Historical land-use/land-cover changes in a bottomland hardwood forest, bayou fountain, Louisiana

Historical surveys have proven important for assessing changes in forest composition and for providing insights into the influences of human activities on forest ecosystems. We used GIS to compare past land-use/land-cover information from General Land Office (GLO) surveys taken in 1849/1851 with current forest composition to illustrate the extensive changes that have occurred in bottomland hardwood forest composition over the past 150 years in East Baton Rouge Parish (EBRP), Louisiana. Agricultural lands, hardwood wetlands, and urban lands increased in area at the expense of rangelands and swamplands. A comparison of forest composition between A.D. 1849/1851 and today illustrates that the bottomlands were once a cypress-tupelo gum association but are now an elm-ash-sugarberry association. These changes are related to expanding urban conditions and encroaching human activities (e.g., levee construction) that substantially changed surface hydrological properties, especially the potential for flooding. Bottomland hardwood forests provide important services to low-lying urban areas mainly through storage of flood waters. Without conservation efforts, bottomland hardwood forests will experience continued human-mediated changes.