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
Mackenzie, B.C.
April 7, 2024 By: Danielle Fernstrom
Ecological History of Mackenzie, B.C. The vast mountain ranges, plentiful rivers and abundant natural resources that surround my hometown of Mackenzie have shaped the ways humans have interacted with and altered the environment in the region. The mountain range that Mackenzie is nestled into is over 50 million years old, making the 55 years Mackenzie has existed look like a blink of an eye. However in this small amount of time human behaviour has had large impacts on the ecological state of the region. The Rocky Mountain Trench, in which Mackenzie sits, is a unique and bizarre geological formation that…
The Ecological History of Ward 8 West/Central Mountain Area in Hamilton, ON
March 22, 2024 By: Navraj Randhawa
I reside in the Allison neighborhood on Piano Drive, situated on the West/Central Mountain in Hamilton, Ontario. My neighborhood is nestled within Ward 8, an area intimately connected to the Niagara Escarpment. Ward 8 is characterized by a hydro corridor to the south and the imposing presence of the Niagara Escarpment to the north, bisected by the Lincoln M. Alexander Parkway, an intercity highway. This ward serves as a hub for numerous foundational institutions in the city of Hamilton, including Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology, Chedoke Hospital, St. Joseph’s Mental Health and Wellness Resource Centre, and the Chedoke…
Niagara Falls
February 19, 2024 By: Miranda Chapman
Noraman Fennema HIST3991: Environmental History Miranda Chapman 19 February 2024 Over 450 million years ago, the Niagara Region of southern Ontario was part of a warm, shallow ocean that eventually dried up and created the Niagara Escarpment through erosion (Giants Rib Escarpment Education Network, n.d.). There are many waterfalls that tumble over the Escarpment, the most notable of which is the Niagara Falls (Gayler, 1994). A diverse landscape of lakes, waterways, plains, and escarpments, the region was formed before the extinction of the dinosaurs, with the recession of the last great glaciation carving out the Great Lakes around 10,000…
The Ecological History of Crofton, B.C.: A Journey Through Physical Environmental Transformation
February 10, 2024 By: Britnie Hearsey
Norman Fennema HIST 3991: Environmental History Britnie Hearsey February 9th 2024 The Ecological History of Crofton, B.C.: A Journey Through Physical Environmental Transformation I acknowledge that for thousands of years the Quw’utsun, Malahat, Ts’uubaa-asatx, Halalt, Penelakut, Stz’uminus, & Lyackson Peoples have walked gently on the unceded territories where I now work, live, and learn. I honor and strive to learn from the original inhabitants of this great land. I reside on the eastern shores of Vancouver Island, Crofton, British Columbia. Here, much like the rest of British Columbia’s west coast, lies a rich ecological history that reflects…
The Ecological History of Crofton, B.C.: A Journey Through Physical Environmental Transformation
February 10, 2024 By: Britnie Hearsey
I reside on the eastern shores of Vancouver Island, Crofton, British Columbia. Here, much like the rest of British Columbia’s west coast, lies a rich ecological history that reflects the dynamic interplay between nature and human activities. Crofton can be traced back through its roots in ecological history from pre-contact Indigenous use and settlement to current contemporary urban development and stewardship initiatives. Through the lens of wildlife, early settlement, resource extraction, invasive species, and community stewardship efforts, you can begin to understand the tapestry of Crofton’s physical environmental narrative. Crofon had been occupied long before European contact, the region now…