>> Why would there be a fence within an unmaintained woodland? > Fences are commonly used to demarcate ownership. > unmaintained <> unowned +1
1) Fences indicate a FORMER or CURRENT ownership (thus plot) boundary, OR current or former landuse boundary within one ownership, eg planted field or pasture from meadow or woods, or between separate crops. 2) A woodland may be maintained without it being obvious to the untrained eye. Certain tax classes of maintained woodlot require(d) "Tree Farm" signage, but not all. Sensitive selective harvesting may enhance the natural beauty of the trees left to mature without leaving scars on the land beyond the access 'roads' (tracks) needed by fire services anyway. 3) Hereabouts, a lot of fences (including loose field-stone walls as well as wire) meander through seemingly otherwise pristine woodland, because they are older than the woodland. In colonial times, there were few acres not under cultivation, as Crown policy or French forces prevented westward expansion. Every tilled field was surrounded by a rock wall composed of every stone heaved up by the frost or turned up by the plow. Rocks have ever been our greatest crop. Later, many a farm in the stony glacial till of New England was abandoned for better land when it became available e.g., the Louisiana Purchase, or for jobs in the once expanding urban manufacturing & services sectors. There is reportedly in Massachusetts *one* stand of actual pre colonial, never-cut forest left. The slope prevented cultivation, and a mapping error saved it from commercial logging clearcut : it was the boundary parcel between two contracts, and each firm though it was reserved for the other so left it stand. Bio-/Eco-logists were thrilled to find this natural experiment. There may be similar outliers in northern New England also, especially in State & National Parks and Forests, but much of the never-cultivated land was logged at least once. -- Bill n1...@arrl.net bill.n1...@gmail.com _______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
