8:45- The Characteristics and Values of Old Growth Forests.
Dr. William H. Martin
   It is difficult to imagine the condition and composition of the forests of eastern North America 500 years ago. They certainly were not always the pristine wilderness commonly depicted, because they had long been used and occupied by the Native Americans. Existing old growth forests are scattered remnants that also have a history of being utilized by humans for centuries. Field research in these old growth remnants and various historical commentaries, records, and photographs can be evaluated and used by private and public land stewards to guide the management of other mature forests as sustainable resources. Old growth can also provide some guidelines for management of younger forests that are currently managed (or mismanaged) for timber supply, recreation, and wildlife habitats. Old growth forests are defined by the characteristics of the forest communities (types) that they represent. General characteristics among types are based on (a) forest structure, (b) specific biodiversity, (c) nature of dead material, (d) soil characteristics, (e) and disturbance histories; characteristics of mixed mesophytic forests are used to specifically illustrate these attributes. The values of old growth forests are widely debated because most are not easily quantified. Emphasis is placed on their value as scientific "controls," reservoirs of biodiversity, and as examples of natural heritage. Their economic values as supplies of quality wood products; sources of medicinal plants; and as components of tourist and development plans are equally important and should be more widely recognized and appreciated. The future health and biodiversity of these forests will be determined by how well the necessary policy and management issues are recognized and addressed: What should be the amount, location, and use of old-growth forests? What is the role of the private, non-industrial forest landowner? What are the natural disturbance regimes of these forests and how can they be maintained? How is biodiversity defined and maintained? What is the role of humans? What inventory and monitoring programs are required? Sustaining old-growth ecosystems across generations requires recognition of their dynamic nature and management requirements. "Locking-up" old growth and believing that these forests can "take care of themselves" are neither realistic nor responsible conservation strategies that will sustain the inhabitants, features, and values of these forests for the next 500 years.

9:15- Dynamics of Disturbance in Landscape-scale Old Growth Remnants.
Dr. Lee Frelich
   Large old-growth remnants comprise a mosaic of stands with a wide variety of structural and compositional types. These different types of stands are interrelated in a successional web that is the product of the historical disturbance regime. Successional webs showing the relationship among stand types have been completed for hemlock-sugar maple forests of the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in western Upper Michigan and for near-boreal paper birch, white pine, spruce-fir forests of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of northeastern Minnesota. In each case there are several different types of old multi-aged stands, some of which occupy small proportions of the landscape so that they would likely be absent from small old-growth remnants (i.e. less than 20,000 acres in hemlock-hardwood forest or less than 100,000 acres in the near-boreal forest).

9:40- Fire History in Mid-Atlantic Old Growth Oak Forests.
Dr. Durland Shumway
   We document the fire history of an old-growth oak-dominated forest on the side slopes of Savage Mountain in Western Maryland, USA. Twenty basal cross sections obtained from a partial timber cut in 1986 provided evidence of 42 fires from 1615 to 1958. Nine of the fires occurred in the 17th century, 13 in the 18th century, 12 in the 19th century, and eight in the 20th century. On average, fires occurred every eight years, and there were no significant differences in mean return interval among pre-European settlement (before 1750), post-settlement (1750-1900) and fire suppression (after 1900) periods. However, there were no major fire years (at least 25% of samples with scars) after 1900. Oaks recruited consistently from the early 1600s to the early 1900s, but there were increasing amounts of red maple and black birch with suppression (after 1900). Results of a cluster analysis of recruitment data suggest that episodic oak recruitment followed several of the major fire years. There was an increase in radial growth in oak species in a four-year period following the vast majority of fires, and this increase was largely due to increased latewood production. The species recruitment patterns and long-term fire history reported in this study offer important direct support for the hypothesis that periodic fire played an important role in the historical development and perpetuation of oak forests of the mid-Atlantic region before and after European settlement, and that fire suppression during the 20th century is facilitating a replacement of canopy oak by later successional tree species.

10:05- Program for a 500- Year Forest.
Ted Harris
   In the eastern United States, forest acreage is shrinking, and becoming increasingly fragmented, because of expanding urbanization. Virginia, for example, has lost over 600,000 acres of farm and forestland to development in the last twenty-five years. The surviving forest areas are under siege from the extensive practice of high- grading, which involves taking the best and leaving the rest, thereby leaving a deteriorating genetic stock to provide the forests of the future. Highview, our family land, is illustrative of what has happened to eastern deciduous forests. I will tell this land’s history as I have pieced it together. The 500-Year Forest Foundation is developing a program for forest owners interested in maintaining and increasing the health of their forest long into the future. I will describe the program, whose major benefits include protecting biodiversity, providing sites for long-term scientific research, and setting a positive environmental example.

11:00- Birds, Old Growth and Forest Integrity: Biodiversity Benefits from the Ancient Forest.
J. Christopher Haney
   During the last half-decade, a small but increasing body of evidence shows that birds benefit from the structural and functional characteristics of eastern old-growth forests. On a basic level, bird communities themselves are often distinct in old growth, consisting of a collection of species brought together by the unique combination of scarce habitats rarely ever juxtaposed in younger forests. Reasons for this distinctiveness are varied. First, microhabitats such as root-wads, tip-up mounds, exfoliating bark, and certain sizes and types of tree cavities create breeding sites for birds seldom or never found in young forests. Second, the layering and extreme height of old growth create high volumes and surface areas in the vegetation, thereby creating high-rise living accommodations that provide more species and individuals with vertical space needed for feeding and breeding territories. Third, in old growth the so-called "riparian effect" extends greater distances from stream sides than it does in managed forests, thereby offering associated bird species greater habitat in the horizontal dimension. Fourth, several bird species have been detected at unusually low elevations and/or well outside the center ranges if and where old growth is present. Thus, at regional scales, old growth provides additional habitat which otherwise might require a managed substitute. As a consequence of these factors, old growth acts to enhance landscape-level diversity of birds by offering optimal habitat for some of the scarcest species. Certain silvicultural practices may enable private landowners to enhance habitat features from old-growth forests for birds.

11:25- GIS and GPS Technology in Forest Research and Management
Dr. Dave Perault and Dr. Linda Fink
    Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) have opened up opportunities for large-scale and long-term data analysis, modeling, and decision-making in ecological research and natural resource management. This approach combines such technology as aerial photo and satellite imagery interpretation with on-site field assessments. Here, we introduce the basics of GIS and GPS technologies for those unfamiliar with how they operate, and provide examples of how they are being used to study and manage forests. A hands-on demonstration during the lunch break will be offered for everyone interested.

1:30- Can Salamander Populations be Maintained in Managed Forests?
Dr. Carola Haas
    Terrestrial salamanders may be the most numerous vertebrates in eastern deciduous forests and account for a large proportion of vertebrate biomass. Because they consume invertebrate prey smaller than that eaten by most birds and mammals, they are thought to play an important role in moving energy up through the vertebrate food chain. They require cool, moist microhabitats, and are therefore affected negatively by actions that open the forest canopy. We have been studying how salamanders might persist in harvested forests by comparing the effects of 6 alternative mechanisms of forest regeneration.

1:55- Forest Dynamics in the Montpelier Forest.
Dr. Hank Shugart
   Though different in many respects from other forests around the world, piedmont forests are influenced by a general forest process termed 'gap dynamics.' Gap dynamics describes the cyclical process of a canopy opening following a tree-fall, the regeneration of tree species in the sunlit understory, and the competitive process that eventually results in a new canopy dominant tree for that patch of the forest. This process is particularly evident in old-growth temperate deciduous forests. These forests are mosaics of patches, or gaps, at different stages within the cycle. The mosaic structure of these forests is noticeably different from younger forests that are regenerating in a synchronized fashion from abandoned agricultural fields or clear-cuts. In restoring old-growth, forest managers should consider generating a mosaic gap dynamic pattern in their forests. Although it frequently takes centuries for an individual patch to complete one turn of a cycle, gap dynamics provides insight into the biotic mechanisms regulating the interaction of the tree species. Using knowledge of tree biology and competition, it may be possible to accelerate the dynamics of a forest to more quickly attain an old growth stage.

2:25- Old Growth Research in the Montpelier Forest.
Dan L. Druckenbrod.
    This presentation provides an overview of the current ecological research by the University of Virginia in the National Natural Landmark Forest (NNLF) at James Madison’s Montpelier estate. Although the complete history of the NNLF is not yet known, expert analysis has concluded that the stand does contain partially disturbed old-growth forest. As one of the few old-growth forest tracts within the Virginia Piedmont, the NNLF provides valuable insight into the long-term vegetation dynamics of this region. Additionally, the existence of the Madison family weather journal may also enable the reconstruction of a long-term climate record for the NNLF. The goals of this research are to characterize the current vegetation, to reconstruct the stand history, and to investigate the old-growth character of the site. Within the NNLF, three 1.0 ha and one 0.25 ha square survey plots were established in the summer of 1999. Spatial location, diameter at breast height, species type, and status were recorded for all trees greater than 1.37m in height, resulting in a sample size of 6,590 trees. Descriptive analysis of the forest shows that the NNLF possesses characteristics similar to other archetypal piedmont old-growth forests in terms of tree density, basal area, species composition, and approximate age. However, the dominance of tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) and the presence of discrete size classes for some species challenge traditional conceptions of old-growth forests. Research in progress is analyzing the tree spatial pattern and the canopy light environment. Dendrochronological (tree ring increment) research planned for this fall will estimate the forest age and disturbance history, and will also compare extended chronologies to the climate record in the Madison weather journal.

2:50- Inventory and Classification on Forest Vegetation in Virginia: A Prerequisite to Conservation.
Philip P. Coulling
    The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Division of Natural Heritage (VDCR-DNH) is charged with the mission of identifying, protecting and restoring the natural heritage resources of the Commonwealth. Among these, biotic resources include both individual species and multi-species communities, and conservation of the latter is often emphasized as a "coarse-filter" approach to the protection of rare species too cryptic or numerous to receive individual management strategies. Whereas standardized taxonomic and nomenclatural systems exist for the classification and naming of plant and animal species; no analogous system pertains universally to the recognition of ecological communities. Using vegetation as a surrogate for the expression of community attributes, VDCR-DNH is developing a comprehensive, hierarchical classification of the vegetation of Virginia in order to determine the geographic range and conservation status of each unique vegetation type. Two tenets of this effort are that (1) classification is based on full floristic composition of vegetation, and (2) vegetation types are identified through rigorous analysis of data using multivariate techniques. VDCR-DNH maintains a database of vegetation plot data that currently comprises approximately 2000 samples, 1100 of which represent forest and woodland vegetation. The development of the state classification is an iterative process, by which the delineation of vegetation types is successively refined as geographic and compositional gaps are identified and new inventories provide additional data. This paper illustrates the field and analytical methods VDCR-DNH ecologists employ and provide an example of the coarse and fine levels of resolution at which ecological communities are ultimately recognized.

3:45- Observations of a Late Succesional Forest Fungal Community- Implications for Forest Managers (and Mushroom Enthusiasts!).
Rick D. Van de Poll
    The 105 hectare Horatio Colony Preserve in West Keene, NH has been the site of a regional conservation effort since the late 1800’s. Although typical in its post-settlement history of clear-cutting and agriculture, the loss of farm labor during the Civil War and subsequent protection by a wealthy textile mill owner has produced a 130+ -year-old forest. Since 1985, a natural resource inventory and monitoring project has been underway. Mycological diversity is represented by more than 700 species of non-lichenized fungi. Microhabitat diversity correlated with the old age structure contributes to the rich mycoflora. Permanent plot analysis of floristics, soil pH, and structural diversity are correlated with the productivity and abundance of ascomycete and basidiomycete fungi.

4:10- The Appalachian Forest, A Search for Roots and Renewal.
Chris Bolgiano
    The most biologically rich temperate woodland in the world is right here at our doorstep. Through readings from my book, The Appalachian Forest, I will define The Great Forest as it was, and look at possibilities for its restoration.

4:35- Ancient Woodland in Britain.
Mike Townsend
    Britain is a densely populated country with a predominantly urban population. Woodland cover is lower than almost any other landscape in Europe. The history of woodland and the landscape generally is strongly influenced by cultural factors as well as natural forces. The talk discusses the significance of ancient woodland in this cultural landscape, the importance of its protection and the threats facing it. A selection of sites from across Britain will be used to illustrate the issues raised. The work of the Woodland Trust, a UK non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of ancient and native woodland, as well as to increasing people’s enjoyment and understanding of woodland, is also discussed.

8:35AM- The Harvard Forest Story.
John O’Keefe
    Since its establishment in 1907, faculty and students at Harvard Forest have studied the history and development of northeastern forests and applied this knowledge to forest management. One of the major lessons that has emerged is that to understand our forests today we need to be knowledgeable about their particular history. This historical perspective shows us that our forests have always been characterized by change and carry a strong cultural legacy of past human activity. Richard Fisher, Harvard Forest’s founder and first director, developed a management approach that he and his students came to call "ecological forestry," based on an understanding of the ecology of the region, the biology of forest trees, and society’s demand for natural resources. Following Fisher’s death in 1934, research at Harvard Forest progressively shifted toward plant biology and ecology and away from forest management. In 1988, Harvard Forest was selected as a National Science Foundation Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) site. Current research at Harvard Forest examines the long-term impacts of natural disturbances such as hurricanes/windstorms, impacts of insects and diseases on forest processes, and forest response to atmospheric pollution and climate change. Despite Harvard Forest’s shift toward ecological research, however, it continues to emphasize the management and conservation applications of this research, especially as they relate to the private landowner.

9:00- Tree Spacing and Soil Structure- Keys to Creating the Ancient Forest.
Karl D. Smith
    Gardeners have long understood and utilized the idea of proper plant spacing to optimize the growth of individual plants. This concept needs to be applied by foresters if we are to create ancient forests. While restoring an even-aged stand of white oaks in northern Ohio, for example, we discovered that the trees had acquired 74% of their diameter in only 42% of their lifetime. We consequently reduced stocking rate from 140% to 70%. Proper soil structure is also required to optimize the growth of trees. Simple field tests can be useful. Quantitative Behavioral Standards are useful to enable us to clearly state how we are changing a forest and to measure our progress.

9:25- How Can Low-grading and Thinning be Used to Produce a More Viable and Healthy Forest?
Karl Davies
    The core purpose of forestry is improving the quality and rate of growth of trees. In practice, however, foresters find problems in trying to apply good silvicultural principles. Loggers don't want to cut low-grade and small diameter trees and mills don't want to saw logs from them. Landowners don't want to pay for timber stand improvement work or for marking and tallying low-grade trees. In fact, there are markets for low-grade and small diameter material, and a variety of techniques that silviculturists can apply to insure that small trees do get cut, and to lessen damage to residual trees. Computer simulation programs such as INFORM, that can project and graph future value, can help to educate landowners of the value of thinning and improvement harvests. With good silviculture, trees can earn double the rate of annual value production over high-grading operations, and 50% over doing nothing. A last trick is for foresters to create an incentive for ourselves to use good silvicultural practices: instead of getting paid a percentage of the gross, we can elect to get a flat rate based on the volume or number of trees tallied.

10:20- The American Chestnut Foundation: A Plan for the Restoration of the American Chestnut.
James H. Craddock
    The major focus of chestnut research in North America today is the restoration of Castanea dentata to its former position as a component of the Appalachian hardwood forest ecosystem. The return of the American chestnut requires a multidisciplinary effort. The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) is actively engaged in all aspects of this major restoration project through its own breeding program and state chapter affiliate programs and by research grants to investigators and cooperators throughout the United States. The goal of the TACF is to breed genetically diverse blight resistant nuts for initial distribution in 2006. We plan to reintroduce the trees into the forest in an ecologically acceptable manner. TACF hopes to begin large-scale reforestation, using truly blight-resistant American-type trees, before the end of this decade. Recent advances in plant pathology and molecular biology, especially new recombinant DNA technologies, allow us to confidently predict a successful outcome for our endeavor. As breeding tools, molecular markers will greatly facilitate selection of resistant progeny. The Foundation’s strategic plan calls for the development of funds and other assets from a variety of sources. We maintain an archive of folklore, historical, artistic and scientific material on American chestnut at our Asheville office that is open to scholars and researchers. We strive to educate the general public and hope to contribute to scientific knowledge by conducting research, fostering science-based learning and sharing among disciplines.

10:45- The Long-term Resource Management Issues in the Shenandoah National Park.
Thomas E. Blount and Wendy B. Cass
    Shenandoah National Park, at 196,000 acres (80,700 ha), represents one of the largest forest areas in the east protected by the National Park Service. Prior to park establishment in 1935, all of the land was privately owned. Much of the land had been manipulated through farming, grazing, burning, tanbark removal and timber harvesting. Only a few small pockets of old growth remain in less accessible areas of the Park. Although the Park has allowed the forests to grow and develop with minimal intervention, ecological succession has been significantly altered by numerous new changes in the environment. Introduced exotic insects and diseases, aggressive non-native plant species, acid deposition, high ozone levels, and fire suppression have changed forest development. Stands of large old trees have been impacted heavily by these new threats. Many stands contain large areas of overstory mortality rather than small forest gaps. As we wrestle with our mission to preserve and protect park resources in perpetuity, we have found ourselves unable to abate many threats. Out of necessity, our focus has shifted toward preservation of forest integrity or biological diversity. Limitations in staff and money demand focused management efforts to protect the highest value plant communities such as unique natural areas or rich biological communities, and eradication of the most invasive non-native species. The Park’s ability to affect forest composition across the larger landscape is primarily driven by fire suppression policies which recently have allowed the use of prescribed fire for managing fuels and forest composition.

11:10- Legal Instruments in Creating a 500-Year Forest
David Ledbetter
    This presentation will describe and discuss basic legal tools with which landowners can assure the long-term protection of woodlands, including: conservation easements, donations, testamentary gifts, bargain sales and exchanges, and contractual agreements. Variations within these options will be explored, with an emphasis on flexible partnering between the landowner and the partnering organizations. Key tax benefits and requirements related to conservation easements, donations, and gifts will be presented, with an emphasis on how to avoid unexpected pitfalls. This presentation will review the Virginia Open-Space Land Act, the Virginia Conservation Easement Act and the Virginia Land Conservation Incentives Act of 1999.

11:35- Design Your Own Watershed: Top-down Meets Bottom-up in the Applegate Valley.
Dean Apostol
    The 72,000 acre Little Applegate Watershed, located in Oregon’s Siskiyou Mountains, includes federal and private lands. The diverse landscape of farms, oak savannahs, old-growth forests and subalpine parklands has gained wide recognition for grass-roots efforts that support progressive land management. Our planning process built a long range vision for the Little Applegate, using a focused public involvement strategy that integrated local knowledge with landscape ecology, conservation biology, environmental restoration, and landscape architecture.

1:30- The Clinch Valley Forest Bank.
Danny White
   The Clinch Valley of southwest Virginia is home to 50 rare aquatic species, more than any other river system in the United States. The Nature Conservancy’s goal here is to protect the Clinch and Powell Rivers, in part by encouraging ecologically compatible development that sustains local communities, economies, and the environment. To achieve this goal, The Nature Conservancy has created the Clinch Valley Forest Bank. The mission of the forest bank is to work in partnership with private landowners to protect the ecological health and natural diversity of working forests, while ensuring their long-term economic productivity. The Forest Bank will accept "deposits" from landowners of timber rights to their lands- the right to grow, manage, and harvest trees. Just as with a conservation easement, the landowner will retain ownership of the land itself, which is protected in perpetuity. In return, the Forest Bank will pay the landowner a guaranteed annual dividend based on the value of his or her initial deposit. To fund these dividend payments, the Forest Bank will harvest and sell timber from these lands on a sustainable basis. The bank will create an individual management plan for each property to determine the appropriate method of harvest at an ecologically sustainable level.

1:55 Native American Earth Spirituality
Jani Leverett
    Native Americans are often portrayed as guardians of the Earth, caring custodians of the land. What historical aspects of Native culture support this view? How does Native mythology lend credence to Native Earth-based spirituality? Were some of the Indian Nations more closely associated with guardianship than others? In particular, were there distinctions between eastern forest-based cultures, the western plains cultures, and the southwestern desert cultures? How has the fragmentation of Native culture and reservation life affected traditional connections between Indians and the land? How do modern urban Indians relate to the traditions of their ancestors? Are there any noteworthy efforts underway on Indian lands that seek to reconnect Natives to the land? What does the future hold with respect to Native Earth-based awareness? This presentation will explore the answers to these and other questions appropriate to the growing awareness of European Americans toward indigenous Americans.

2:20- The Spirit of the Forest.
L. Running Medicine Wolfe Pagans
    Growing up in southwest Virginia, Running Medicine Wolfe was surrounded by vast areas of natural beauty: ranges of amber and green tree-lined mountains that glistened in the autumn rain, framed by the neatly plowed ground ripe for the planting. Traditional Native American spirituality does not differentiate between the spiritual and the secular. This is evident the most in Native Americans’ relationship with the multi-microcosms in the vast ecosystem: a system of birth, life, death and rebirth. The creator made every living being and exists in all of them. Running Medicine Wolfe’s presentation will focus on the spiritual connectedness of ourselves and the forests in which we live.

2:45- Saving a Rare and Historic Mountain Habitat- The Story of Mount Everett.
Eleanor Tillinghast
    Mount Everett and its forests have a unique prominence in the tri-state regional landscape of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York. Threats to the mountain’s summit arise from a booming resort economy, development sprawl, and technology. The tiny town of Mount Washington (pop. 135) has mobilized support and changed state government policy. The experience of protecting Mount Everett offers broader lessons on the need and responsibility to safeguard forests and open space.

3:40- Designing the Ancient Forests: What They Should Look Like and Why?
David P. Robertson
    Ancient Forests have the potential to be many different things. What will they be? Who will decide? According to what criteria will the decisions be made? In this talk, I will ask: What is ecologically possible? What is socially acceptable? What is politically feasible? What is economically practical? In proposing answers to these questions, I will reference a variety of potential Ancient Forests. In conclusion, I suggest that Ancient Forests are not only dynamic and sublime landscapes, they are also symbols of a more democratic and sustainable future.

4:05- Paths in the Forest.
Walter Smith
    The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) constructs and maintains almost one thousand miles of trails, 32 shelters, and 30 primitive cabins and restored farmhouses for the use of hikers in the mid-Atlantic area. I will draw on the Trail Club’s experience to discuss trail building, tent platforms and primitive cabins as means to increase enjoyment of the woods.

4:30- Big Trees of Our Eastern Forests: Past, Present, and Future.
Robert Leverett and Will Blozan
    Over the years, few natural features of the eastern landscape have consistently captured our imagination, as have big trees. Whether celebrated in poetry, art, music, or photography, big trees are imprinted in the circuitry of our brains and codified in human language. This presentation explores the world of big trees in the eastern United States and considers what the future may hold for these largest of living forms - a future that looks increasingly dismal. We will examine several eastern trees that have historically reached significant dimensions: the American chestnut, American sycamore, tulip poplar, white ash, eastern white pine, loblolly pine, eastern hemlock, and bald cypress. We will describe several big tree programs and reporting mechanisms for individually outstanding trees and stands of trees. Finally, we will discuss the role of the Eastern Native Tree Society in its mission to fill gaps in our knowledge about the East’s largest trees. This will be a two-part presentation: an outdoor demonstration of the latest technology for accurate tree measurement and a slide presentation of present day champion trees.

4:55- Beyond Ourselves- 500-Year Forests.
Stan F. Warner
    We do not know as much about forests as we think we do, because too often we choose not to look beyond our own special interests. Five-Hundred Year Forests offer an opportunity to serve the interest of the forest itself by extended and cooperative work over the lifetime of the forest, a lifetime much greater than our human generations. There will be unlimited opportunities for forest observation, research, documentation and other cooperative work conducted by new partnerships. We have a chance to be thoughtful and humble but helpful to the forests we love. Here, a splendid opportunity presents itself for connectivity between the natural and human resources. We will learn from these forests - places where the past, the present and the future are interconnected by natural process.

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Managing to Create the Ancient Forest, a conference at Sweet Briar College 18-20 May 2000
Program abstracts URL: //nature.sbc.edu/forestconference/forestabstracts.html
Sponsored by:
The 500-Year Forest Foundation
Sweet Briar College
Lynchburg College
Randolph-Macon Woman's College

http://nature.sbc.edu is maintained by Associate Professor Linda S. Fink   (804) 381-6436       email: naturalist@sbc.edu
Last updated: 4 July 2000
Natural History at Sweet Briar College
Department of Biology