Alternatives to Large-scale Logging and Tanning Industries

On the evening of August 30, the Toronto Environmental History Network will be meeting to discuss Andrew Watson's paper. The abstract of the paper is below. All people who wish to attend should email David Zylberberg (david_zylberberg@hotmail.com) by August 24.

Abstract:

'Alternatives to Large-scale Logging and Tanning Industries: Household-based approaches to wood-resource harvesting in Muskoka, 1850-1920'

By the middle of the nineteenth century, Muskoka's forests were under assault by Europeans intent of extracting as much value at they could, as quickly as they could. Co-inciding as it did with the beginning of white settlement, the emergence of the logging and tanning industries in Muskoka (primarily interested in white pine and hemlock bark) provided few economic, environmental or social benefits to the local people and environment. An alternative to the large-scale, intensive model of resource extraction existed, however, which reduced the worst environmental impacts and provided more direct material benefits to the local community. This household-based approach to harvesting Muskoka's wood resources was, therefore, much more sustainable than the model that dominated the economy during the late nineteenth and early twentieth