Exercise #2: My Family Environmental History
December 30, 2023 By: Jacob
My family’s environmental history in Perth, Ontario, spans across three generations each having an influence on my relationship with nature. The landscape where I lived was a country side with open fields and my neighbours were nowhere to be seen. This experience has had a significant influence on my love of nature, living off the land, and being outside.
My grandparents’ story is connected to survival with the land. Perth’s countryside was a place where the natural resources of the land were rich and diverse. Firewood was collected from various trees such as maple, birch, poplar, and elm trees and this was used to heat my family’s home, which was especially needed during the cold winter months. This experience of heating the house from wood began as a strategy for survival and transformed overtime into a family tradition that included the entire experience of cutting down the wood, splitting and processing all from our own property. My grandparents largely lived off the land to feed the family, and participated in traditional gender roles that impacted their relationship with the land. For example, my grandparents and parents often discuss their memories of eating potato sandwiches, where my grandfather would plant, tend to, and harvest potatoes (which were easier to preserve for longer than other homegrown foods), and my grandmother would turn those raw potatoes into a meal for the family to eat. Their environment was known for its natural beauty that was relatively untouched, except for the occasional signs of European settlement (including my family’s home).
My parents’ lifetime involved witnessing and participating in the landscape’s transformation. Forests, once untouched, were becoming more scarce and noticeably depleted. Our family tradition of cutting firewood from our property shifted. The concern for our unsustainable forest-use for firewood from the property, and the availability of purchasing wood elsewhere led us to purchase wood off-property, highlighting a significant change. The natural surroundings were now undergoing shifts toward urbanization (i.e. although there continued to be relatively large spaces between homes in the countryside, a settlement/house was built across the road).
Our ethnic and class heritage played a role in shaping our relationship with the environment. Our appreciation for nature was strong but the impacts on the land and the changing demands of modern life established the changes and movement away from the traditional ways of living to accept modernity. However, due to our strong connection to more traditional ways of living, and lack of financial means to adapt to modernity quickly, my family continued on a relatively slow path towards change. Sometimes, I thought this was due to being “off grid” or “poor;” however, I now realize this was due to a combination of my family’s history, beliefs, and values in relation to the land, their enjoyment of traditional family activities like gardening, raising chickens, gathering sap for maple syrup, and the annual fire-wood gathering, as well as financial troubles that disallowed a rapid change to modern ways of living.
For me, growing up in this environment carried experiences distinct, and more modern, from my grandparents and parents. Urbanization continued and our connection to the land persisted, but with a shift in dynamics. The forests that once felt limitless now faced constraints. Our reliance on firewood shifted toward considering its environmental impact, leading us to explore alternative heating sources and participating in an annual tree-planting afternoon in addition to our traditional wood-cutting. Walks on the property to collect maple syrup turned into four wheeler rides for convenience of saving time; however, some shifts like introducing four wheelers to the property brought upon new challenges for the land and sustainability that we were unaware of at the time. More recently, our growing awareness of unsustainable practices continues to impact our decisions and we wrestle with the demands of modern life while preserving our values for the land and traditional ways of living. My family transformed from once seeing this land as abundant and theirs to use (grandparents), to acknowledging the human-impacts (parents), to shifting our ways of living on and with this land (current).
Looking ahead, I hope for an environmental relationship that has a balance between tradition and sustainability. I wish to hold onto some traditional ways of living, including a respect and admiration for nature and its resources, while demonstrating some shifts due to a growing awareness of our environmental impact. I strive for a future where environmental protection is equally valued and becomes part of a lifestyle; where our choices align with sustainability instead of impacting our environment in negative ways. Reflecting on the environmental histories of my grandparents, parents, and my own, I see a continuity of some behaviours and perspectives, as well as growing changes toward sustainability.