GETTYSBURG — Acres of trees will begin falling this week at Gettysburg National Military Park as part of an effort to restore the battlefield to how it looked during the Civil War.

The National Park Service will cut about 10 acres of trees by the McMillian House and Devil's Den, near where the Union army placed cannons that today seem to face the woods below.

The hewing is a continuation of the park's $2.3 million plan to cut 576 acres of newer trees and restore as many 1863 views as possible.

The Park Service has cut 165 acres of trees so far but has left in place "witness trees" — those that stood during the battle, said Jim Johnson, chief of resource planning.

A biotechnician marks trees old enough to have stood in 1863 so they are not cut, Johnson said.

The Park Service will treat cut areas for two years to prevent weeds from growing in and trees from repopulating the area, Johnson said. He expects large-scale cutting to last another four years.

Trees that now crowd portions of the battlefield give visitors the mistaken impression that Union and Confederate troops engaged in "jungle fighting," park historian Kathy Harrison said.