Digital cultural heritage and rural landscapes: preserving the histories of landscape conservation in the United States

Sarah Karle,Richard Carman

doi:10.1186/s43238-020-00006-6

Abstract

This paper addresses how a digital heritage project can impact the research and interpretation of a large-scale rural cultural landscape in the United States. Due to the size and scope of rural landscapes, large-scale documentation methods are critical to advancing landscape conservation and preservation initiatives. Using an in-progress online project to document a 1935 US federally sponsored program, the Prairie States Forestry Project (PSFP), the authors show how diverse visual and textual data can be spatialised to construct a map reading of landscape change over time. To date, the PSFP is one of the largest afforestation projects in the history of the United States; the United States Forest Service and thousands of landowners undertook a series of cooperative planting agreements to plant over 200 million trees over seven years in approximately 33,000 shelterbelts from the panhandle of Texas to the North Dakota border. Due to a lack of coordinated monitoring, shelterbelt location and status was unknown, and the original archival material remained unpreserved. In the case of the Prairie States Forestry Project, the process for digitising and disseminating previously inaccessible primary source documents is an act of preservation that creates opportunities for future large-scale landscape conservation projects. The application of the archival mapping method and resulting PSFP datasets can be incorporated by individuals working on heritage documentation such as Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) reports, National Register nominations, or Cultural Landscape Reports for the National Parks Service. The dataset could also be used by private groups such as cooperative conservation land managers.

Highlights

As a part of American agricultural heritage, Prairie States Forestry Project (PSFP) shelterbelts may be listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, provided proper documentation is submitted
The historical Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping method for the PSFP in Nebraska enabled the documentation of a number of smallscale sites that are simultaneously contextualised within the larger cultural landscape, providing a critical starting point for inventorying and evaluating the existing condition of historically significant shelterbelts
The ability to digitally document the PSFP addresses a critical barrier for large-scale landscape preservation by laying the groundwork for the physical evidence needed for a potentially eligible site to be nominated to the National Register

Summary

Introduction

The adoption of agroforestry practices in Nebraska can be traced to the Prairie States Forestry Project (PSFP) of the US Forest Service (1935–1942).Through the PSFP, thousands of shelterbelts and riparian buffers were planted to slow wind and protect the soil during the Dust Bowl (1935–1942), and the project represents a significant moment in the history of ecological engagement in the Great Plains.Full list of author information is available at the end of the article (2020) 4:5This heritage, is at risk due to a lack of coordinated monitoring efforts; the current status of existing PSFP shelterbelts remains unknown, making it difficult to identify and analyse the evolution of this large-scale cultural landscape.As a part of American agricultural heritage, PSFP shelterbelts may be listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, provided proper documentation is submitted. Full list of author information is available at the end of the article (2020) 4:5 This heritage, is at risk due to a lack of coordinated monitoring efforts; the current status of existing PSFP shelterbelts remains unknown, making it difficult to identify and analyse the evolution of this large-scale cultural landscape. In the National Register Bulletin Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Rural Historic Landscapes, McClelland et al (1999, 9) identified New Deal soil conservation projects like the PSFP as historically significant: GIS datasets documenting a large-scale cultural landscape. These datasets are critical to providing the necessary documentation for preservation and conservation research in three ways, serving as:

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