Exercise #2

September 11, 2024 By: Jordan W

Exercise #2: Family Environmental History

My heritage is a mix of European roots. On my dad’s side, our Swiss-German ancestors came to Canada in 1756 to colonize Nova Scotia. I’m not sure what else transpired between that time, but my paternal grandfather moved to Toronto and met my grandmother, who had an Irish background. On my mother’s side: I am a mix of Welsch and Austrian, but unsure of when folks came to Canada – at least two generations ago. I have always considered myself a multi-generational “Canadian” (not trying to be a nationalist) and of European settlers. I was raised in a middle-class, blue-collar family in a multicultural part of Scarborough, Ontario. I am the oldest of three and have two siblings, a brother and a sister.  We grew up in northern Scarborough near the border of Markham and Pickering in a townhome community. The townhomes were brick and mortar with well-kept grass and garden boxes full of annually planted flowers and a mix of natural mature pine trees, red maples, and oak trees in backyards and common areas. North Scarborough offered human-made landscapes, natural green space, and bordered cultivated farmland. Mind you, the farmland is now rows up rows of cookie-cutter, vinyl-sided homes.

Growing up, I had the best of both worlds. I had malls, buildings, and city life just a bus ride away, or a lush, natural hardwood forest and a human-made waterway beside my neighbourhood. I was able to get my fill of the concrete and natural world. I became an avid BMX cyclist, enjoying humanmade features, such as stairs, ledges and walls; however, I always enjoyed being in the forest more, where we built trails, jumps and forts. My father grew up in a rough part of Toronto and used wild areas to escape a tough childhood. He used to tell me stories about going down to the wild wasteland of Leslie Spit, at the time, a landfill for a planned extension of Toronto’s harbour located on the shores of Lake Ontario. Interestingly enough, it is now a naturalized park space, Tommy Thompson Park, and provides a habitat for many birds, fowl, and animals. And, where I went on one of my first dates with my wife. My father’s passion for the outdoors wasn’t lost on me and I developed my sense of connection to the natural world. Growing up near the Rouge Valley, we spent many days exploring its trails, cliffs, creeks and rivers. I regularly explored the Rouge until I moved westward to Northern British Columbia in 2016. I was not a fan of the closures of certain trails and areas I spent my youth exploring when the area became an urban National Park, but I have grown to appreciate that the land is safe from developers.

My mother grew up in a middle-class neighbourhood, and her father, my grandpa, was a true outdoorsman – a hunter, fisherman, and prospector. My mom had grown up in Westhill for most of her life; however, she also lived on and off in a small mountain town in Northern British Columbia named Atlin. My grandpa was a placer miner and owned part of a large gold claim that produced gold in the sixties, seventies and eighties. When I was a kid, my grandpa lived near Peterborough, Ontario at his house on the Otanabee River. We called it the cottage, but it was his house, and we were fortunate to spend lots of time on the river fishing for pickerel, bass, and muskie. His home was located on the river, surrounded by fields and hardwood forest with protected wetlands across the river – it was our escape from the city and his paradise. As the only oldest male in the family, I felt compelled to honour my grandpa and took after his interests, becoming the only hunter and avid fisherman in our family.

My mom’s father was the patriarch; we all loved his adventurous spirit. Between my father’s love for the outdoors and my grandpa’s stories, I was raised to enjoy the natural world. I loved being a Scarborough kid and being exposed to so much culture, but I loved the wild more. Unfortunately, looking back, we didn’t practice much stewardship or appreciate our day-to-day impacts – it’s something we never talked about. We grew up driving V8 cars and trucks, burning our garbage when we camped, and catching fish out of season off the dock as kids. Secondly, my grandpa was a miner and exploited and scarred the land for a livelihood. Historically, placer mines are quite hard on the environment.

My childhood adventures in the Rouge Valley, fishing with my grandpa off of his dock listening to Loons, or building dirt jumps in the forest, I felt the happiest. However, my life’s trajectory and relationship with the outdoors changed after visiting my grandpa’s mine in 1997. From that point, I knew I needed to live in the mountains. My love for mountains changed my values and how I interacted with the natural world. I am mindful of how my parents were raised, how my grandpa used the land for his enjoyment and betterment, and how I benefitted, too. However, I changed throughout the years of visiting the mountains, becoming aware of my impacts. After moving west permanently, I became passionate about the environment and became a regulator for the natural resource sector. I became excited about protecting the environment and experiencing it in new ways, like backcountry skiing and mountaineering. I don’t blame my family for how they choose to live – boats, snowmobiles, etc. – because it is all they know; however, I do think how we lived was selfish, taking from the land and not being mindful of our impacts. I think my family just didn’t know any better – they are learning, and getting better with some help, but I am so different.

My impact is thoughtful, minimal and something I practice and teach my kids daily. In addition to teaching my kids to appreciate the land, my wife and I also teach our kids to recognize and appreciate its First Peoples – something I didn’t know much about or appreciate as a kid from Scarborough. That said, I am tremendously lucky to have grown up in such a culturally diverse area, which has made me compassionate and open to others’ ways of being. I wouldn’t change how I grew up. I wouldn’t be where I am, a self-proclaimed mountain man in Northern British Columbia, without all the lessons and experiences I had as a curry goat-loving, b-boy impersonator from Scarborough.