Nature | History | Society Special Event: Dean Bavington
Next week the Nature|History|Society group at UBC will be hosting another special event in environmental history. This term's event features Dr. Dean Bavington from Nipissing University. On Monday, March 22nd Dr. Bavington will be giving a public lecture about the history of cod fishery management in Newfoundland based on his forthcoming book Managed Annihilation: An Unnatural History of the Newfoundland Cod Collapse. The following day, he will participate in a special seminar for faculty and graduate students to discuss this research in more detail.
For all the information on this event, please download a copy of this event poster.
Monday, March 22, 2010:
A public lecture by Dr. Dean Bavington:
“Managed Annihilation: An Unnatural History of the Newfoundland Cod Collapse”
4:00pm
Geography Building Rm. 201
Tuesday, March 23, 2010:
The Department of History will host a special seminar to discuss Dr. Bavington’s research on fisheries management in Newfoundland.
All faculty and graduate students are invited to participate. Email sean.kheraj@ubc.ca for readings.
4:00pm
Buchanan Tower 1206/1207
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Site C Forum Published
The future of BC energy policy turns to a considerable extent on the possibility of further hydro development on the Peace River at Site C. For decades Site C has been a controversial flash point amongst Peace Valley residents, environmentalists and politicians. In November 2008, the Canadian Water History Project organized a special workshop on the proposed dam, its history and its possible effects. The meeting brought together representatives of First Nations communities and environmental organizations in the Peace region with academics from BC and elsewhere who study electricity, water history and public policy. At the end of the meeting, participants were invited to submit op-eds for a special forum section of the journal, BC Studies. That forum has just been published in the Spring 2009 issue. Although only the paper version is available, electronic versions of the op-eds should soon be made available on the BC Studies website.
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NHS 2009 Winter Schedule
Please join us for the following talks in the Green College Coach House, UBC. All talks start at 5:00 pm.
January 22, 2009
"A Paradox of Abundance: The Great Lakes in North American Environmental History"
Lynne Heasley, Department of History, Western Michigan University
An archived version of this presentation is available in our Audio Archive
* Please note, Heasley's talk will be held in Geography Rm 214
With 20% of the world's freshwater, and ecosystems under severe stress from toxic pollution, invasive species, land use pressure, and global climate change, the Great Lakes basin has received intense public attention in Canada and the United States. The region is also in a fragile economic condition, a virtual Rust Belt of dislocation as manufacturing has moved to other parts of the world. The region's current ecological and economic vulnerability is, paradoxically, a consequence of its tremendous abundance. Professor Heasley will discuss the opportunities, costs, and problematic outcomes for a border region and vast inland maritime system seemingly blessed by infinite resources. She will focus on the development of joint U.S.-Canadian management of the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes, and its significance in North American environmental history.
February 26
"Higgins’ Bush and Madame Groulx’s Cedars: Foxhunting and British Power in the Montreal Countryside"
Darcy Ingram, post-doctoral fellow at the Centre interuniversitaire d’études québécoises, Université Laval
Organized foxhunting in the Montreal countryside began in the 1820s with the formation of the Montreal Hunt. This talk explores the social and environmental contexts in which the Hunt operated, from its management of foxes and fox habitat to its dealings with local farmers on the island of Montreal. Together these and other issues allow us to see how this distinctly British institution served for the club’s English-speaking Protestant membership as a means of maintaining the British identity of their majority French Catholic city and its hinterlands. By shedding light on the material relationship of the hunt to the Montreal countryside, they also allow us to approach foxhunting as yet another layer of the built environment.
March 19
"Elusive Sanctuaries: Developing an Environmental History of Migration"
Robert Wilson, Department of Geography, Syracuse University
How have people affected animal migration? How have they developed landscapes to sustain migration, both now and in the past? In this talk, Bob Wilson will lay out at an approach for studying migration in environmental history drawing on his research about the history of migrating birds and wildlife refuges in western North America. He recently finished a book manuscript on this subject titled Seeking Refuge: An Environmental History of the Pacific Flyway (University of Washington Press).
For more information about Nature/History/Society events, contact: Matthew Evendenmevenden@interchange.ubc.ca or Eagle Glassheim eagle.g@ubc.ca
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Site C Website Launched
In the Fall term, 2008, a seminar of UBC Geography students conducted a class project on the proposed Site C dam on the Peace River. After researching various aspects of the proposal and the history of the Peace River, they wrote research reports, prepared web copy, gathered photographs and built a website. This is how they described their project: "The Peace River is distant from us in so many ways. None of us have seen it. But its potential development affects us all. We all need to think about this river and this proposal. This is our attempt to think, to see the river."
Follow this link to have a look at their efforts and learn more about the Site C:
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Site C Workshop
Recently, the CWHP/PHEC, in association with Green College and the Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, hosted a workshop to consider the proposed Site C Dam on the Peace River in northern British Columbia.
As a Site C Dam will have a range of ramifications and emerges from a complex social and environmental history, the CWHP/PHEC decided that it would provide a useful focus for discussion, linking academic researchers with community participants. Over the course of a day, participants considered the historical background to the Site C proposal, and debated the merits and difficulties of the current proposal. Although the workshop was closed to foster a small group discussion atmosphere, some of the positions of the participants will soon be made publicly available. Several participants will prepare Op/Eds about Site C which will be published in a future issue of BC STUDIES.
Site C Background:
In its latest BC Energy Plan, the provincial government calls upon BC Hydro to study the feasibility of a development at Site C and to communicate widely with the public about the issue. At time of writing, BC Hydro is engaged with a broad consultation to potentially affected communities.
The Peace River was first dammed in the late 1960s when the mammoth W.A.C. Bennett Dam created the largest human-made lake in North America. The Peace Canyon Dam followed downriver. Since that time, considerable controversy has surrounded the environmental effects of river regulation and their social consequences. When BC Hydro first considered moving forward with the Site C Dam in the late 1970s, a diverse environmental coalition formed to block the project. Ultimately, the BC Utilities Commission canceled the project owing to perceived failings in BC Hydro’s electricity forecasting. In the current context of rising provincial population and energy demand, the Site C dam has re-emerged as a potential solution to looming electricity generation problems. What the potential costs, benefits and incidental effects of such a solution might be remain controversial.
Participants included:
Gerry Attachie, Councilor, Doig River First Nation, on behalf of Council of Western Treaty 8 Chiefs
Michael Church, Professor Emeritus, Geography, UBC
Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Professor, Political Science and Women’s Studies, SFU
Laurie Dickmeyer, MA Student, Geography, UBC
Nichole Dusyk, PhD student, Resources, Environment and Sustainability, UBC
Matthew Evenden, Associate Professor, Geography, UBC
Ken Forest, Peace Valley Environment Association
Tina Loo, Professor and Canada Research Chair, History, UBC
Jeremy Mouat, Professor, History, University of Alberta
Shona Nelson, Administrator and Director of Treaty and Aboriginal Rights Research, Treaty 8 Tribal Assoc.
Alex Netherton, Professor, Political Science, Vancouver Island University
Adrienne Peacock, Professor, Biology, Douglas College
Jonathon Peyton, PhD student, Geography, UBC.
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