The natural areas in Burlington are very integrated with the human processes that take place here. According to Burlington Geographic, Native Americans were present in the Vermont and Burlington landscape for thousands of years and in more recent times, this has been the Abenaki. These people most likely moved through Burlington seasonally. European settlersĀ began settling in Burlington about 200-300 years ago. Most of the cultural features of the landscape were created by these settlers and in 1772 when the Allen brothers moved to Burlington, industry had taken hold of the landscape and began to shape it (Berrizbeitia).
“By 1792 there were a few buildings in present day Burlington. They were located near the lake shore in the oldest part of the city, on what was called Water Street, but is now called Battery Street. It was called Water Street because the lakeshore came right up to the edge of the street, hundreds of feet from where it is now. The shore was a steep bank, so the first settlements were around the Maple and King Street blocks where the land flattened out and access to the water was easier” (Berrizbeitia). This is a significant change because humans have molded the landscape, effectively pushing the lake back. In the late 1700’s, my phenology site would be feet from the water. The following map shows the lake shore encroaching an area called “Battery”, where my site is located now.
In the 1850’s, industry exploded along the water front with power generating plants, train companies, water pumping facilities, and lumber yards dominating the waterfront’s landscape.
My phenology site was abutting all of this industry and the majority of the trees were cleared during this time. I suspect that there were very few animals or more complex vegetation growing here at the time. The following images compare my site as it looked from a birds eye view n 1937 vs 2017.
Secondary secession occurred on my site between 1850 and the trees were largely grown back judging from the 1937 image, however, they matured and the forest seems to have filled in judging from the current image.