December 26 The Clue in the View from Rock Knob

On our last day in Duluth, we walked the trails at Hartley Park hoping to see interesting winter birds. With only chickadees chattering here and there, I turned my attention to the park's vegetation. This view from Rock Knob gives a sense of human induced plant communities. Before it became a park, this piece of forest was Allandale Farm, purchased by G.G. Hartley in 1896. By 1918, much of the forest had been cleared for pasture, and remained a grazing area until the fields were abandoned in 1931. Hartley became a city park in 1941, and several red pine plantations, like the green bands seen in the photo, were planted in the 1960s. Where pines were not planted, sun-loving species like white birch (foreground, red tops) and quaking aspen (upper right), grew quickly on the abandoned fields. These dense stands of single tree species are a clue to the human history of this exceptional city park.