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 untouched landscape. It also suggests that conservation and human stewardship do not have to be opposing goals.
Urbanization
Article: “How ‘Re-Wilding’ Can Make Canada’s Cityscapes More Climate Resilient and Bee Friendly”
This article discusses efforts to increase native plants and wildlife habitat in Canadian cities through urban rewilding projects. It connects strongly to Unit 3 because Melosi argues that cities should be understood as environmental systems rather than places separate from nature. Rewilding projects challenge the idea that urban areas are entirely artificial by showing how biodiversity and ecological processes can exist within city spaces. The article also reflects Cronon’s argument that nature is not limited to remote wilderness areas but can be found in the places where people live every day. It made me think differently about the relationship between cities and the natural environment.
References
Binnema, Theodore, and Melanie Niemi. “‘Let the Line Be Drawn Now’: Wilderness, Conservation, and the Exclusion of Aboriginal People from Banff National Park in Canada.” Environmental History 11, no. 4 (2006): 724–750.
Cronon, William. “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature.” In Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, 69–90. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995.
Melosi, Martin V. “The Place of the City in Environmental History.” Environmental History Review 17, no. 1 (1993): 1–23.
University of British Columbia. “Indigenous Lands Can Outperform Protected Areas on Conservation, Study Finds.” UBC News. Accessed June 18, 2026. https://news.ubc.ca/2026/05/indigenous-lands-outperform-protected-areas-on-conservation/
Omstead, Jordan. “How ‘Re-Wilding’ Can Make Canada’s Cityscapes More Climate Resilient and Bee Friendly.” The Canadian Press, April 22, 2026. Accessed June 18, 2026. https://halifax.citynews.ca/2026/04/22/how-re-wilding-can-make-canadas-cityscapes-more-climate-resilient-and-bee-friendly/