Ellen Ross – Connecting Past to Present

December 10, 2022 By: Ellen Ross T00611006 History of the Environment

 Connecting Past and Present

 

Conservation

 

This year, scientists from the United States and international countries are upset with Canada as we have not lowered our lumber harvesting as promised. Canada is overharvesting primary timber at an accelerated rate, which is causing more damage to our climate. This article discusses the fact that Prime Minister Trudeau has not kept his word on commitments he made to decrease timber harvesting. This article discusses how for years, Canada has evaded accountability for its industrial logging practices, hiding behind claims of sustainable forestry and flawed representations of logging’s true climate impact.[1] With our climate future tethered to the fate of primary forests, the scientists warn, Canada’s liquidation of its vital landscapes have global and permanent ramifications. Trudeau in this article has demonstrated his lack of respect for conservation knowing we are in a serious state of climate change world wide.[2]

Steinberg tells us in the past that Roosevelt appointed two men G. Pinchot and J. Muir to take on different roles in conservation.  Pinchot took a capitalist approach saying forests could be cut down and as long as there as re-planting of the areas. Muir felt there should be no disturbing of natural resources[3]

In States of Nature: Conserving Canada’s Wildlife in the Twentieth Century, Tina Loo makes a valuable contribution to the subject of conservation.  She commented that “almost from the beginnings in the early twentieth century, conservation had the effect of marginalizing local customary uses of the land in rural Canada”. Canadian colonization led to resistance where rural people had their own idea as to how they could sell wood. Government interference brought about resistance to new ways and the reinvention of local woodcraft, knowledge, and conservation techniques.  Because conservation itself drew from changing ideas of natural history, ecological theory, and emerging environmentalism, differences between rural authorities and government conservationists were often negotiated, however policy on land use was unregulated for long periods of time [4].

This tied in with what Gillis and Roach’s article that discussed what seemed to happen was that there was so much of an uproar between forestry management both federally and provincially that smaller family run logging businesses were left in the dark on any management processes[5].

Steinberg thought that conservation meant different things to different people.  He mentioned the fact that Indians and poor whites depended on the land for food and livelihoods. He also said there was a sociological order that produced material gain at the expense of wildlife and people. [6]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

 

 

Gillis, R. Peter, and Thomas R. Roach. “The American influence on conservation in Canada: 1899–1911.” Journal of Forest History 30, no. 4 (1986): 160-174.

 

Loo, Tina (2006) States of Nature: Conserving Canada’s Wildlife in the Twentieth

Century. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, Pp. 280. Retrieved from https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/521496

 

Nature Canada, Scientists Around the World are Raising the Alarm on Canada’s Primary Forests 03/23/2022. Press Release.https://naturecanada.ca/news/press-releases/scientists-raising-the-alarm-on-canadas-primary-forests/

 

Steinberg, T. “Chapter 3 Conservation Reconsidered” In Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.pg123

 

 

 

 

Parks

 

In 2021, the Canadian Ministers of Environment, Climate Change and  Parks put an exciting new program in motion that will support the creation of National Urban Parks all across the country.[7] Canada has finally recognized the value of being able to access to green space for all Canadians, including city-dwellers. Too often, in urban areas, racialized and marginalized people have less access to urban parks and tree cover than in richer neighbourhoods. Almost 72 percent of Canada’s population lives in urban areas. As urban sprawl claims crucial habitat for wildlife and devastates biodiversity, it also diminishes our opportunities to connect with an learn about local nature. According to Health Canada, Canadians spend about 90 percent of their lives indoors.  When people are connected to nature it improves their mental and physical health.[8]

 A historic perspective and protection of parks in the US was led by two men Roosevelt and Muir. Roosevelt protected 230 million acres of public land, doubled the number of national parks, established of the modern Forest Service[9].

1. B. Harkin in Canada, established standards for forest preservation by taking positive steps to preserving and managing parks. He became the commissioner of national parks, and helped establish the world’s first park service. Harkin played a critical and primary role in the formation, organization and vision of national parks in Canada.[10]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

 

Government of Canada, Air Quality, 2022. https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/campaigns/canadian-environment-week/clean-air-day/indoor-quality.html

 

 

National Urban Parks (2021). Why We Need National Urban Parks (2021). https://naturecanada.ca/news/blog/why-we-need-national-urban-parks/

 

Ted, Hart, Quiet Crusader- J. Harkin. May 16, 2015. https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/historic-sites/quiet-crusader.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Nature Canada, Scientists Around the World are Raising the Alarm on Canada’s Primary Forests 03/23/2022. Press Release.https://naturecanada.ca/news/press-releases/scientists-raising-the-alarm-on-canadas-primary-forests/.

 

[2] Nature Canada Scientists 2022.

 

[3] Steinberg, T. “Chapter 3 Conservation Reconsidered” In Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018 pgs.121-123 Steinberg,

 

[4] Loo, Tina (2006) States of Nature: Conserving Canada’s Wildlife in the Twentieth

Century. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, Pp. 280. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/521496

 

[5] Gillis, R. Peter, and Thomas R. Roach. “The American influence on conservation in Canada: 1899–1911.” Journal of Forest History 30, no. 4 (1986): 160-174

 

[6] Steinberg, T. “Chapter 3 Conservation Reconsidered”, 2018.pg123

[7] Why We Need National Urban Parks (2021). https://naturecanada.ca/news/blog/why-we-need-national-urban-parks/

 

[8] Health Quality, Indoor Air Quality 2022. https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/campaigns/canadian-environment-week/clean-air-day/indoor-quality.html

 

[9]   Tony Tekaroniake Evans,  May 11, 2022.  Teddy Roosevelt Championed Conservation Efforts—That Also Displaced Native Americans. https://www.history.com/news/theodore-roosevelt-conservation-national-parks-native-americans

 

[10] Ted, Hart, Quiet Crusader- J. Harkin. May 16, 2015. https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/historic-sites/quiet-crusader.