Family Environmental History
March 28, 2025 By: Alyx Mcintosh
I grew up in a small Scottish town called Fergus. in a middle class household. As the small town I once new started to grow, open fields became grocery stores and new developments, and I became more aware of urban sprawl and the disappearance of nature. Moving forward, in my teenage years, Nestle bought land next to my hometown to extract large quantities of groundwater to be bottled and sold. The organization was very present in the community, they put up signs and fliers all over town. This is my first exposure to environmental activism, and opened my eyes to climate change and environmental health.
I believe my parents shaped my love for nature by providing lots of recreation for us. In our backyard we had a playground, a sand box, and a small hill we sled down in the winter. Likewise, I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors. As a kid I was an avid tree climber and loved riding my bike around the neighbourhood. During our summer breaks growing up, we (myself and my siblings) were only allowed to have any electronics on Saturdays. Every other day of the week we had to find something else to occupy ourselves. This meant we spent a lot of time outside, running around the neighbourhood or jumping on our trampoline. Once I was old enough to be out unsupervised, my friends and I would walk around town all day long, often stopping by local parts and green-spaces.
My parents moved to Fergus just before I was born. They wanted to live in a more central community, and have access to more amenities. Fergus is situated just 20 minutes away from two metropolitan areas, Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo. My father grew up just norther of my hometown, in a town even smaller than the one I did. Ultimately he does not have any passion for the environment, but he does turn his nose at new developments taking over natural lands.
My mother was born in New Brunswick, and spent the majority of her childhood there. She grew up enjoying New Brunswick’s natural landscapes, and has fond memories spending time with her brothers and sisters in the bay of Fundy, and picking wild strawberries in the local area. She has loved plants and gardening for as long as I can remember. She has a vast knowledge of horticulture and a knack for cultivating beautiful gardens. She loves roses, which I’m told is characteristic of a New Brunswick garden. Her interest in horticulture was influenced by her own parents, who still have a garden to this day. My grandparents have different strengths when it comes to gardening. My grandfather deals mores with fruit and vegetables, growing lots of tomatoes, snow peas, potatoes and lettuces. On the other hand, my grandmother grows more ornamental plants and flowers, including petunias, black eyed Susans, and lilac.
My paternal grandparents had similar upbringings. They grew up in the countryside, both in small rural communities. The landscape where they grew up was a blend of man made and natural. While they didn’t live in a concrete jungle, the lands they lived on did not reflect their natural state. My grandmother grew up on a horse farm, her father raced horses. I’m not privy to the practices they used however horse pastures may impact both water health and soil health. My grandfather grew up on an agricultural farm, and in the same sense, agricultural practices can impact soil and water health. As well, my grandfather used to plant trees for agriculturalists. They used a tractor attachment that would split the ground. He appreciates the hard work that goes into environmental preservation and remediation. Altogether, wood was a valuable resource for my grandparents. Wood heated their homes and constructed their buildings. They built their barn out of wood, as well as their fences. It also served as source of income, my grandpa would chop up trees nearing the end of their life and sell it as firewood. In fact, I remember when they tore the barn down. After decades of use, they dismembered it, split the wood, bagged it, then sold it at the end of their driveway.
As far as natural resources go, for the past three generations my family has resided mostly within Southern Ontario. Consequently, the Waterloo Kitchener region was one of the first cities in Ontario to obtain hydroelectric power from Niagara Falls (APPro, 2010). Otherwise, energy generation followed Ontario’s history. Until the mid 1980s hydroelectric power and coal based power dominated electricity generations. By the mid 1980s, nuclear power was prevalent, generating approximately a third of electricity, along with coal and hydroelectricity. Moving into the 2000s, natural gas energy generation took a small percentage of energy generation as well. By 2015 nuclear energy was the primary energy source, followed hydroelectricity, natural gas, and renewable (Fremeth, 2018).