Exercise #3: Connecting Past and Present
Instructions
For Exercise #3, you will make connections between what you have learned in the course about the past and what is happening today through contemporary media.
- Find two recent media items thematically connected in some way to two of the three topics covered in Unit 3: conservation, parks, and urbanization. For each of these, post a paragraph of three to five sentences, connecting the media story to what you learned, or were challenged to consider, from the resources in Unit 3. Provide the web link to the article in each post.
- These postings may be informal but should be grammatically correct. You should be respectful of other students’ opinions, but that does not mean you must agree with their ideas.
- Post your response by clicking ‘Add Submission’ below.
- Then post two separate comments responding to any other student’s posts.
- 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
Connecting Past and Present
June 18, 2026 By: Kayla Wassen
Parks Article: UBC researchers find Indigenous lands can outperform protected areas on conservation https://news.ubc.ca/2026/05/indigenous-lands-outperform-protected-areas-on-conservation/ This article made me think about what we learned regarding the creation of national parks in North America. In Unit 3, we examined how parks such as Banff were often created by excluding Indigenous peoples because conservationists believed wilderness should be separate from human activity. The article challenges that idea by showing that Indigenous-managed lands can be just as effective, or even more effective, at protecting biodiversity than government-run protected areas. This connects to Cronon’s argument that wilderness is a cultural construct rather than a truly…
Connecting past and present
June 7, 2026 By: okafor chichi
Exercise #3: Connecting Past and Present Post 1: Urbanization Article: https://thenarwhal.ca/climate-and-housing-event-questions/ This article discusses how British Columbia is trying to address the housing crisis while also responding to climate change. It challenged me to think differently about urbanization because building more homes is not simply about accommodating population growth. Environmental historians remind us that cities reshape landscapes, transportation systems, and ecosystems over time. The article explains that communities now have to consider climate resilience when planning housing developments, including preparing for wildfires, floods, and extreme heat. It made me realize that the choices made by planners and governments today will…
Connecting Past and Present
June 3, 2026 By: Elkie
Conservation https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/local-news/lilwat-forestry-ventures-to-lead-cultural-burn-near-mount-currie-this-fall-11229904 Luke Faulk’s article in Pique Newsmagazine discusses the Lil’wat Nation leading a cultural burn near Mount Currie as part of wildfire prevention and ecological restoration. This connected strongly to the Unit 3 readings on conservation because it challenged the assumption that protecting forests requires removing people from the landscape. Roach and Gillis explain that by the early twentieth century the Canadian government had formalised fire suppression and forest management through state agencies, reflecting a conservation model focused on control and regulation. In contrast, the Lil’wat cultural burn demonstrates how Indigenous peoples have long used fire as a management…
Exercise #3 Connecting Past and Present
May 20, 2026 By: Emma Lang
“Prime Minister Carney Launches New Nature Strategy to Protect Canada’s Natural Environment.” Prime Minister of Canada, March 31, 2026. https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2026/03/31/prime-minister-carney-launches-new-nature-strategy-protect-canadas In this article, Carney’s office addresses how we need to protect the Canadian environment so that we can continue to use it in a sustainable way in the future.[1] This made me think about Gifford Pinchot’s “Chapter Four: Principles of Conservation,” as Pinchot endorsed conservation as a method to ensure the continued use of the environment for the foreseeable future.[2] Carney involves preservationist and conservationist elements in their initiatives to protect the Canadian environment and both of these concepts are…
Exercise #3: Connecting Past and Present
May 8, 2026 By: Yanran Lu
The Conservation Movement Article: “Canada Falls Short of 2025 Conservation Target,” The Narwhal, January 22, 2026. https://thenarwhal.ca/canada-misses-2025-conservation-target/ Canada promised to protect 25% of its land and water by 2025. It didn’t come close. By December 2024, only 13.8% had actually been conserved. That felt really familiar to me. It’s the same debate we’ve been reading about all unit: how do you use natural resources for economic growth while still protecting them? Pinchot thought science could help us do both. But this article shows that tension was never really resolved. Canada now wants to mine lithium and copper for electric car…