Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve Reading the Cultural Landscape

LOOKING AT LANDSCAPES

Evolution of Landforms

Major landforms of the reserve, including the ridges, uplands, prairies and shorelines, formed as the Vashon Glacier began receding 13,000 years ago. The glacier scraped, carved and deposited the islands of Puget Sound as it retreated northward over Washington State.

On Whidbey, the largest island, huge slabs of ice broke away from the main lobes of the glacier and formed giant lake beds. Slowly, as the climate warmed, the water receded and glacial deposits mixed with organic matter to form rich loamy soils in these former lake beds. Today the former lake beds are the prairies of Central Whidbey Island.

In other places, deposits and glacial till collected and formed upland areas and ridges, rarely exceeding 300 feet above sea level. Vegetation on the island established quickly around low-lying marshes and bogs. Highly adaptive and prolific pine tree communities were the first to establish. Slowly, over thousands of years, changing climate and ecological succession replaced pine with fir, spruce, alder, ash and maple. This forest cover remained the primary plant community on central Whidbey until human occupation, some 10,000 years ago, began the equally-slow alteration of the natural environment.

Soils

Soil is a living and constantly changing material formed over many years and influenced by such things as topography, parent material and climate. Each individual soil has distinctive inherent properties that define its potential hazards, its limitations for development, and its qualities as a useful resource. The focus here is on soil as a natural resource specifically related to agricultural land use on the reserve.

On the reserve there is a strong correlation between historic land use and current agricultural capability of soils located on the reserve. Two large areas of extremely fertile soils are located in Ebey's and Crockett prairies, which are the most productive agricultural lands, on the entire island. It is important to note that in all of Island County, only a small portion of the total land mass is comprised of such rich soil and in the entire county, nearly half of that soil is found on the reserve. In addition to this prime resource, the majority of remaining area on the reserve is dominated by a variety of soils which, as a group, are suitable for agriculture with proper management.

Vegetation

As a resource, vegetation on the reserve can best be understood by identifying primary communities as they influenced land use over time. The location and composition of these plant communities can also reflect various impacts and influences as a result of human settlement. Four primary plant communities on the reserve include: beach vegetation, salt marsh vegetation, forest vegetation, and cultural vegetation.

Forest Vegetation

Looking east over the dense forest which covers the narrow neck of Whidbey Island. The forest extends from the west shore to Penn Cove, pictured here.

There are no old-growth or original forests on the reserve but there are areas where no cutting or burning has occurred since 1900 and where mature Douglas fir, grand fir and western hemlock can be found. The primary forest cover naturally occurs along the ridges and upland areas of the reserve. Forest cover ranges from very dense and inaccessible to relatively small woodlots interspersed with pasture areas or croplands. The original dense forests on the reserve forced early settlers into naturally open areas, primarily because clearing such large trees involved not only great physical effort, but required valuable time away from crop production in already cleared lands, an activity essential to survival.

Dominant forest vegetation includes Douglas fir, western red cedar, red alder, western hemlock, and occasional madrona and bigleaf maple. Primary understory, or smaller plants, includes elderberry, rhododendron, snowberry, willow, oceanspray, Oregon grape, salal and fern.

Salt Marsh and Beach Vegetation

Fragile beach bluff and Perego's Lake, looking south from Fort Ebey State Park.

Significant salt marsh areas are located at Crockett Lake, Peregos Lake and Grasser's Lagoon. These natural lowland areas provide food and habitat for a variety of bird species and small mammals. Salt marsh plant communities also create seams or ecotones between different habitats which enhance the diversity of both plants and animals.

Historically, all three marsh areas restricted development. They were, nevertheless, subject to a variety of cultural impacts including grazing, cultivation, and recreation activities, which partially altered the native plant communities.

Primary plant species associated with salt marshes on the reserve include pickleweed, saltgrass and saltbrush.

Beach and associated bluff vegetation occurs primarily along the eight-mile western shore of the reserve and along Penn Cove. In addition to routine disturbance by winds and tides, human use over many years has impacted native plant areas, leaving a variety of non-native species. This is especially evident in the public access areas around Penn Cove, and along the west shore of the reserve at Ebey's Landing. Some native plants have survived in less accessible areas, such as in areas around Perego's Lake and protected bluff areas. Historically, the unstable nature of the bluffs along the west coast restricted development and left the area covered primarily by native vegetation.

Primary plants in beach communities include: orchard grass, creeping bentgrass, dune wildrye, velvet grass, yarrow and sand verbena. Primary bluff species include: wild rose, snowberry, bracken fern, orchard grass, blue grass, pea vine, yarrow and seaside plantain.

Cultural Vegetation

Cultural vegetation (or plant communities introduced by humans) occurs in areas where human impact is most evident, primarily in the prairies and upland pastures. Cultural practices, including the introduction of non-native crops, field burning, plowing, grazing domestic livestock, and logging, inevitably and permanently altered original vegetative communities. The current plant cover reflects these practices and disturbances not only in the prairies, but in adjacent lands where the spread of weeds and pasture grasses impacted areas of native vegetation.

Another product of cultural practices over time resulted in a large number of hedgerows on the reserve. Developing along former fence lines, hedgerows are valuable ecological resources in the rural landscape. Although they take many years to develop naturally, once established they can favorably influence micro-climate, minimize soil erosion, conserve soil moisture and provide wildlife habitat, which in turn can increase soil fertility and restrict the growth of undesirable weeds. Most of the hedgerows on the reserve are the result of birds perching on fences and either dropping berries or scratching in the nearby soil accidently planting seeds. With care, hedges can be encouraged to grow to usefulness "in the time it takes for a fence to fall in disrepair" (del Moral, 1980).

Primary vegetation in open areas includes various commercial crops in cultivated fields, as well as Canadian thistle, pickly lettuce, goldenrod, nettle, quackgrass, yarrow, brome, bluegrass and perennial ryegrass.

Primary vegetation along hedgerows includes nootka rose, snowberry, bracken fern and Himalayan blackberry.