Exercise #1: Local Environmental History
Instructions
For Exercise #1, you will bring environmental concepts home by looking at your neighbourhood’s environmental history.
- Using the submission form, post a photo of your area (Google Street View if you do not want to show your home) on this interactive map and explain the ecological history of this space, as per this example.
- Write a 700 to 1100 word of the ecological history of this physical environment, including where applicable: pre-contact use and settlement; wildlife past and present; early settlement and resource extraction; invasive species; urban development; stewardship actions (urban stormwater retention systems; community gardens; composting facilities).
- You must show where you found your information, either through footnote citations or with links embedded in the text, or a combination of both.
- The writing can be informal, as per the Exercise 1 Sample (you may even use first person, which definitely will not fly with your historiography and major essay projects!) but correct spelling and grammar are expected.
- In most cases, given the readily available information online, this exercise need not take more than 6–8 hours to complete. It is meant to help you think historically about your environment—to read it through an ecological lens. If you live in a rural area or small town, you may think that there is less to say than what you read in the sample based on a Vancouver neighbourhood, but this is not the case. The environmental history will be very different, and you might focus far more on, say, the settlement period of the late nineteenth century, or the implications of the introduction of cattle or irrigation and less on events of the 1960s and 70s.
- Please note, you should write and edit your submission in a separate file then copy and paste it into the submission box. Once submitted to the HIST 3991 trubox site, you will not be able to edit your post.
Are you a student of HIST 3991? Click here to add a submission to this assignment.
Submissions
Latest Posts
Christmas Hill/Swan Lake
January 19, 2025 By: Colleen Plunkett
OFLM Name: Norman Fennema Course Name and Number: Environmental History HIST_3991 Name: Colleen Plunkett Saturday, January 18, 2025 Local Environmental History I live on the traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən speaking peoples known today as the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations, as well as the homelands of the W̱SÁNEĆ people. The colonized name for this area is Victoria and Saanich. Specifically, I live just outside of Victoria, in the Christmas Hill/Swan Lake area on Woodhall Drive in Saanich. The area consists of two physically and ecologically distinct parts: Swan lake is a wetland and the rocky oak forested tree hilltop…
Local Environmental History
January 16, 2025 By: Emmanuel Emmanuel.
Name: Emmanuel Oluebube Emmanuel Student: T00681580 Title: Local Environmental History The city of Vancouver, British Columbia, offers a rich environmental history shaped by its coastal geography and diverse ecosystems. Before European settlement, the land was inhabited by the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations, who sustainably managed the region’s resources through fishing, hunting, and foraging. Their traditional ecological knowledge allowed for practices like clam gardening and selective harvesting, which maintained ecological balance (Turner, 2005). European settlers arrived in the 19th century, leading to rapid urban development and resource extraction. Logging was the primary industry, drastically altering the dense coastal rainforests…
District of Kent
January 12, 2025 By: Jennifer R. Paulsen
Mark Butorac HIST 3991: Environmental History Jennifer R. Paulsen January 12, 2025 Local Environmental History The environment that I currently call home has undergone a significant amount of development (or destruction depending on the lens through which you view the situation) in the 300 or so years since first contact was made with Indigenous peoples by European settlers. The most visible changes have occurred within the last 150 years.1 The environment and its original inhabitants have certainly been subjected to a lot more changes than they had experienced during the approximately 10,000-year period before the area was converted from its natural state…
Grand Forks
January 11, 2025 By: Rosie Gartner
The ecological history of Grand Forks, British Columbia, is a complex tapestry woven from the threads of geological evolution, Indigenous stewardship, early settlement, and contemporary environmental challenges. This narrative begins with the geological formation of the region characterized by its location within the Monashee Mountain Range and the Omineca Belt (https://boundarybc.com/destinations/grand-forks/). The area’s geological history includes significant metamorphism and deformation, leading to the development of metamorphic core complexes and various mineral deposits that have historically attracted settlers and industries. The rich mineral resources and fertile farmland were pivotal in the establishment of Grand Forks in the late 19th century, officially…
kamloops
December 30, 2024 By: Alicia Mujuru
Aberdeen, a neighborhood in Kamloops, British Columbia, has a remarkable story of ecological alteration that reflects larger patterns of human settlement, resource exploitation, and environmental management. Pre-Contact Use and Settlement. Prior to European contact, the Secwepemc (Shuswap) people’s traditional territory included the area now known as Aberdeen. The Secwepemc had a semi-nomadic existence, surviving on the region’s plentiful fauna, including elk, deer, and salmon, as well as plant resources such as berries and roots. The name “Kamloops” comes from the Secwepemc term “Tk’emlúps,” which means “where the rivers meet,” emphasizing the importance of the junction of the North and South…