URI researchers launching local stone wall study

Natural Resources Science faculty hope to examine the environmental legacy of New England’s iconic stone walls

Kristen Curry 

An iconic New England landscape feature is now the subject of focus for URI researchers, launching a study of local stone walls. (URI Photo / Amy Mayer)

This year’s snowy winter makes New England’s iconic stone walls look even more picturesque. The sturdy markers dot our local landscape, a backdrop to yards, property lines, photos and views. But what else do they do?

Photo by Will Collette

Kathleen Carroll and Shelby Rinehart in the University of Rhode Island’s Department of Natural Resources Science are asking that question and have launched a project examining the effects of stone walls on biodiversity and ecosystem processes across New England to better understand their biological importance. They hope to solicit public interest, support and participation for this effort.

“Growing up, stone walls were all around me,” says Rinehart, a new assistant professor of watershed ecology at URI, who grew up in rural Connecticut. Rinehart runs URI’s Watershed Bio(diversity)-Funk(tion) Lab, which studies how plant and animal biodiversity can support local efforts to conserve, manage, and restore important ecosystems, like salt marshes.

New postdoctoral researcher Jamie Bucholz is working with him on this new project, looking to understand the ecosystem of stone walls. Bucholz will use what she learns about stone walls to better understand the genetic biodiversity of the species that call them home. 

New to New England, she is beginning her work by examining stone walls found across the region by utilizing RIGIS environmental data provided by URI’s Jason Parent and Elliot Vosburgh ’18 ’24. The pair created a rich data set, the Rhode Island Stone Wall Mapping Project, showing where all of Rhode Island’s stone walls exist.

Elliot Vosburgh ’18 ’24 mapped Rhode Island’s
stone walls, first for his graduate capstone
project and then eventually across the state.
(Photo / Elliot Vosburgh, RISWMP)

Bucholz says she was surprised by how many stone walls crisscross her new home state. “Rhode Island is dense with them,” she comments, with historical societies estimating there were once 240,000 miles of stone walls across New England.

Stone walls exist across Europe and in other parts of the world, but their historical role took a new form in the landscape here. Today, they are a remnant of both glacial impact and colonial agricultural practices. Over time, the walls also created their own unique ecosystems.

URI’s team hopes to access more walls to get a better understanding of these ecosystems for their study. They hope to connect with others interested in stone walls, from local land trusts to property owners. 

This spring and summer, they’ll conduct community outreach and hope to connect with other regional groups and individuals interested in the stone walls of southern New England.

They are hoping to not only share the stories of these rocks, but to find the stories in the stone walls themselves — and they are looking for public participation.

The public is invited to participate in the project by offering access to stone walls for study or even donating in support of the project’s work. Gifts of any size are welcome, says Carroll, and can help support the purchase of sampling equipment, camera traps, timers and soil samples. They plan to install camera traps at varied locations to see animal activity around stone walls. Some walls will be monitored, to get a better sense of the inhabitants calling them home or using them to travel, such as squirrels, weasels, and other small mammals.

Rinehart says there is a growing concern about preserving stone walls as markers not only of history, but also local environmental features.

They note their project is looking at historic and established stone walls and hope to capture and record their impact before further development removes them or they are disassembled for materials and resale. Researchers hope to hear from land trusts and expand their work statewide to gain a holistic view of these iconic structures and the wildlife they are home to, including in urban areas.

Rinehart says, “We know these walls are all around us. We want to understand why they are so important.”

To learn more about the New England Stone Wall Research project, visit their website or contact kathleen.carroll@uri.edu or shelby_rinehart@uri.edu. Donations are also welcome to help support stone wall research.