(1856 woodcuts of old cedar stands)
HISTORY
Mill Creek is located in the Hackensack Meadowlands in New Jersey (see Figure 1)
The area was covered in thick ice sheet during the last glaciation period which ended 8 to 10,000 years ago.
Heusser (1949, 1963)
using pollen analysis and macrofossils determined from peat deposits the
probable vegetation succession in the Secaucus area (see Figure
2). He found black ash (Fraxinus nigra) to be among the first tree
species although he speculates fir (Abies)forests could have preceded but
peat forming conditions weren’t present. Black spruce (Picea mariana)
and Tamarack (Larix laricina) followed and persisted about 2000 years ago
to the late 19th century. White-cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides)
presence can only be detected by macrofossils since its pollen is apertulate.
Heusser (1949a) found white-cedar remnants only at or near the surface at
Secaucus and he suggests cedar became numerous in the 1400s. White-cedar may
have occupied as much as one-third of the Hackensack Meadowlands before rising
sea-level, fire, and severe cutting dwindled its numbers.
C.C.
Vermeule mapped the Meadowlands in the late 1800s. His map shows the Mill Creek
area (see Figure 3) as being covered with white-cedar
and cedar 'bottoms' (areas where cedar was dying primarily due to rising sea level).
Due to a combination of events that include the natural rising of sea level,
oxidation and loss of peat, ditching (for mosquitoes/drainage/etc.), overcutting,
muskrats, etc. the last of the cedar in the Meadowlands died in the mid 20th
century. Several attempts have been made to restore cedar but browsing by muskrats
and salt water intrusion doomed all attempts.......
During 1998 at a site near Mill Creek in Secaucus, New
Jersey, a stump field was uncovered while excavating for an HMDC (Hackensack
Meadowlands Development Commission) wetlands mitigation. Starting in September
of 1999 to the present we have measured, mapped, and taken a number of
cross sections of the stumps exposed. The mitigation was completed in the
year 2000 and the stump field is now submerged most of the time.