Gettysburg is evil because they cut down some trees...

[indguard]

This liberal idiot is whining about the new Gettysburg rehabilitation project because we cut down some trees. Will these global warming religionists never go away?

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.ht...df830e8442&p=1

Gettysburg Regress
How the government is ruining America's most famous battlefield.

Last winter, I was walking with my wife along Seminary Ridge on the Gettysburg battlefield when an odd detail drew into sight: piles of felled trees, stacked alongside a road. The cuts smelled as fresh as the trees looked strong. What happened to them, we wondered? I grew up in Gettysburg, and my mother still lives in the shadow of Lutheran Theological Seminary, low in the lap of the ridge it names. Seminary Ridge is one of a string of ridges surrounding the town; General Robert E. Lee stood there on July 2 and 3, 1863. The woods atop the ridge had made it a sublime place to stroll for as long as I could remember--until that winter walk, which ended with a logging truck lumbering by.

Asking around, I learned that parts of the battlefield were in "rehabilitation." In the hope of providing visitors with an authentic historical experience, the National Park Service (NPS) was seeking to restore some of Gettysburg's landscapes to their condition when the Union and Confederate armies clashed on them. And so the trees that once crowned Devil's Den--from whose crevices Confederate sharpshooters picked off Union soldiers-- were missing, also. Hundreds of acres of woodland, actually, were gone or going. (In July 1863, the battlefield contained 898 acres of woodland; since that time, the number has grown to roughly 2,000.) The "rehabilitation," many and varied in its activities, has also rebuilt fences, replanted orchards, and demolished large buildings, including a car dealership. The goal, as NPS regional director Don Barger told The Christian Science Monitor in April, is to make visitors "almost feel the bullets. ... That is what you want to have happen in a battlefield."

The project likely delights the reenactors who troop to Gettysburg every year in pursuit of authenticity, as well as those tourists who expect less to encounter history during their battlefield trip than to experience it. Academic historians also appear to approve. University of Virginia professor Gary Gallagher, who advised a recent project at the battlefield, cheers in the current issue of Civil War Times that "there has never been a better time to visit Gettysburg." Those who might object to the removal of the trees, he says, are "people who don't understand the difference between a historic park and Yosemite." Rehabilitation has something for everyone: It flatters the left's suspicion of cultural authority, its invitation to ordinary Americans to participate in their history, even as it honors conservatism's fetish for an unchanged, historically correct past. Indeed, Gettysburg, the jewel of America's battlefields, is one of several currently targeted for rehabilitation, including Vicksburg and Antietam...

It is a long piece and this fool doesn't get to his point for a LONG time in the thing. But, go over to The New Republic and take a gander at this idiocy.

WTH
The RushedLimburger mess

[sbl]

It's OK, some other "liberal idiots" commented without insulting the author of the article.

Posted by Rea Andrew Redd

"Did the trees really have to go?" "The trees on Seminary Ridge were a standing reminder of the pity and terror of tragedy." The trees on Seminary Ridge were not a standing reminder of the pity and terror of tragedy. If the trees that survived the battle were still there . . . . If the trees had been petrified with their limbs showing shell bursts. . . . If the trees had blood on their leaves. . . . If the trees were partially dead from being riddled by bullets . . . Then a visitor to the park might be reminded of the terror of battle and the lack of pity in warfare. Like the Alamo, Gettysburg battle is both a shrine and a classroom. Preservation and restoration is change that resists time. Letting trees grow over 700+ acres and thinking that by standing in the forest a visitor would be reminded of a new birth of freedom and the pitilessness of war is a romantic view of both war and education.

| Posted by William White

Part of the mandate in the creation of the park was to preserve the site as it had been at the time of the battle, over the years that was not given the attention that it was due, so now the NPS is doing what it should have done for decades.

| Posted by Christ Liebegott

I think Mr.Summers is confusing the various types of public parks. The purpose of a military park is to memorialize what went on there. It is not to preserve the environment, nor to provide a romantic stroll in the trees for hand-holding couples, nor to provide wildlife preserve or scenic wonders. The purpose of the Gettysburg National Military Park is to tell the story of the carnage and devastation that occurred during those three days in July, 1863. Nothing that has been cut down, razed or otherwise changed during the rehabilitation process was there 145 years ago. It's what was there and what happened there all those years ago, is what the GNMP is all about.

[Remise]

I made a contribution, too, as did a number of others:

Posted by B.C. Milligan
17 of 17 | warn tnr | respond
As I believe the head Ranger said, when he began restoring the battlefield to its 1863 condition (or attempting to do so), "This is a National Military Park -- not a forest preserve." The purpose of the Gettysburg National Military Park is to commemorate the thousands of men who fought and died there. If the author wants to wander through an arboreal wonderland, I suggest he visit Muir Woods instead. It's too bad the author of this article just doesn't get it.

B.C.Milligan
Company K, First Penna. Reserves

[sbl]

Well...if he reads the comments maybe he will.

[GrumpyDave]

And, you are evil because you may have the opportunity to burn up some of them at a Living History inside the park, aiding Global Warming. Could someone tell them, trees have a habit of growing back?

[Brian DesRochers]

Too bad the price of timber isn't what is was. Imagine the revenue that could be generated from removing "modern" woodlands from other battlefields.

Part of that could be donated to research/development of cars that run on mulch.

I am all for the rehabilitation efforts of the NPS. Returning these Battlefields to their war-time condition, or close, will only add to a visitors experience IMO. While I haven't been to Gettysburg in quite some time, I have recently been to Vicksburg, and these efforts do make a difference.

[Remise]

Too bad the price of timber isn't what is was. Imagine the revenue that could be generated from removing "modern" woodlands from other battlefields.

Part of that could be donated to research/development of cars that run on mulch.

I am all for the rehabilitation efforts of the NPS. Returning these Battlefields to their war-time condition, or close, will only add to a visitors experience IMO. While I haven't been to Gettysburg in quite some time, I have recently been to Vicksburg, and these efforts do make a difference.

Admittedly not everywhere --- Culp's Hill is still surrounded by forest, for the most part -- but a lot of the trees that used to cover the areas of the second and third day's fighting are gone now, and it does help to better understand things such as 1) Why Sickles moved forward and 2) why maybe that wasn't such a good idea after all.

I was just there this past Saturday with a reenacting friend who has been in Hawaii for the past five years, and he was impressed with how much the battlefield has changed (for the better, at least in his opinion and mine). And while I am digressing, I have to say that although they give you hardly any time to appreciate it, the new Cyclorama looks pretty impressive.

B.C. Milligan
Company K, First Penna. Reserves

[1stMD5RgmtANV]

I was up soon after they cleared out Devil's Den, and I was more impressed with what happened there than when it was all forest. However, in that same trip, I had to laugh at a tourist that pointed out quite sarcastically the powerlines and bathroom.....

[Brian DesRochers]

Are there plans to bury/otherwise relocate powerlines or any of the other modern intrusions at any of the NPS Battlefields?

Brian DesRochers

[48alabama]

I'm wondering when they're going to get rid of the very large tree that was uprooted a couple months ago that is lying in front of the 5th and 20th Connecticut infantry monuments between Culp's Hill and Spangler Spring.They did a great job clearing hundreds of other trees and this one still remains with tree cutting equipment no more than 1/4 of a mile away next to the Baltimore Pike.
Other than that,the park has done a wonderful job so far.

Mark Hull
Adams County, Penna. native