Colleagues:
In an effort to define the unique contribution of the environmental history of the
Northeast (as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau) to the larger North American
framework, I’m offering the following statement. Its purpose is to encourage
comment, criticism and an opportunity for others to add, subtract and amend along
the way. To begin, it’s important to acknowledge the robust nature of what we
already have to support our ongoing quest for definition. We have an annual
seminar series sponsored by The Massachusetts Historical Society, a book series on
the environmental history of the Northeast published by The University of
Massachusetts Press, and now an annual conference sponsored by the NortheastAtlantic Canada Environmental History Forum (NACEHF). The host of its fourth
meeting will be Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA. in August 2015.
Many of you will recognize what follows because some of it draws from materials
located in published sources and cited below. So, here goes!
Best wishes,
Tony Penna
“From Atlantic Canada and the northern forests of Maine to the industrial corridors
of western Pennsylvania, the ecosystems of the region, in contrast to the western
United States according to Richard Judd, has been distinguished by “the length,
continuity, and intensity of Euro-American settlement.”1 As Matthew McKenzie
pointed out more recently, “Rather than a simple declensionist narrative chronicling
the end of the frontier and the environmental legacies that ensued, Judd sees New
England differently (For the purpose of discussion, I would expand it to Atlantic
Canada). 2 “New England’s post-frontier history (Can we add Atlantic Canada here?)
brings to light a series of oscillations: deforestation and reforestation, depletion and
renewal, settlements and abandonment, pollution and recovery.”3
Add to these oscillations, the region’s complex social and cultural history that has
been shaped by a complex natural history of geological upheaval and climate
change. Despite these oscillations and possibly because of them, the region’s
nineteenth industrial economy encompassed farm and village life as well as fishing,
logging, textile and shoe manufacturing, lumber mills and other industries into the
I’ve taken liberty with Richard Judd’s description of New England’s distinctiveness
when compared to the American West to include Atlantic Canada. See Richard Judd,
Second Nature: An Environmental History of New England (Amherst, MA.: University
of Massachusetts Press, 2014), 11-12.
2 Matthew McKenzie, “ Conceptual Frontiers Held Too Long: New England’s Marine
Environmental History as Urban Environmental History.” Paper delivered at
NACEHF, Charlottetown, P. E. I. August 2, 2014. p. 1.
3 Judd, Second Nature, 12.
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twentieth centuries and transitioned to financial services, high technology, medical
sciences, and military procurement during the post-WWII period. Today, the
economy of the region, the wealthiest in North America with a GDP of about $4
trillion, exceeds that of Germany. It seems to me that we have only begun to explore
the environmental impact of these oscillations in specific localities and/or in
regional contexts. Have any of the accepted papers at our three NACEHF
conferences addressed the above, directly or indirectly?
As Judd pointed out that farms and factories coexisted in nineteenth century New
England (Can we say the same for Atlantic Canada?), Ellen Stroud 4 explores the
Northeast’s interconnected urban and rural spaces. Challenging the often-repeated
assertion that the region’s forests regenerated naturally after decades of clearcutting, Stroud focuses on the crucial part dedicated citizens and governments
played in protecting forests and promoting their return. She highlights the role of
urban citizens “in creating and maintaining the new northeastern forests” and to
show their “humanizing presence against “the cliché of environmental decline that
pervades so many environmental stories.” (p. 10) Being the first region in North
America to experience reforestation should add to our definition of the region’s
uniqueness. Richard Judd points out that exploitation and conservation occurred
simultaneously in New England (Can we add Atlantic Canada?) and like Stroud
argued that New Englanders pioneered some of the nation’s earliest grass roots
conservation efforts. This conclusion again speaks to the Northeast’s uniqueness
and contribution to the larger environmental history framework.
Since the history of New England is the longest (add Atlantic Canada) and its
archives are also the richest, it seems to me that we have only begun to tap into this
richness. Our region includes dense metropols, small nineteenth industrial cities,
twentieth century rim cities, sprawling suburbs and exurbs, villages and towns.
Waves of immigrants have passed through; some have left an environmental
imprint.
I’ve said nothing about the region’s rivers, lakes, estuaries and the oceans and Matt
McKenzie has suggested that New England’s marine environment is much more
complicated than the complex story outlined above. Unlike the successes
experienced on land over the region’s long history, the “marine realm still lies in a
state of calamity.” (p.3) And as Matt has pointed out in the conclusion to his paper
presented at the August 2, 2014 conference, human use of the North Atlantic marine
resources came to a crashing halt in the mid-1990s. As a result, management of
marine resources looks more akin to urban planning. That the Atlantic Canada and
the Northeast landmass borders this great ocean adds immeasurably to the region’s
uniqueness.”
Ellen Stroud, Nature Next Door: Cities and Trees In The American Northeast (Seattle:
University of Washington Press, 2012)
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