Manassas National Battlefield Park - Disturbed Lands

Manassas National Battlefield Park by National Parks Service

In 1940 Manassas National Battlefield Park (MNBP) was created to restore and to preserve the lands commemorating the First and Second Battles of Manassas. As such, restoration of disturbed lands is an integral part of its mission.

In 1996 MNBP was approached by the Smithsonian Institution to explore the potential for a wetland mitigation project within the Park. The Smithsonian Institution was well along in developing plans for its new Air and Space Museum on a wetland tract at Dulles Airport, requiring it to mitigate the wetland loss somewhere off the airport property but within the same watershed. A mitigation project at the battlefield would not only meet the Smithsonian's needs, it would also achieve the park's requirement to preserve historic landscape features and the integrity of the battlefield site.

The project area chosen is located in the southwestern part of the park. It was acquired in 1988 as part of a legislative taking of the Stuart's Hill Tract which encompasses 558 acres bounded by Lee Highway to the north, Groveton Road to the east, Interstate 66 to the south, and Pageland Lane to the west. The area was an important part of the 3-day Second Battle of Manassas, in August 1862.

Prior to the purchase a development company had begun alterations for a mixed-use development (William Center) that drastically altered the landscape. Alterations included establishment of an entrance road, re-contouring of the area, and establishment of a drainage network in preparation for constructing a housing development. In addition to these changes, wetland areas were filled and the hydrology of the area was altered dramatically.

Plans to restore the site had been in the works for several years. In 1992 NPS contracted with the University of Georgia's School of Design to study Stuart's Hill and develop a general plan for restoring the newly acquired and heavily disturbed site to its 1862 conditions. The program lacked funding for implementation however, and languished for nearly a decade.

Fortunately the Smithsonian Institution and MNBP agreed that the disturbed area of the Stuart's Hill Tract would be an appropriate location for this mitigation project and were able to use the existing study to refine the plan.

The wetland mitigation done by the Smithsonian Institution involved excavation and grading to reestablish the landscape's 1862 contours, allowing natural hydrology to recreate wetland areas. They also installed native hydrophytic vegetation where necessary to insure wetland viability. In order to approximate the historic topography, engineers compared 19th century maps of the area with a topographic survey completed by the developer just before alteration in the late 1980s. The two sources were quite similar, giving engineers an excellent indication of the historic landscape and allowing them to discern where meadows, forests and wetlands were historically located.

After years of planning and negotiations, the restoration and mitigation project began in June 2003 and completed in November 2003. The Park collaborated with the Smithsonian Institution to restore 106 acres. The project included creation and restoration of approximately 30 acres of mixed forest and shrub-scrub wetland and 15 acres of emergent wetland, restoration of natural stream corridors and drainages, and planting native meadow grasses, forbs, trees and hydrophytic plants. The resultant forested wetland habitat approximates the area's condition in 1862 during the Second Battle of Manassas. A picnic area and interpretive site help visitors to understand the area's Civil War history and the collaborative effort to restore the area's natural balance.

The Park also enhanced the restored non-wetland areas of the project. We planted native warm season grasses such as bluestem, Indian grass and switchgrass along with meadow forbs such as blackeyed susan, tall coneflower, partridge pea, round head lespedeza and marsh blazing star, creating and preserving a habitat type that is rapidly dwindling in Virginia (it has been estimated that grasslands in Virginia have been reduced by 55% since 1945). In upland areas, a variety of trees such as Northern Red Oak, Willow Oak, Swamp White Oak, Red Maple, Sweet Gum, Green Ash, and Tulip Poplar will be planted this fall, recreating the basic Oak-Hickory forest patches that existed at the time of the Civil War.

Visitors to the site will find that the developer's former entrance road now provides ample parking for busses and horse trailers. A planned bridle path and pedestrian trail will soon add to the experience, while a picnic area allows guests to enjoy the unique natural beauty of this historic site today.