"There is Jackson, sitting astride his mount, Little Sorrel, surveying vistas of rolling fields, towering signs, high-voltage power lines and trees.

The iconic statue of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson commemorates the place where he inspired Confederate troops to victory. Federal and Prince William County officials want to preserve views of Manassas National Battlefield Park. There's not much they can do about the signs and power lines. But the trees? They can go.

More than 140 acres of rare oak trees on the Civil War site were getting in the way of historic vistas of the last Union assault at the second battle of Manassas. So the National Park Service cut them down.

Preserving Prince William's physical battlegrounds is no longer enough. Historians want to re-create historic battlefields so visitors can see the land the same way that those who fought in the Civil War would have seen it.

Staff members from the park and the county's planning department are studying how to protect views on the battlefield. The study will attempt to guide future development outside park grounds and potentially limit road construction and the heights of office parks, apartment buildings and billboards.

"It's crucial to the public understanding of what happened. It helps give the public a sense of place," said Ray Brown, the park's cultural resource manager. "That's difficult to do when your surrounding context is changing so rapidly."

But some county officials and historians question whether it's worth sacrificing progress -- and possibly more trees -- to re-create history.

"The 'view shed' concept is extending itself beyond the battlefield. That's worrisome," Manassas City Council member Jonathan Way said. "The Park Service is getting into land-use and development beyond its geographic responsibility."

Prince William officials are in the process of documenting view sheds -- the area an individual can see from a given point -- with the help of a $60,000 grant from the American Battlefield Protection Program.

The 5,100-acre park sits at routes 29 and 234. Its trails and fields are popular among history buffs, nature lovers, wildflower enthusiasts, birders and equestrians. And although that sort of activity is expected in a park setting, another activity, perhaps more closely associated with the battlefield, is strictly out of bounds.

Civil War reenactments are not allowed on federal land. That's left some critics questioning the effort to restore Manassas Battlefield to its original landscape, when it was actively cultivated farmland.

With 58 of the 384 Civil War sites under Park Service jurisdiction, Manassas Battlefield serves as a proving ground for historic sites threatened by development, Joan M. Zenzen says in "Battling for Manassas," a book about the longstanding preservation struggle at the park.

This is the first time Prince William has identified views of military significance at the battlefield, home of the first major land battle of the Civil War. It is undertaking the task after a period of unprecedented growth, which has made the land beyond the battlefield more valuable.

So far, park officials and county planners, along with the county's archaeologist, have identified 15 historically based view sheds, representing the first and second battles of Manassas. The park also has 10 public vantage points, among them Henry Hill, where the visitor's center sits. By the end of the year, the county will prepare a preservation plan and recommend ways to enhance views.

Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart said Prince William has a generational obligation to protect the park.

"The battlefield is the county's most important historical resource," said Stewart (R-At Large). "We have to make sure whatever development happens along the I-66 corridor is not seen in order to protect the integrity of the battlefield."

The Park Service has never tried to "run roughshod" over the county's interest or plans, Stewart said, so the county should allow the study to proceed without "political interference."

Even as new development in the fast-growing county encroaches on the battlefield, the Park Service has sought to preserve and replicate the landscape from the Civil War era.

A costly and bitter fight took place in 1988 over a plan to build a mall next to the battlefield. It resulted in the federal government taking the land. Five years later, the Walt Disney Co. came knocking. It wanted to build a $650 million historical theme park just outside the battlefield. After fierce opposition, Disney retreated and abandoned its plans.

Within the past few years, said Brown, the Park Service official, the park staff started surveying historical landmarks to figure out which ones were "most vulnerable to impacts from obstructive development."

At Portici, a public vantage point that used to be a Confederate headquarters, buildings and power lines rise above the horizon. Standing at the historical site, it is easy to see Interstate 66 in the forefront and a Mattress Warehouse in the distance.

"This is the sort of fate we want to ward out in other parts of the park," Brown said. "The study is not a way of stopping or controlling development but dealing with issues before they arise. We don't have the authority to require anyone to do anything outside our boundary."

One of the options to screen development on the southeast edge of the park is planting trees.

Brown said it's unfortunate that the study and the tree cutting that took place last year have been tied together.

Yet some preservationists continue to link the two and remain concerned that the study will provide justification to chop down an additional 200 acres of previously identified forest land.

"You don't have to rip down trees to provide a decent view of critical events," Way said. "That's excessive."

Last fall, the Park Service clear-cut about 140 acres of trees in an area of the battlefield known as Deep Cut. The heavily forested land is deep in the northwestern part of the park. Park officials determined that the trees needed to come down to maintain a sense of authenticity at the site.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality declared the "basic oak-hickory forest type," which is limited to a six-county area in Northern Virginia and Maryland, globally uncommon to rare. The department recommended alternatives to cutting the forest down as part of its environmental assessment.

The Park Service, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, solicited comment from the public and state agencies when it released its draft general management plan and environmental impact statement. But the federal agency ultimately controls what happens on its grounds.

"What we have is a compromise. It's not a complete restoration. We know we can't take it back to the way it was during the Civil War," Brown said. "It presents a conflict between managing natural and historic resources."

James I. Robertson Jr., a Virginia Tech history professor, said he understands the importance of restoring the landscape as a way to help tell the story of what happened during the two battles.

"The field has got to be preserved -- that's non-debatable," he said. Cutting down trees is the equivalent to "committing one of the 10 deadly sins. That used to be a major no-no."

The Park Service's attempt to hold on to its land is a worthy battle, Robertson said, he's just not sure how practical it is try to maintain views.

"You can't stop progress in that respect. You can't stunt the ground simply to protect views. I think that's unrealistic," he said. "When you are dealing with a developer's dollar, it's generally a no-win situation. County boards are moved by tax dollars more than respect for history."" (Kristen Mack, The Washington Post, Aug. 18, 2008)