Salisbury and the Champlain Valley, July
LocationThis panorama is taken from Burnt Ridge above Upper Plains Road. The intersection of Routes 7 and 53 in Salisbury is near the center of this scene, although it is obscured by trees. LandscapeIn the past 230 years, the composition of these forests has changed from dominance by American beech, sugar maple, and eastern hemlock to dominance by white pine, red oak, sugar maple, white ash, and paper birch. This reflects the increased importance of tree species that are successful on abandoned farmland and logged forestland. In this July 10 view, the corn is well up (except in the brown field in the middle), and the second cutting of hay is in from some distant fields. GigaPanThis panorama is made from 684 images taken on July 10, 2009. It covers a field of view of 184 degrees, and includes 1.6 billion pixels (1550 MP). |
What to look for
History (land use)The area of forest in this scene has steadily increased for the past 150 years as less productive agricultural fields were abandoned. This may be less of an indication that agriculture is declining than that many overambitious sheep farmers in the 1830s and 1840s had the attitude that one's herd of Merino sheep could never be too big. So the forests are young and the fields are old: due to regular logging, trees older than 120 years are uncommon, but most extant fields have been cultivated a few decades longer than that. |