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Hank Art: Half a century of land use change in Williamstown
The landscape of Williamstown has changed more rapidly in the last half century than at any time in the past 10,000 years. Agricultural abandonment since 1950 has lead to the greatest shift in the relative amounts of forest and open land since European colonists first cleared the local landscape to establish farms in 1753-1803. In 1830 less than 1/3 of Williamstown was forested, about half of the town was forested in 1950, and at present less than 1/3 of the town is "open land."
This project addresses the changes in the biological and human landscape over the past 50 years. Professor Art will address these changes both from objective data sources such as aerial photographs, historical maps, and vegetation data and from interviews of farmers and farm family members who have lived through the experience of abandoning the agricultural enterprise. The ultimate product would be a DVD and/or website.
View Professor Art's website