landscape is natural, it still needs maintenance.
For example, fields that have not been farmed
during the past 65-plus years have become forests.
While some vegetation features (thickets, woodlots
and woodlands) were removed by man over the
years, others were overgrown by nature, becoming
dense and containing many non-native species. In
addition, some historic fields, pastures and other
open areas are covered by non-historic vegetation.
In 1999, the Gettysburg NMP General Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement
(GMP/EIS) was approved, outlining goals for rehabilitating the 1863 cultural and natural features that
impacted the battle.
"Battlefield Rehabilitation is a multi-year project to return major battle action areas on the Gettysburg battlefield to their appearance at the time of
the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, and to help the
public better understand the soldier's experiences
on the battlefield," said Katie Lawhon, management
assistant, Gettysburg NMP. "The project includes
removal of non-historic trees, but also the planting
of trees, maintaining historic woodlots, planting historic orchards, building fences, and more."
Obtaining historical accuracy
The initial challenge was to understand the historic landscapes of the 1863 battle, and how those
landscapes had changed throughout the years.
According to Lawhon, historians developed a
history of the park landscapes and a set of historical
base maps that documented the park's landscape
and built features. Those maps were based upon extensive research, including park archival materials,
library records, historic photographs and sketches,
maps, and — more recently — aerial photographs.
The most important mapping resources were
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