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ITAr . r ivx r 0 j tS Y� THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL Department of Anthropology College of Arts & Sciences ( 919 ) 9624243 301 Alumni Bldg. , CB# 3115 Fax No: 96M613 February 08 , 1999 Chapel Hill , NC 27599 -3115 Landfill Owners Group c/o Rod Visser Assistant County Manager Post Office Box 8181 Hillsborough, NC 27278 Dear Landfill Owners Group : Please allow me to introduce myself and to call your attention to a matter that concerns the Greene Tract . I am a professor in the Anthropology Department at UNC with specialties in archaeology, history, and ecology. I have, since the early 1980s, served Orange County as a citizen volunteer; I was appointed to the Environmental Affairs Board and the Rural Character Study Committee, and at present I am a member of the Shaping Orange County ' s Future Committee . I am also a resident of the Homestead Road/Merin Road area; I live on Billabong Lane, in Chapel Hill Township . i Since building near there in 1977 , I have walked frequently in the wooded area of the Greene Tract . My archaeologist ' s eye * has identified several structures of historic note in the area, not the least of which are what appear to be three "ice extraction" ponds, many log structures (both cabins and outbuildings) , the Greene homestead and several other dwellings . Many of the structures are on the , Greene tract , with the ponds and several other structures surrounding it . They are elements of a landscape that together could permit interpretation of a period and a group of people under represented in Orange County history . Although I have not done the research, I believe that these were the homes, fields, and workplaces . of black farm j families who provided many services to Chapel Hill . Another interesting aspect of the Greene Tract is its flora. Around the Greene home (now in ruins) are oaks as large as those outside my office on McCorkle Place on UNC ' s campus- -this is to say several feet in diameter and over 100 feet tall . Although I am no botanist, I also suspect that some plants on the Tract are worthy of note . I would like to suggest that, in siting the materials recovery unit, that you take these landscape features, both cultural - and environmental, into consideration. This could be done through the County' s Historic Preservation Commission and the Commission for the Environment . This is what would be necessary : The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a constituent institution of The University of North Carolina