Archaeological Remains - Where and What

Those of us who are out in the woods a lot are the most likely candidates to find archaeological remains. Knowing where to look and what to look for can help you to spot these things.

People have been living in New Hampshire for 12,000 years, and during the 11,500 years of prehistory they were living over and over again in the same preferred places: on river and lake shores, especially on river and lakeside terraces, at falls and at river deltas, inlets and outlets. Post-glacial nomadic hunters camped in these locations, hunter-gatherers preferred these spots for seasonal settlements, and village horticulturalists found this to be the best land for planting, so these locations often have layer upon layer of buried artifacts.

One other potential archaeological location is at or near outcrops of fine-grained stone, where people repeatedly came to quarry the stone, knock it into rough "blanks", and carry it away to finish tool-making nearby.

Of course these spots are likely to be covered with soil and trees, but wind and water may expose the artifacts. Where there is disturbance, look for pieces of fine-grained (smooth, slippery) stone. Look for signs of straight-line fracture or of chipping of the edges - these were tools or the debris from making and sharpening tools. You could be looking at something 12,000 years old. Look for pieces of pottery, often "stamped" with a raised pattern on the outside surface; this could be 3,000 years old. Also look for metal, often oxidized to green or another color - this could date from the time of contact and the fur trade.

In rare instances you may find wood, bones, birchbark and other organic material - usually in a wetland, and especially a peatland, environment. Again, draining or other disturbance is likely to reveal these things.

If you find something, there is probably more underneath, and the undisturbed stratigraphy is very important. So, mark the spot (but not too obviously), and don't dig! If you are on SPNHF land, notify Carrie or Dave Anderson. As the landowner, SPNHF will follow up with the Division of Historical Resources, and the site may be visited by archaeologists. There will not be much fanfare, because archaeological sites are fragile and sensitive to destruction by casual collectors. In fact, archaeological site information is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act for just this reason.

If you are on other land, notify the landowner, recommend contacting the Division of Historical Resources, and emphasize that an archaeological site does not affect a landowner's rights in any way. If archaeologists are permitted to visit, they must follow the landowner's instructions, and if they excavate the site, they will restore it. In fact, they will do their best to make it look like nothing ever happened there.

There is also Historic Archaeology, so cellar holes, old dams, old dump sites, etc. are worth noting, marking, and notifying SPNHF. The same procedures apply.

Nine-tenths of archaeological sites are found by non-archaeologists and SPNHF stewards and staff are likely to find some.

Exploring the Olsen Forest

Last weekend was a great weekend for hosting hikes on Forest Society reservations! Land Stewards Roger and Ann Sweet hosted a snowshoe hike on the Olsen Family Forest in Sullivan on Sunday February 13th. Their walk also meandered onto other properties, including some private, as yet unprotected lands. It was sponsored by the Mondadnock Conservancy and the Harris Center, where Roger and Ann are also volunteers. Below is the write-up that Ann and Roger wrote following their winter excursion!

Twenty-three people met at the Sullivan Town Hall and car-pooled to Mark Smith’s generously offered parking area near his house overlooking Chapman Pond. Donning snowshoes, they filed over a snow bank on to the Boynton Road extension and up to the gate to the Olsen Forest, where Roger Sweet (Harris Center, SPNHF) and Ryan Owens (Monadnock Conservancy) talked about the importance of protected lands such as Piper and Olsen (owned by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests), and the Otter Brook Preserve (owned by the Nature Conservancy), noting that unbroken forest land preserves water quality and quantity and also provides wildlife habitat. The group could see the hills of Stoddard and Nelson from the old SPNHF log landing, passed the snowed-in Cummings cellar hole, just above which two pileated woodpeckers were chasing each other, and turned south toward Mark Smith’s land and then on to land belonging to Dick Smith of Arlington, MA. Trees creaked, but the snowshoeing was easy. No deer tracks, however, because of the snow depth. Fox tracks were plentiful, and the hikers crossed a porcupine path and a fisher trail. Twisting down to Chapman Brook, the group followed the brook to Chapman Pond, solemnly beautiful under gray skies. Skirting about 1/3 the shore of the pond, where loons are known to feed in the summer, the hike climbed back up to the starting point in Mark Smith’s yard. Several asked whether they might come back in another season to enjoy the quiet beauty of the area. The leaders expressed the hope that the land around the pond might be eventually protected from development.

If you are interested in hosting a hike, field trip, or other program on the reservation you monitor, please feel empowered to do so! If you need some assistance, just contact Carrie or Dave Anderson and we'd be happy to get you started. We can offer assistance like advertising your walk on the Forest Society's website, providing copies of Forest Notes magazine to distribute, giving you talking points about the Forsest Society, and/or providing tips for planning and leading a successful outing. Be sure to let us know if you do plan an event, so we can make sure there are no management conflicts involved in what you want to do, and so we are aware of the date(s) and times!

Winter Hike at the Reney Forest

Land stewards Ruth Ann and Andy Eastman recently led a snowshoe hike on the Forest Society reservation they monitor, the Reney Memorial Forest in Grantham. This 413 acre forest supports a diverse mixture of tree species including beech, yellow birch, sugar maple, hemlock and balsam fir, and provides excellent habitat for many native mammals and birds. On the recent hike, the group identified tracks and/or sign from moose, fox, coyote, snowshoe hare, squirrel and mouse. To learn more about the Reney Memorial Forest, download a hiking map, or get driving directions, check out the online Guide To Our Lands here.

Photo credit: Andy Eastman

As at many of the Forest Society's reservations, the parking area at the Reney Memorial Forest is not plowed during the winter, which can make winter access difficult in years of deep snow (like this one!). However, since the Reney Forest property borders the local public library parcel, the Eastmans realized that winter access could be improved by constructing a short spur trail from the Dunbar Free Library to the existing trail network on the forest. After receiving all of the necessary approvals, the Eastmans built the new trail this past fall and it is now officially in service. The snowshoe hike last weekend began and ended at this new trailhead! Nice work Andy and Ruth Ann!

Snowshoe group at the (snowed in) parking lot trailhead
Photo credit: Andy Eastman

Land Steward Annual Meeting

We had a terrific turnout for the "2010" Land Steward Annual Meeting and Potluck Dinner this week- more than 30 stewards attended bringing their favorite steaming dishes to share. As always, the food was abundant and delicious, and the conversation engaging. It's always great to see long-time stewards mingling and chatting with newly minted stewards, sharing their stories and experiences. We even had a handful of prospective stewards come to learn what the program is all about. Highlights from the past year of land steward projects, workshops, field walks, and workdays were shared, and we also looked ahead at what the upcoming year may bring. Now if only some of this snow would melt...

Yatsevitch Timber Tour

Last Saturday more than 30 guests joined Forest Society staff Wendy Weisiger (Forester) and Dave Anderson (Director of Education and Volunteer Services), Forester Jeremy Turner (Meadowsend Timberlands, LLC), Logger Tracy Burns (Pioneer Forestry), Sullivan County Forester Chuck Hersey and UNH Extension Wildlife Specialist Matt Tarr on a tour of an active timber harvest on the Michael M. and Claudia Yatsevitch Forest in Cornish and Plainfield. This is the second phase of a two-year harvest on the roughly 1,000 acre Yatsevitch Forest. The harvest plan includes fairly large (>10 acre) wildlife openings to promote habitat diversity and provide resources for species that utilize early successional habitat. As UNH Wildlife Specialist Matt Tarr explained to the group, recent research indicates that forest openings must be quite large in order to truly increase the species diversity in an area. So while 1 or 2 acre clearcuts for wildlife may be more aesthetically (and politically) appealing, these openings should really be closer to 10+ acres in order to attract the greatest diversity of wildlife. Read more here.

Jeremy Turner talks about a wildlife opening created in 2010

Larger (>10 acre) forest openings are more likley to increase wildlife species diversity

White pine is the predominant species being removed during the current Yatsevitch Forest harvest, which should allow the remaining northern harwoods to mature nicely and increase in value. Sugar Maple and White Ash are common canopy trees in this rich mesic forest, and a portion of the property to the north of the harvest area is an active sugarbush leased to a local maple producer. The Yatsevitch Forest boasts an exceptionally high level of plant diversity, including several state-listed rare plants. In order to protect these uncommon resources, a 300+ acre "ecoreserve" has been designated on this forest, within which no timber harvesting will occur.

Dave Anderson points out sugar maple borer damage on a young tree

In addition to discussing the harvest plan, silvicultural prescriptions, and harvesting methods for the Yatsevitch operation, the group also convened on the log landing to discover which markets and forest products the harvested wood will be headed for. If you missed the Yatsevitch Timber Tour, please join us later this month for a tour of another timber harvest at the Rocks Estate in Bethlehem. To register, visit the Forest Society's website!

New Year, New Blog!

Welcome to the newest Land Steward communication device! I have been frustrated with updating the Land Steward Webpage for some time now since I'm not proficient with the computer language you need to make updates and changes (html). This blog will hopefully serve all the purposes of the old website (provide information on upcoming events, links to important websites and documents, etc.) with the added bonus of also being a running commentary (with photos!) of what stewards and Forest Society land management staff are up to. This format should be a lot more interactive as well, as stewards (and others) can comment on posts, and adventurous stewards can also write their own blog posts! If you're interested in adding something to the blog (a workday notice, photos or a story from a monitoring visit, whatever you like as long as its related to your land steward duties)- you can either send the information to me and I'll post it, or I can set you up as a blog author. You don't even have to be super-tech-savvy. I promise, it's easy!

Hope you are all doing well and enjoying the numerous feet of snow we seem to be compiling in New Hampshire this winter. Break out the snowshoes and visit your Forest Society Reservation, and then come in for a warm cup of cocoa to read the Land Steward BLOG!