Rationale of Conservation

Hanging boulder, Wallingford, CT. Wall was mined from this side, leaving boulder held up by the roots of a tree rooted in the historic wall.

A CURIOUS CASE

The photo above shows what's remaining after a wall was harvested from this side, leaving only the far side of the wall. When the neighor on the far side filed a legal complaint about their neighbor harvesting a common wall, the owner of this side claimed that he didn't take any stone. This is hard to believe, seeing as how the boulder that once marked the top of the shared abutting wall is now floating in mid air, being held by the root of a tree. This is the kind of forensic evidence that is used when stone wall damage or theft is being prosecuted.

MAKING THE ARGUMENT FOR PRESERVATION

Many people are working hard to preserve authentic stone walls all over New England. To help give strength to these efforts, Professor Thorson has written several essays that were reprinted nationally.

Here are five examples. The first is reprinted in full from the New York Times. The last four are .pdf files which will download and can be printed.

STRIP-MINING HISTORY

Reprinted from the New York Times

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” Robert Frost wrote a century ago. The poet speculated that frozen soil, or perhaps elves, were to blame for the upset stones he encountered on his walk. Recently, however, I’ve concluded that the biggest threat to old stone walls is people. This is especially true of people who work for landscaping businesses that function as cultural strip-mining operations, soliciting the sale of stone walls from old farmsteads and then carting away the past. One such company mined a 26-acre farm in Lisbon, Connecticut earlier this year.

For too long, I have witnessed old walls being dug up, read solicitations for their sale and joined in the laments of those who have lost one in their neighborhood. Communities west of the Hudson River once copied New England church steeples when their founders emigrated from these Puritan locales. Now it’s the shattered residue of our ancestral glaciers that is heading west on pallets.

I suspect that at this very moment, somewhere nearby, a piece of New England’s cultural commons is being pilfered or mined for profit. In some cases, the skyrocketing price of stone has tempted citizens to steal it in bulk from remote properties, as if they were covertly denuding a forest. Pettier theft is also a concern, especially the rustling of flat capstones from roadside walls. One woman I know covered her stone wall in old rugs and plastic sheeting to keep it from disappearing into the night.

To mitigate this slow-motion disaster, earlier this year the town of Harwinton, Connecticut passed the so-called “stone wall ordinance.” The law requires a town permit to excavate, dismantle or otherwise sunder a stone wall. And if the wall must be changed, to make way for a driveway, for example, the original position must be clearly marked with granite, an added disincentive.

I often meet with community groups, heritage trusts, town officials and others seeking advice about protecting stone walls. In the past, I suggested that they sort their walls into categories and develop a plan for each type: Abandoned walls should be left as archaeology and woodland habitat; heritage walls should be inventoried and maintained; and recent and rebuilt walls should use original stone in a manner that respects local tradition. Since Harwinton passed its law, however, I have simply advised town leaders to review this trend-setting ordinance and adapt it for local use.

The town of Harwinton should be congratulated for creating a model ordinance on stone walls. Now it’s time for others to follow suit. Indeed, every New England town, the six New England states and the federal government should develop plans for conserving this unique cultural resource. Walls on public land are currently managed by a patchwork of laws and regulations. Those on private parcels are essentially up for grabs. They would be best managed through town regulations, especially when they are reinforced by state laws guarding against thievery, insensitive modification, and the latest form of mining.

New England’s stone walls are vital pieces of our heritage, links in history’s chain. Left in place, they frame our spaces and measure our lives against the centuries. Let New England’s signature landforms be preserved, unmolested, among us.

WALLS IN A TRAFFIC JAM

A strip-mined stone wall heads west, perhaps for California. I can think of seven good reasons(.pdf) why this is a bad idea. Reprinted from the Connecticut Preservation News.

TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS

New England's collection of stone walls, especially old, once-abandoned ones, should be viewed as a cultural commons(.pdf), owned legally by individuals, but owned culturally by us all. Reprinted from The Providence Journal.

THE LANDSCAPE FABRIC

The walls surrounding our patchwork of farms, forests, suburbs, and villags are like the threads that bind the squares of a quilt together. Their destruction is similar to unraveling the threads of a quilt(.pdf). Reprinted from The Hartford Courant.

STONE WALLS AS FOLK ART

Stone walling is the outdoor equivalent of weaving (.pdf). Hence, it is best viewed as a form of statuary folk art. Reprinted from the Newsletter of the Connecticut Forest and Parks Association.