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November – December 2009: The nine remaining trees at Poplar Forest dating to the Jefferson-era were tended to by professional arborists from the company Arborcare. Five tulip poplar trees and one black walnut standing in the north yard are thought to pre-date the construction of the main house and were selected by Jefferson, along with other trees that have since died or been removed, to create a naturalistic grove at the front of the house. The arborists, using only ropes to keep from damaging the bark, climbed to the tops of each tree in order to extend the lightening protection cables on the poplars and repair any loose support cables on the walnut’s massive branches.  Three other tulip poplar trees thought to date to the same time period stand approximately 200 yards northeast from the main house in an area referred to as the North Grove. Brand new lightening protection systems were installed on these trees as well. This work is conducted in order to protect these 200+ year-old trees and preserve the last remaining trees from Jefferson’s landscape.

January 2010: The Archaeology Department will be attending the 2010 Society for Historical Archaeology conference in Amelia Island, Florida from January 6-9.  Jack Gary (Director of Archaeology and Landscapes) and Eric Proebsting (Associate Archaeologist) have organized the session Current Research into Historical Landscapes, which will bring together 18 papers and two discussants in a symposium that will review the current direction of landscape studies in the field of historical archaeology. They will present their paper Finding the Middle Ground: Uncovering the Curtilage Landscape at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest in this session.  Lori Lee (Laboratory Supervsior) will present the paper Edward Hutter’s Poplar Forest in Mr. Jefferson’s Neighborhood, in a separate session entitled Community Archaeology and Contemporary Identities: Closing the Gap between Past and Present.

April 2010: Eric Proebsting, Jack Gary, and Lori Lee will present the poster Presenting Historical Archaeology with Digital Technologies at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in St. Louis, MO. The poster will outline Poplar Forest’s innovative ways for interpreting archaeological research through interactive online and onsite computer and GPS based programs.

June 6 – July 9, 2010: 22nd annual Summer Field School in Historical Archaeology