#EnvHist Worth Reading: February 2025

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Every month I carefully track the most popular and significant environmental history articles, videos, audio, and other items making their way through the online environmental history (#envhist) community. You can read all of our past #EnvHist Worth Reading lists right here. Here are my choices for items most worth reading from February 2025.

1. Aamjiwnaang has been fighting environmental racism for decades. Now, the First Nation has an agreement to address it

In this article for The Narwhal, Emma McIntosh profiles Aamjiwnaang First Nation and their decades long fight against the chemical industry in and around Sarnia, Ontario and the most recent developments in this saga. Chief Janelle Nahmabin and Environment and Climate Change Canada recently signed an agreement at the Lighting of the 8th Fire conference, forming a joint committee to tackle air, water, and soil contamination. This initiative stems from Bill C-226, which mandates a national strategy against environmental racism in Canada. Aamjiwnaang faces severe pollution, with benzene exposure 30 times higher than in Toronto. The community declared a state of emergency in 2024 due to benzene spikes from a nearby plant, leading to its shutdown. Despite this, industrial pollution persists, prompting calls for stricter regulations. Nahmabin emphasized Aamjiwnaang’s leadership in environmental justice, advocating for clean air, water, and sustainable land. McIntosh notes that this agreement marks a step toward addressing historical and ongoing environmental injustices faced by Indigenous and racialized communities across Canada.

2. Why a mind-blowing destination in Oregon never became a national park

You know I love a state park history feature. In this piece for SFGate, Zeb Larson focuses on Oregon’s Silver Falls State Park. This park spans 9,000 acres and has ten waterfalls, which are connected by a scenic trail. Once considered for national park status, it was rejected because the land that makes up the park was in bad shape when the national park was originally suggested in the 1920s due to agricultural and logging activities, as well as wildfire damage. As I note in my dissertation, this damage made it a perfect candidate for state park status, with support of Stephen T. Mather and the National Park Service. Later rehabilitated through New Deal programs, Larson notes, it now features historic structures and remains a beloved Oregon destination.

3. Buzzkill: Episode 3: Colonialism and the Land

The Buzzkill podcast, produced by the Food and Environment Reporting Network, traces various aspects of the decline in pollinators and the environmental crisis that this decline contributes to. In Episode 3, the podcast covers the colonial history behind settler exploitation of the land and speaks to members of Kansas and Nebraska’s Iowa Tribe to see how they are integrating ancient cultural techniques that help pollinators and the environment into present-day agriculture.

4. Something in the Water | APTN Investigates

In this episode of APTN Investigates, Brittany Guyot heads to Grassy Narrows First Nation to share the community’s experience with mercury contamination. The short documentary opens with footage of activists from several decades ago contrasted with these individuals today. Guyot focuses in on the lived experiences of these individuals, who now lived with the serious health consequences of decades of mercury exposure. Guyot’s documentary is a valuable addition to the material covering one of the more well-known environmental justice issues in Canada.

5. Criminal – The Butterfly Smuggler

This episode of Criminal focuses in on the experience of Ed Newcomer, who worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service as a special agent, who tracked and eventually took down Yoshi Kojima, who referred to himself as the “World’s Most-Wanted Butterfly Smuggler.” Kojima began collecting insects from national parks in the 1990s and became adept at selling these insects on Ebay in the early days of the internet. Kojima was especially well-known for collecting a specific species of butterfly from the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Feature Image: Imperial Oil Ltd. Refinery, Sarnia, Ontario. June 1944. Credit: Canada. Dept. of Mines and Technical Surveys / Library and Archives Canada / PA-017796.
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Jessica DeWitt

is an environmental historian of Canada and the United States, editor, project manager, and digital communications strategist. She earned her PhD in History from the University of Saskatchewan in 2019. She is an executive member, editor-in-chief, and social media editor for the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE). She is the Managing Editor for the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. She is also President of the Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society, a Girls Rock Saskatoon board member, and a Coordinating Team member of Showing Up for Racial Justice Saskatoon-Treaty Six. A passionate social justice advocate, she focuses on developing digital techniques and communications that bridge the divide between academia and the general public in order to democratize knowledge access. You can find out more about her and her freelance services at jessicamdewitt.com.

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