Project Description: This project supports the documentation, evaluation, and treatment planning for the cultural landscape of Fredericksburg National Cemetery. The SUNY project team will work in close partnership with the NPS Olmsted Center and park staff throughout this project. The scope of the project includes research, writing, and graphics corresponding to the Site History, Existing Conditions, and Analysis & Evaluation components of CLR Part I, and Treatment that comprises CLR Part II. This research will help the park protect the landscape’s character-defining features from alteration or loss and provide park management with the information needed to make decisions about changes in the future.
Lead Principal Investigator: John Auwaerter, SUNY, College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Co-Principal Investigator: Prof. George Curry, SUNY, College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Partner Institution: SUNY, College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Federal Agency: National Park Service
Federal Agency Technical Contact: Robert Page
Federal Involvement: NPS Olmsted Center Director Bob Page assisted ESF with project scoping and project management, communications with park staff, reviewed draft products, and attended site visits and a treatment workshop with park staff. FRSP park staff provided research leads, answered research questions, and participated in the treatment workshop to refine landscape management recommendations.
In addition, Susan Dolan, NPS Park Cultural Landscape Program Director, and other members of the Maintenance Action Team provided ESF with with data about existing conditions as part of the National Cemetery Investment Initiative.
Project Type: Research
Project Discipline: Cultural Resources
Project Sub-Discipline(s): Cultural and Historic, Engineering, Design, & Sustainability
Start Year: 2016
End Year: 2019
Initial Funding Amount: $72,500.00
Federal Grant Number: P16AC01223
Amendments
- Amendment Number: 01, Year: 2019, Amount: $0.00
Location: Fredericksburg
National Parks or Protected Areas:
- Fredericksburg National Cemetery
- Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park
State(s): Virginia
Virginia Counties: Spotsylvania
Student and Other Involvement:
- Masters Students: 1
Summary of Student Involvement: Graduate research assistant Arleen Bartels (Master of Landscape Architecture) assisted with development of landscape treatment recommendations, mapping, and inventory. She attended two site visits to the cemetery, and used her work on the project as part of an independent study at ESF focusing on landscape management pratices.
Summary of Other Involvement: PI John Auwaerter researched and wrote the site history, and existing conditions, and worked with graduate assistant Arlene Bartels in finalizing the landscape feature inventory and landscape treatment recommendations.
Note that work on this project was delayed from the period of performance to due a backlog of work on two other ESF task agreements at FRSP involving landscape research, history, inventory, and management for Chancellorsville Battlefield and Wilderness Battlefield, which together encompassed thousands of acres.
Products Associated with this Project:
- Will add when final report is published by NPS Olmsted Center. Draft analysis & evaluation map uploaded. (Technical Report (Not Published))
Photographs from this Project:
Field discussion of landscape treatment recommendations at Fredericksburg National Cemetery
Photo credit: John Auwaerter, SUNY ESF
Image Date: January 11, 2023