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.
Submissions

I am from Okinawa, the southernmost islands of Japan. Here, a subtropical climate keeps the landscape lush and green year-round,…
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Ypenburg, located on the eastern edge of The Hague, has undergone a dramatic ecological transformation over the past century. Originally…
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I wasn`t born in Vancouver but I’ve been lucky to be able to call this my home for the past…
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Burnaby Lake might seem like just another city park at first glance, but it is actually very rich in history….
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I moved to Sacramento after the 5th grade and my family has primarily lived there ever since. Like all…
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The Ecological History of Point Grey, Vancouver Prior to European contact, Point Grey (now a part of Vancouver, British Columbia)…
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Comox Valley The east coast of central Vancouver Island is where I currently call home. It rests on K’ómoks First…
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Jessica Kampen HIST 3991: Environmental History January 26, 2025 Alámex Becoming Agassiz: An Environmental History I live in Agassiz, on…
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OFLM Name: Norman Fennema Course Name and Number: Environmental History HIST_3991 Name: Colleen Plunkett Saturday, January 18, 2025 Local Environmental…
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Name: Emmanuel Oluebube Emmanuel Student: T00681580 Title: Local Environmental History The city of Vancouver, British Columbia, offers a rich environmental…
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Mark Butorac HIST 3991: Environmental History Jennifer R. Paulsen January 12, 2025 Local Environmental History The environment that I currently…
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The ecological history of Grand Forks, British Columbia, is a complex tapestry woven from the threads of geological evolution, Indigenous…
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Aberdeen, a neighborhood in Kamloops, British Columbia, has a remarkable story of ecological alteration that reflects larger patterns of human…
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Sorry this is the second submission, I forgot to add OFLM name and details OFLM Name: Norman Fennema Course Name…
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I live in Saanich, a municipality in Greater Victoria located on Vancouver Island. This region is rich in ecological and…
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Mark Butorac HIST 3991: Environmental History Borealis (Robert) Douglas 12/4/2024 Nanaimo: The Harbor City …
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The History of Nanaimo Of course starts with the creation of Vancouver island which can be thanked to geological forces…
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I live in k̓ukamaʔnam within Ktunaxa ʔamakʔis, also known by its colonial name of Kimberley, BC. My home is within…
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Riley Greer Hist 3991_SW3 November 19, 2024 Local Environmental History My home town is Fort St John. I…
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I live on the north-east coast of Vancouver Island in an area now known as the Comox Valley, five blocks…
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HIST 3991: Environmental History Exercise #1: Local Environmental History By Jordan Whynot Smithers BC I live in Smithers, British Columbia,…
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Prof. Mark Butorac HIST3991 Enviromental History Jiaqi Shi Aug 19,2024 Downtown Toronto is located on the south side of the…
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Professor Norman Fennema HIST 3991: Environmental History Josie Bates August 10, 2024 I live in the lower mission area of…
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I live in the Metrotown area, on Beresford Street, in the heart of Burnaby, British Columbia. My address belongs to…
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Exercise #1: Local Environmental History First, I would like to acknowledge that I reside, play, and work on the ancestral…
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The Ecological History of Yongsan-gu: From Royal Hunting Grounds to Urban Center I live in Yongsan-gu, a district located in…
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I reside in the Allison neighborhood on Piano Drive, situated on the West/Central Mountain in Hamilton, Ontario. My neighborhood is…
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Noraman Fennema HIST3991: Environmental History Miranda Chapman 19 February 2024 Over 450 million years ago, the Niagara Region of…
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Norman Fennema HIST 3991: Environmental History Britnie Hearsey February 9th 2024 The Ecological History of Crofton, B.C.: A Journey…
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I reside on the eastern shores of Vancouver Island, Crofton, British Columbia. Here, much like the rest of British Columbia’s…
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A Tapestry of Time: The Ecological History of North Burnaby Introduction: Nestled within the heart of British Columbia, North Burnaby…
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T00752735 Hist 3991 Melissa Schayes 01/30/2024 Dr. Norman J Freeman Welcome to Ts’elxwéyeqw (Ch-ihl-kway-uhk) I would like…
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History 3991 – November 09, 2023 Rod MacLeod – T00449542 Mount Baldy Environmental History I live in a 50 year…
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The ecological history of North Burnaby encapsulates a dynamic interplay between nature and human influence. In the pre-contact era, Indigenous…
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Exploring the Ecological History of My Neighborhood in Richmond, Vancouver The place where I live is Richmond, a cosmopolitan and…
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Exploring the Ecological History of My Neighborhood in Richmond, Vancouver The place where I live is Richmond, a cosmopolitan and…
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Exercise 1: Local Environmental History Situated in the tranquil municipality of Oakville, Ontario, the residential area in which I reside…
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Dr. Butorac HIST 3991_SW3 Environmental History Sky Freeman I am currently living in downtown Victoria, on View St. which is…
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According to Wikipedia, the lands now known as Etobicoke bore witness to a number of First Nations communities. It is…
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Prof. N. Fennema HIST 3991: Environmental History V. Pattenden Sept 19, 2023 Kelowna The city of Kelowna is situated upon…
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My hometown is right here in Kamloops, located in the beautiful semi-arid desert of BC’s interior. Kamloops has has a…
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My Location: Mission, BC. Located within the Fraser Valley, a lot of Mission’s history really shows how people and nature…
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Terrace, British Columbia, is a small city located in northwestern British Columbia. Having lived here for 22 years now, I…
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I live in Terrace, British Columbia. I have lived here all my life and the area has changed drastically within…
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Norman Fennema HIST 3991: Environmental History Robin Arens May 29, 2023 Environmental History of Downtown Squamish I live…
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Living in Nimpo Lake, BC I live in the supreme plateau of Nimpo Lake BC in a small First…
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Living in Nimpo Lake, BC I live in the supreme plateau of Nimpo Lake BC in a small First…
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Living in Nimpo Lake, BC I live in the supreme plateau of Nimpo Lake BC in a small First…
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Living in Nimpo Lake, BC I live in the supreme plateau of Nimpo Lake BC in a small First Nations…
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Exercise #1: Local Environmental History The area I will be focusing on for local environmental history is the small town…
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The city I am from is Port Moody, British Columbia, Canada, which has a land area of 26.21 square kilometers, and…
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I live in Khilgaon, Dhaka, Bangladesh, a small area in the capital. However, for this assignment, I will describe the…
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I live in Shijiazhuang, China, a city located in the plains of northern China. The Hutuo River is the most…
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See attachment also …. There is a satellite map and researched statistics of the Powell River area. Key points…
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I live in Richmond, BC, just around Vancouver YVR airport. Richmond was incorporated as a municipality on November 10, 1879,…
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I live in Burnaby Mountain, a low forested mountainous area in Vancouver, Canada. The area accommodates Simon Fraser University, a…
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I currently live in the financial district of downtown Toronto, Ontario. The financial district is home to several bank headquarters,…
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I live in Steveston BC, a historic fishing village on the southern end of the Fraser River. The town is…
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I currently live in a town called Masset, at the very north end of the island of Haida Gwaii. I…
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I live in Kelowna, which is a city located on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley in the southern interior…
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I currently live in the O’Reilly’s bridge neighbourhood of Wainfleet, ON, in the southern Niagara region. One of the best…
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Exercise #1: Local Environmental History I live in the Westsyde neighborhood of Kamloops, BC. It is surrounded by the North…
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The Village of Daajing Giids is located on==on Haida Gwaii. Our community was formally known as the Village of Queen…
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I was born in North Vancouver and moved up to Kamloops British Columbia. When I was a toddler. I have…
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Mathew Semograd Norman Fennema June 1, 2022 History 3991 Local Environmental History Exercise 1: Examining False Creek and Olympic Village…
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Ladner was named after brothers Thomas and William Ladner, who moved to the location to farm and fish, which became…
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HIST 3991 : ASSESSMENT 1 / ASSIGNMENT 1 Exercise 1: Local Environmental History. OLFM : Norman Fennema HIST3991…
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My family and I live in the Mount Seymour/Parkgate neighbourhood of North Vancouver, BC. North Vancouver is on the traditional…
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The Nlaka’pamux territory, otherwise known as the Nicola Valley, is a diverse semi aired pocket desert covered in wild grasses…
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I live near a large city park and have researched the changing patterns of land-use. Located on Vancouver Island, Saanich…
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Cordova Bay is one of the communities of the greater Victoria area on Vancouver Island. This area was covered in…
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I live in Maillardville in Coquitlam which is in Vancouver, British Columbia. I feel that it is important to acknowledge…
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I live in the ancestral land (a reserve) belonging to the First Nations Indigenous People – York Landing, Northern Manitoba….
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I live just up the hill from the heart of Salmon Arm, the largest town in the Shuswap are of…
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Vancouver’s settlement history dates back to the late 1400s. The first people to discover the area were the Spanish, who…
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My present area of residence is Kerrisdale, located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Kerrisdale is primarily a residential area with…
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**This photo is not my house but I chose it because highlights the sort of dense living arrangements that are…
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I live in Kerrisdale in Vancouver, British Columbia. My neighborhood is on the west side of Vancouver and consists mainly…
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I live in Kamloops, Vancouver, Canada. I have known that Vancouver has experienced considerable change since I moved there with…
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The area I live in is White Lake, BC, and is based in the traditional and unceded territory within Secwépemc’ulucw,…
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The last few millennia have seen the landscape in Vancouver, Canada, change quite significantly. From the period when glaciers retreated,…
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Vernon has tones of freshwater as it is connected to two major lakes these being Kal lake and lake Okanagan…
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I live in Southeast False Creek, on Quebec Street, just outside of downtown Vancouver. My neighbourhood is part of the…
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