This picture may seem like an odd one to use to begin defining what an urban forest is. It is a picture of a stone wall in the woods, within walking distance of my house in Durham, CT. This is a more elaborate stone wall than one might expect to see in southern New England. It is taller, with the stones more angular and sharply pointed than the rounded stones one might more normally expect. I am sure that there is an interesting story connected to this wall. At some point I hope to do that research. At this point, all that I will say is that it is likely that stones were used because this wall runs along the top of a trap rock ridge. The wall itself is there likely because this land was once used for agriculture. I am assuming that the land was mostly pasturage, perhaps for cattle, hence explaining the height of the wall – but I don’t know for sure.
My focus, though, is not on the wall. It is on the woods. In particular, it is on the question as to whether this woods and these trees can be said to part of an urban forest. As I just saying, this was once agricultural land. I have no doubt that if I were to be transported back to some point in time between 100 and 200 years ago, I would be standing in the middle of a field of some type. This was rural land back then. The trees do not look that old to me and so it appears likely that this rural land use continued on, well into the 20th century. So, doesn’t that make this a rural woods?
Let me offer one way to think about that. Most if not all of this land was not woodland during those long years of use as farmland. Certainly, farms in New England had woods around them, to provide wood for fires and provide shade and perhaps some alternative grazing – but, as I also mentioned, these trees do not appear to be that old. Rather, the trees I see seem to have grown after the land was released from agriculture and as the rural purposes for which those long-ago fields had been dedicated have faded away.
Widening our lens, it might be said that this change was part of a larger, geographic change, as society and the economy of the region shifted. Connecticut moved from being based on an economy that was largely agriculture to one that is largely based on manufacturing. Associated with this shifts were major changes in the modes and extent of transportation, reflected in the development of transportation infrastructure, along with major population increases, especially in the nearby urban centers of New Haven and Middletown. Some of this increase in population was due to people from the surrounding farmlands moving from the farms to the cities. Much of it was due to the large increase of immigration to the United States, as the cities needed workers for factories and other support services. While the farms did not fade away, at least not right away, in many places their days were numbered, as transportation and economies of scale, and the development of electricity and refrigeration, favored farms more distant from those nearby population centers.
At the same time, just as the urban centers tended to pull people in, after a certain point their continued success tended to push people out, first to nearby ‘trolley towns’ and then, with the ascendancy of the automobile, into the areas of these further out agricultural lands. As these lands shifted from their primary worth being in the ability to produce food and other crops, their value became greater when considered as real estate. For people, the economic and social dynamic had changed, leaving the trees to enter these fields and grow on their own.
Said another way, I am suggesting that it was urbanization and the subsequent neglect of the rural purposes of this land have led to its being what it is now. Is this enough to call the woods an urban forest?
Probably not. However, there is one more element that adds weight to the lean in that direction. That has to do with this land is being used currently. In fact, this land is conservation land. Even though I live in nearby in Durham, the land in the picture is actually in the town of Guilford and is managed by the Guilford Land Conservation Trust. It is very near to where the town lines for the towns of North Branford, Durham and Guilford intersect. The GLCT maintains several excellent hiking trails on these lands, readily used by locals, by those who hike from a greater distance (the picture only a slight ways off of the New England Trail) and by anyone willing to drive and park at any of the nearby trailheads. The house I live in was built in the 1970’s, as part of the continued suburban expansion out from New Haven along Route 17, the main road connecting New Haven and Middletown. The presence of encroaching subdivisions certainly has a lot to do with this land behind protected as conservation land.
So, it could be said that this land became wooded due in large part to the shifts in the state’s economy and the pattern of urban development that followed. It is now maintained as a woodland due to considered decisions made by people who have looked at the pattern of urban-focused land use and who determined that it is important for it to remain intact as a forest, not just for now but on into the foreseeable future. That this land may have become woodland more or less by happenstance, but it remains woodland by choice, based on an understanding of the urban focus of today’s society.
That said, there is one more piece of information to include in this discussion as to whether these woods should be considered an urban forest. There is an entity that has taken it upon itself to make the determination as to whether a geographic area should be considered as ‘urban’ or ‘rural’. This entity is the US Census Bureau. What do they have to say?
According to the Census Bureau, there are only two choices – land is either urban or it is not. If land is not urban land than it is rural. This distinction goes far back into Census Bureau history and has been adjusted over the past several decades. Looking closely at a map based on the most recent Census Bureau designation of urban areas, I see that their designation of what constitutes urban lands in Durham shows a ribbon of such lands snaking through town, mostly along Route 17. This urban designation is close to, but stops before the town line with Guilford. By the maps those lands in Guilford, including what I show in the above picture, is just outside of the urban/rural divide.
So – urban forest or rural forest? I would have to ponder further before I could give a final answer. Of course, that is one of the reasons for heading out into these woods – to confer with the signs and spirits of the past and of the future, and to think about what they tell me about the present. These woods are very eloquent and have a lot to say, perhaps even about the future of the urban forest. It is why I try to listen.
March 27, 2023
