Eastern Region Geography Land Cover Trends Task
Field Trip Report

Ridge and Valley Ecoregion (Southern Half)

An example of an unusual land cover - a racetrack in the Southern Ridge and Valley Ecoregion (Photo by Dan Sechrist)

June 1 - 7, 2002
Dan Sechrist

Participants:
Thomas Loveland, EROS Data Center
Darrell Napton, EROS Data Center/South Dakota State University
Beverly Friesen, Rocky Mountain Mapping Center
Daniel Sechrist, Eastern Region Geography

The field investigation was conducted for seven consecutive days, from June 1 thru June 7, in which the team visited and evaluated 41 blocks in six states:  Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.      

The fieldwork in the Ridge and Valley eco-system began almost as soon as the participants rendezvoused in the Knoxville, TN airport.  Once all of the necessary documents were signed and they took possession of rental car, they proceeded directly to the first sample 10-kilometer square block to begin working.

Within a short time everyone adapted to their roles and began to function as a team.  Thomas Loveland had the roles of leader, driver, photographer and music selector.  Beverly Friesen was the navigator and keeper of the image interpretations.  Daniel Sechrist used the GPS to collect waypoints and maintained field notes.  Darrell Napton also took photographs and kept a running narrative of the types of land cover, indicators of change, drivers of change, social, economic, historical information, and points of significance.  These facts, figures, photographs, and narrative are used "tell the story" of land use trends for each waypoint in every statistical block to be published as field trip and block summaries.

This fieldwork proved to be very rewarding in a variety of ways.  The enthusiasm throughout the duration of the fieldwork became infectious.  It wasn't long before the team was observing, commenting on, and formulating sequences of events that have occurred throughout time to cause the landscape to appear as it does, and how those sequences will affect the landscape in the future.  The free exchange of ideas and technical information in this environment was incredible!

For instance, while looking at farmland, many different clues can be observed to determine its potential for conversion to urban land use.  The type of crops, the level and intensity of use of pastureland, even the quality and condition of fences can be key indicators as to the vigor, profitability, and viability of individual farms which can then be compared with other farms in the area to develop a sense of the overall health of farming in the region.  Row crops in active fields and pastures with well-kept fences are indicators of healthy and profitable agriculture environments.  Hay fields, overgrazed or abandoned pastures, pastures with poorly maintained or broken fencing, the lack of row crops, the presence of high profit crops like sod farms and shrub farms for the landscape business are all indicators of farmland under pressure to change to urban. 

From the imagery, the analyst will be able to delineate the extent of the agriculture land and may be able to assess land use change through observations of temporal data.  However, the analyst will not be able to determine the probability of change, the drivers of change, or the consequences of change from image analysis alone. Fieldwork is an essential part of the land cover trends project.

Another example of change indicators that are not apparent in the imagery presented itself when team members saw a large pasture.  This pasture looked to be active.  There were adequate fences surrounding maintained hillside.  It could have been a hay field that had been recently cut or it could have been a pasture that had not been over grazed.  One of the team members observed many small holes that seem to be randomly dug in the pasture.  Someone suggested that the farmer is adding fencing to his farm to change it into a confined feeding operation to improve the profitability of the farm.  One of the team members with a civil engineering background explained to the group that the holes are for percolation tests and that these tests are used to determine the suitability and placement of septic fields.  This area is changing from agriculture to urban and this property's last crop is going to be houses.

Historical Marker describing famous regional history. (Photo by Dan Sechrist)

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