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
Local Environmental history: Kamloops, BC, Canada
May 25, 2022 By: XUECHUN YAN
I live in Kamloops, a city in south-central BC, Canada. Its distinct ecological history makes it stand out from other regions.[1] In particular, my house is in the Brocklehurst neighborhood, situated in the western part of Kamloops, along Thompson River’s banks and the Batchelor Hills. People have occupied Kamloops for the longest time, presumably since 8,250 years ago.[2] Indigenous people were among the earliest individuals to have lived in what is now Kamloops. Notably, the over 30 bands of Secwepemc (or Shuswap people) who had a semi-nomadic lifestyle along BC’s water bodies stayed in the region many years ago. They…
Saanich’s Rudd Park
May 15, 2022 By: Jenn Wong
I live near a large city park and have researched the changing patterns of land-use. Located on Vancouver Island, Saanich is a municipality in Greater Victoria. The area is the traditional territory of the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples represented by the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, and the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples.[1] In SENĆOŦE, a Salish dialect, Saanich means “emerging” which refers to the sight of Mt Newton “rising” as flood waters receded.[2] Indigenous legends refer to an Arbutus (Arbutus menziesii) tree anchoring their communities during the Great Flood.[3] The area likely would have been a site of an indigenous managed Garry Oak (Quercus garryana)…
Cordova Bay, Victoria
May 4, 2022 By: Melissa Harding
Cordova Bay is one of the communities of the greater Victoria area on Vancouver Island. This area was covered in ice during the last glaciation which ended 14, 000 years ago1. Vancouver Island was compressed from the weight of the glaciers, which made the surrounding sea level quite high in comparison to other areas around the world. Isostatic rebound after the glaciers melted resulted in significant sea level drop, and an eventual settling near its current level, roughly 4500 years ago. The Coast Salish people had settled in the British Columbia Coastal islands, including Vancouver Island, in great numbers directly…
Maillardville, Coquitlam BC
April 11, 2022 By: Charlotte Knudsen
I live in Maillardville in Coquitlam which is in Vancouver, British Columbia. I feel that it is important to acknowledge that the original and earliest known residents of this area were the Coast Salish people and the beginnings of European settlement began sometime during the 1860’s [3]. The city of Coquitlam recognizes that the land was originally the territory of the Kwikwetlem First Nations. The name refers to a type of salmon that was once abundant in the rivers and there is evidence to prove that the Kwikwetlem First Nations lived here for four thousand years at a minimum. People…
My Local Environmental History
March 24, 2022 By: Christopher Anyadubalu
I live in the ancestral land (a reserve) belonging to the First Nations Indigenous People – York Landing, Northern Manitoba. The traditional language found here is Cree Language. They are widely known as the Cree Indigenous people and refer themselves as such. My local environment is relatively new, and it replaced a small island of bushes and trees surrounded by a big lake. According to Wikipedia, it is located along the Eastern bank of the Nelson River, roughly halfway between Lake Winnipeg and Hudson Bay. Also, it is estimated to be 116 kilometers away from Thompson, Manitoba.[1] The community was…