Westminster Biology Professor Uses Past to Determine Future of Trees

Dr. Clarence Harms, Westminster College professor of biology emeritus, will present a biology lunch seminar, "Historical Ecology, Using the Past to Manage the Future," Thursday, April 28, at 12:30 p.m. in Phillips Lecture Hall located in the Hoyt Science Resources Center.

"I will examine the ecological features of our immediate area, beginning with Native American practices of clearing the forest by fire and Europeans claiming ownerships by government fiat," Harms said.  "The lands we now call Lawrence and Mercer Counties were among those given to Revolutionary War veterans in lieu of salary.  These so called Donation Lands were surveyed in a system call Metes and Bounds,' where property was marked and measured from adjoining property using natural landmarks.  Those landmarks were mainly trees that today we call Witness Trees.

"Those trees are gone now, but their record remains.  By looking at the survey records and plots of the late 1700s and noting which Witness Trees were mentioned, we get a reasonable picture of species diversity in pre-settlement forests.  We are using this data to configure a Microforest, a five-acre former pasture at the Field Station where we are planting only those species that could have been in our region."

The event is free and open to the public.  For more information, contact Harms at (724) 946-8520 or e-mail harmsc@westminster.edu.

Dr. Clarence Harms