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The National Park Service has a mandate to protect and manage natural and historic resources of its holdings. One of the objectives of the service has been to recreate or restore the historic natural setting in parks in which an historic event occurred. EcoScience Corporation professionals were asked to assist with planning for such restoration at two protected properties, employing sound ecological techniques, knowledge of indigenous plant community patterns and local plant species, and utilization of the historic record to help define conditions at the time of the event.
Fort Donelson is located in Stewart County, in the Cumberland River Valley of middle Tennessee. On February 16, 1862, Brig. General Simon Buckner surrendered the Confederate garrison at the fort to forces under the command of Brig. General Ulysses S. Grant. The fall of Fort Donelson helped provide an avenue for Union entry into the heart of the South and brought General Grant into the national limelight for the first time.
Moores Creek National Battlefield is located in Pender County, N.C. On February 27, 1776, the patriot army decisively defeated loyalist forces at the bridge that spanned Moores Creek. This engagement effectively terminated a plan to hold North Carolina loyal to Great Britain through the use of force and encouraged revolutionary sentiment in the state.
Both sites exhibit relict man-made features and remnant land forms believed to have been present at the time of the historic event. However, historic plant community patterns were largely unknown. Exotics and landscape species had also been introduced over time, contributing to the confusion of what the site actually looked like historically.
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