Exercise #3: Connecting Past and Present
March 2, 2026 By: Sandra
Post 1 — Conservation
Media item: Parks Canada will share stewardship with Indigenous nations — National Observer (Aug 2025)
Link: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/08/12/news/parks-canada-indigenous-partnership
This article connects directly to Unit 3’s conservation debates, especially the difference between “conservation for use” versus deeper ethical and political questions about who controls land. Earlier conservation thinking often focused on scientific management and continued resource use, while more recent approaches recognize Indigenous stewardship and shared governance as central to protecting ecosystems. The piece also challenges the old idea that conservation is “neutral,” showing that conservation decisions are always tied to power, history, and reconciliation. What I took from Unit 3 is that conservation is not only about protecting nature—it is also about deciding whose knowledge counts and whose relationship to place is respected.
Post 2 — Parks
Media item: Parks Canada considers visitor restrictions for Lake Louise and Moraine Lake — Global News (July 2024)
Link: https://globalnews.ca/news/10605041/parks-canada-visitor-restrictions-lake-louise-alberta/
This article connects well to Unit 3 themes about parks as managed spaces, not untouched wilderness. The visitor restriction discussion shows that parks are shaped by human pressures like tourism, transportation, and safety policy—not just by “nature.” It also reflects a historical pattern where parks were created for public enjoyment but later face problems when access becomes too intense and damages ecological integrity. Unit 3 pushed me to see parks as political spaces where governments balance recreation, ecological protection, and economic interests, rather than places that exist outside human systems.
Response to Post 1 — Conservation
I like how you pointed out that conservation is not neutral and is tied to power and history. Unit 3 also made me think about how early conservation policies tend to exclude Indigenous peoples from lands they had stewarded for generations. Co-management with Indigenous nations seems like an important shift because it recognizes Indigenous knowledge and relationships to the land as central to conservation instead of as something separate from it.
Response to Post 2 — Parks
Your point about parks being managed spaces instead of untouched wilderness stood out to me. Unit 3 readings showed how many parks were historically described as pristine landscapes, even though they required heavy management and infrastructure to support tourism. Visitor restrictions at places such as Lake Louise demonstrate how modern park policy now has to balance ecological protection with the vast number of people who want to experience these landscapes.