12/8/18- Centennial Woods Land Use History

My phenology spot can be found in the Centennial Woods Natural Area, one of UVM’s nine natural areas. The land includes property from Baxter (1891), Ainsworth (1904), Hickok (1908), Kirby (1938), and Unsworth (1968,) who were landowners in Burlington and South Burlington. To fully understand the history of this area, one must go back 19,000 years to the Laurentide ice sheet which created the mountains and hills of the Vermont landscape we know today. This ice sheet was responsible for the creation of Centennial woods and its features I have been studying today. Before this area was known to be “Vermont,” it was known as Ndakinna by the Abenaki that lived on this land long before the arrival of the Europeans. Historians have estimated that up to 10,000 Abenakis lived in Ndakinna. UVM students have found direct ties between the Abenaki and Centennial Woods; in 1999, anthropology students discovered evidence of Native American tool making while conducting research in the area. The Abenakis had an organic perspective of the landscape and saw the environment as a nurturing mother that provides for mankind.

Due to the popularity of farming in Vermont in the 17 and 1800’s, it can be inferred that parts Centennial Woods may have been cleared for agricultural purposes. Since the trees in my phenology spot appear to be decades old, the land was most likely abandoned by farmers in the mid to late 1800s, allowing the White Pines and Eastern Hemlocks time to regrow. During my visit, I found barbed wire hanging off of an Eastern Hemlock tree, leading me to believe this might be leftover from the farming period of the natural area.

Today, Centennial Woods is utilized by both the public and UVM students as a place to enjoy the outdoors and also conduct research to further their studies of the environment.

 

Sources: 

Anthropology Students Practice Fieldwork on Campus. Vermont Quarterly 1999 (Fall): 10

The University of Vermont Research Guides (2016) Centennial woods natural area. Retrieved from http://researchguides.uvm.edu/c.php?g=290508&p=1935271

The Vermont Historical Society (n.d.) The abenakis & the europeans. Retrieved from https://vermonthistory.org/explorer/vermont-stories/becoming-a-state/the-abenakis-the-europeans