Plunkett Family History
February 9, 2025 By: Colleen Plunkett
OFLM Name: Norman Fennema
Course Name and Number: Environmental History HIST_3991
Name: Colleen Plunkett
Date: 2/9/25
Reflecting on my personal environmental history has led me to consider how generations of my family have utilized, interacted with, and been shaped by the environment. Our relationship with nature has evolved over time, with each generation adapting changes happening around them.
For this assignment, I will focus on my maternal grandparents, who were both born in 1919. My grandma was born into a large Irish Catholic family in a rural village called Maidstone, just outside Windsor, Ontario. My grandfather, also Irish Catholic, was raised on a farm in Fermont, Quebec. While my grandmother’s family farmed crops of corn and wheat and raised animals for food and work, my grandfather’s family faced much harder winters and relied on dairy farming.
Both of my grandparents lived through a time of significant environmental change as industrialization and urbanization were on the rise. The opening of the Ford Motor Company factory in 1905 transformed Windsor. While my grandmother’s family was able to hold onto their farmland, the landscape around it began to change, with factories replacing farmland. At the age of 17, my grandfather left Quebec and moved to Windsor for a factory job and became a machinist. This decision marked a stark contrast from the traditional farming life he had known. It also symbolized a change in society from rural to urbanization brought on from the industrial revolution. My grandfather’s migration from the farm to a factory job in the city was not only a personal change, but a part of a larger shift from living off the land and farming work to factory work.
While my grandparents’ lives were tied to the land, my parents, born and raised in Windsor, experienced the full impact of urbanization and industrialization. By the time they were growing up, Windsor had transformed from rural area to an industrial city, overtaken by factories. As a result, their generation was increasingly detached from the natural world. Unlike their parents, they did not need to understand weather patterns, soil fertility, or planting and harvesting schedules. My dad’s experiences on the farm were when my grandfather would drop him off in Quebec in the summer to “teach him some work ethic and get out in nature.” As a result, his connection to nature was limited and imposed on him. Similarly, my mom, who also grew up in Windsor, never developed a strong connection to the environment until we moved out west.
Growing up in Windsor in the 70s and 80s, I had access to grocery stores filled with items my grandparents once grew or traded for. I could have any fruit I wanted, regardless of the season, without ever needing to know what fruits grew locally. Although, I do remember corn tasting much better in Windsor than the corn on the cob we had in Victoria. Milk for my cereal came in bags, and we bought everything from the local grocery store. Despite living in the area my grandma grew up in, I was extremely far removed from the rural life she had known. In Windsor, the goal was to secure a unionized job in the auto industry. The only time I spent outdoors was when we went camping for two weeks every summer. My parents were busy working, and we lived in the city.
When we moved to Victoria in the late 80s, my perspective on the natural world shifted. Seeing the ocean, mountains, and the strange “monkeyless trees” made me notice and appreciate nature. The people in Victoria seemed more committed to environmental issues than the industrial mindset I grew up with in Windsor. My father’s job with the Ministry of Forests further deepened my understanding of environmental issues, particularly in the 90s. I vividly recall listening to him discuss the ‘war in the woods’ protesting logging in Clayoquot Sound. These protests highlighted to me the importance of land preservation and environmentalism.
In my professional life, I followed my father’s lead and began working for the Ministry of Forests. My role involves engaging with Indigenous peoples to improve forest management practices and diversify forest products. Working alongside both the original stewards of the forests and forest science professionals has strengthened my commitment to forest sustainability. Throughout my career in forestry, I have seen firsthand the devastation that poor policies, unregulated logging practices and overharvesting have had on our ecosystems. The shift from industrialization in my family’s past to a focus on sustainability in my current role aligns with my own personal values that I have developed.
Reflecting on my family’s environmental history, I realize my relationship with nature is vastly different from my parents and grandparents. My grandparents’ work on the land was essential for their livelihoods and survival. This shaped their views of the land as something to be respected, cared for and worked with as a partnership. Their generation understood that the land provided for them, but they also needed to care for it. In contrast, my parents’ relationship with nature was passive because of industrialization. Their generation was focused on consumption, expansion and the rise of industry rather than conservation and connection with nature. For them, the earth was viewed as an endless resource.
My generation has inherited the consequences of over-extraction and unsustainable environmental policies, but it has also been a time of growing awareness of climate change and the need for more sustainable practices. As I continue my work in forestry, I hope to contribute to a future where government, industry, and individuals see the land not as a resource to exploit, but as a part of who we are as humans. That the natural world as something that deserves protection and care to preserve it for generations to come.