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Posted on Sat, Jan. 19, 2008
http://www.macon.com/198/story/242355.html
Ancient earth lodge on Brown's Mount likely harmed by
logging
The top of Brown's Mount, thigh-deep in wood chips
and strewn with treetops, doesn't look much like an archaeological
site. It doesn't even look much like a park.
It looks like a logging site, because it is.
Late last summer, state officials hired loggers to remove
beetle-infested pines from Brown's Mount, whose unusual rocky summit
overlooks Bond Swamp outside Macon. But state archaeologists say it
appears that loggers placed their loading deck on an ancient earth
lodge that dates from the same period as the earthen mounds at the
Ocmulgee National Monument. The remains of the lodge, dating to around
980 A.D., may have been harmed, state archaeologist David Crass said.
"It's a mess up there," said Stephen Hammack, secretary of the Ocmulgee
Archaeological Society. "Correct procedures were not followed, and a
very important archaeological site could have been damaged, possibly
irreparably."
Although the logging happened in late July or early August, no one
realized its impact until local environmentalist John Wilson led the
Ocmulgee Archaeological Society there on a hike earlier this month. He
was trying to point out the remains of an ancient wall when he saw
trees toppled into the trail.
Horrified, Wilson called the timber cut "pure idiocy" for destroying
the shade trees at a recreation area and for its apparent damage to the
remains of the lodge.
Despite being owned by the state, Brown's Mount has not been open to
the public since the Museum of Arts and Sciences stopped conducting
tours there about a year and a half ago. Wilson and others say greater
public access could have prevented what happened.
WHO KNEW WHAT?
No one with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages Brown's
Mount, knows the exact location of the archaeological sites, said
Carolyn Johnson, deputy project leader for the Piedmont and Bond Swamp
national wildlife refuges. Bond Swamp and Brown's Mount are managed
from Piedmont in Jones and Jasper counties. She said the service had
consulted the state Department of Natural Resources' Historic
Preservation Division, which didn't know either.
But Crass said the division did know the locations, and maps of them
are part of a study from the 1990s that is available online. However,
his division was not consulted by DNR forestry officials who arranged
the timber cut, Crass said.
"It was a known archaeological site," he said. "If our internal
consultation had worked properly, we'd have flagged it."
Some of the area was excavated in the 1930s by the same group that
excavated the mounds at what is now the Ocmulgee National Monument.
Additional excavations came in 1959 and the 1990s, according to Crass
and historical documents.
Sylvia Flowers, retired master ranger at the monument and one of the
founders of the Brown's Mount Association, said the entire top of the
mountain may be peppered with the remains of early human settlements.
Flowers and Hammack expressed concern that the logging operation may
have unearthed artifacts that will attract looters, especially since
the area is closed to the public.
Johnson said it will be opened to the public during daylight hours in
about a month.
The mountain is part of the Traditional Cultural Property of the Creek
Indians, whose ancestors are believed to be the Mississippian culture
that built the mounds. (There is also a small mound atop Brown's Mount.)
Federal law requires that certain activities affecting cultural remains
within the Traditional Cultural Property require consultation with the
tribes, although Johnson said no communication was required with the
Creeks before logging.
Ron Cleghorn, a member of the Muscogee Creek Tribal Council, expressed
concern about possible damage at Brown's Mount. "We're not going away,"
he said of the tribe based in Okmulgee, Okla. "Since that is our
ancestral homeland, we will monitor the situation."
THE TIMBER CUT
When a Southern pine beetle infestation was spotted, DNR
forestry officials conferred with the wildlife service about the
26-acre cut and asked whether any areas should be avoided, Johnson
said. She said service officials mentioned only the remains of a house
there.
Normally a timber harvest on a state-owned wildlife management area
would have to fit the area's 50-year plan and would be evaluated by
wildlife officials as well as the state archaeologist, said Mark
Whitney, DNR game management chief. But "salvage operations" of trees
harmed by storms or insects must move faster and don't have the same
requirements.
"This brought to light that we need to change that," Whitney said. "If
anybody feels badly about that, we feel badly about that. But hopefully
it won't occur again."
The pine beetle threat was more dire than usual last summer because of
the drought, Johnson said. Plus, dead pines would have been a fire
hazard. In 2005, trespassers on Brown's Mount started an accidental
fire with a cigarette. It was difficult to put out because it's
impossible to get bulldozers on the mountain to create firebreaks, she
said.
On a trip to the top last week, wide corridors created by log skidders
were visible. Some hardwood trees had been left, and standing trees
seem to have suffered little damage.
Some of the most popular areas of Brown's Mount remain untouched by the
timber cut, including the limestone cliffs where white lilies grow in
the spring, a popular picnic spot since the Victorian age. The mossy
cliffs drop dozens of feet down to open, rolling forest. From some
lookout points, Bond Swamp stretches blue and flat to the horizon.
Johnson said the loggers did a good job. "The staging pad was on an
existing road intersection," she said.
But Crass sent a staff archaeologist to check the site last week after
he was notified about the cut by Hammack and Whitney, and it appears
that the staging pad was over the earth lodge. The lodge was mostly
invisible above ground, except for excavation trenches around it. It
had a fire pit and an extended entranceway like the one at Ocmulgee
National Monument, Flowers said.
Crass is consulting with the wildlife service's regional archaeologist
and others within DNR on how to further assess the damage before more
steps are taken.
Hammack said the Ocmulgee Archaeological Society could provide a
surface assessment by setting up a grid and combing the area for
artifacts. Society members who hiked there a few weeks ago found
pottery and chips from spear points.
State and federal officials agree that the area eventually needs to be
cleaned up. The remaining tree tops and cut trees rejected by the
loggers could be chipped or burned, depending on what would cause the
least damage to the archaeological remains.
To contact writer S. Heather Duncan, call 744-4225.
THE COMPLICATED OWNERSHIP OF BROWN'S MOUNT
The Peyton Anderson Foundation and several other private
trusts bought Brown's Mount from a private owner in 1993 and gave it to
the Museum of Arts and Sciences, which managed it and conducted monthly
tours there during the warm months but did not open it to the public
daily. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources bought it and turned
over management to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Carolyn Johnson,
deputy project leader for Piedmont and Bond Swamp national wildlife
refuges, said, ‘‘The (Fish and Wildlife) service manages everything at
Brown's Mount but the ‘commodity resources,’ ’’ which in this case
means trees. The state DNR is the only agency that can cut the timber
there, and it is the agency that arranged for logging at Brown's Mount
in response to a pine beetle infestation.
http://www.macon.com/198/story/242355.html
Brown's Mount website:
http://www.hollidaydental.com/bibbcomm/bmount.htm
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Posted on Sat, Jan. 19, 2008
http://www.macon.com/198/story/242356.html
Supporters say 'absentee management' taking a toll on
Brown's Mount
Some Brown's Mount supporters question whether
state and federal wildlife agencies are motivated to be good stewards
of Brown's Mount, an area near Macon long renowned for its natural
beauty and prehistoric significance.
Their concerns were heightened after a recent logging operation,
arranged by the state, which appears to have damaged an archaeological
site there. Officials making decisions about the recreation area, which
is now closed to the public, didn't know where the archaeological sites
were located.
"The agencies in charge should have learned the value of what they are
in charge of protecting," environmental activist John Wilson wrote in
an e-mail to Brown's Mount supporters. "If they do not know where the
individual sites are by now, then they have no interest in presenting
the cultural significance of the mount."
"It troubles me that DNR is not in tune with the significance of that
mountain," said Brian Adams, a Macon attorney and member of the Brown's
Mount Association. "I would prefer that the city and local entities get
more involved and utilize that asset to this community."
About 165 acres of Brown's Mount were purchased in 1993 from retired
farmer Myrtle Simmons using foundation grants. The Brown's Mount
Association, now largely defunct, had campaigned for its preservation
and built trails around the summit.
Some association members say no agency seems to want responsibility for
Brown's Mount, located off Ocmulgee East Boulevard. For a while, the
Museum of Arts and Sciences owned it. The Georgia Department of Natural
Resources bought it using tax-free bonds, intending to pass it along to
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but state financing rules forbade
that because it would make the bonds taxable.
The service agreed to manage it without owning it, but the agency can't
spend much money on it with no long-term lease, said Carolyn Johnson,
deputy project leader for Piedmont and Bond Swamp national wildlife
refuges. Brown's Mount is managed as part of adjacent Bond Swamp. All
the staff to handle both are located at the Piedmont refuge in Jones
and Monroe counties.
"Brown's Mount should not suffer from the absentee management of the
Piedmont (refuge) some forty miles away," Wilson wrote.
He contends that Brown's Mount should instead be part of the nearby
Ocmulgee National Monument, since both were the locations of
Mississippian settlements that left behind spear points, pottery shards
and other artifacts.
Jim David, superintendent of the monument, said this possibility hasn't
been discussed recently. He said federal regulations make it much
easier for the DNR or the Fish and Wildlife Service to expand their
boundaries than for the monument to do so.
David noted that there has always been speculation that ancient
settlements at Brown's Mount and the monument's Great Temple Mound
communicated with each other visually over long distances using
reflective minerals such as mica.
"I hope the cultural resources are not being destroyed on Brown's
Mount," David said.
Stephen Hammack, a professional archaeologist and secretary of the
Ocmulgee Archaeological Society, shares this concern. "We've got way
too much of this going on in Middle Georgia," he said, citing looting
at archaeological sites and the relocating of historic cemeteries.
"I'm starting to really feel that maybe we need a regional preservation
plan for sites and cemeteries in Middle Georgia," he said.
The Ocmulgee Archaeological Society has offered to document sites. The
group first noticed the impact of the Brown's Mount logging when
visiting the mountain because of its interest in finding an ancient
5-foot-thick wall that once encircled the summit.
Hammack, Wilson and Sylvia Flowers, a retired master ranger, said
greater public access to Brown's Mount might actually prevent both
damage and looting there. Wilson said the last public access available,
several years ago through the Museum of Arts and Sciences, included
only once-a-month guided hikes.
Johnson said Brown's Mount probably will be opened to the public within
a month or so. The service had originally planned to open it last
spring, but Piedmont workers got behind on repairs and then the pine
beetles hit.
Johnson said it's not unusual for the Fish and Wildlife Service to
manage property from a distance, especially as staff cuts target the
nation's network of wildlife refuges. The Piedmont refuge now manages
three areas, including Brown's Mount and Bond Swamp.
Piedmont has recently lost three staff positions through attrition and
must lay off two more staff workers, including the only employee whose
job title specifically mentioned duties outside Piedmont (at Bond
Swamp), Johnson said.
To contact writer S. Heather Duncan, call 744-4225.
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