Studies in Ecological History

"The river valleys of the Atlantic Shore cut through the coastal plain . . . ."

Joseph Siry, Marshes of the Ocean Shore. ^A           

Voices from the past: contrasting secondary documents

• Coastal tidewater
• A Frontier of Estauries
• Ralph Waldo Emerson's observation

Claude Monet "Seine Estuary" in 1865, France; Oil on Canvas, Norton Simon Gallery, Pasadena, Ca.

method | days: one & two | | summary | Crosby | Du Bois | Emerson | Sources

Method

            Compare: descriptions of these estuaries & marshes.

            Contrast: native people and settlements.

            Analysis: deriving some vision of early America

• four "fs" of "fertility" & te fronties
• literal meaning
• figurative meaning
• metaphors
• importance of soil recognized

September 8

Siry pp. 3-33, Introduction & A Frontier of Estuaries

Where did the colonies thrive?

Enlarge

Where is the "Frontier of Estuaries?"

paper exercise

This paper photo (roll-over) represents the map or scheme of the US "land system." The crumpled-up paper represents elevations that serve to illustrate different adjacent watersheds."

The long lines on the paper are similar to longitude lines that run North to South.

Latitude lines lay parallel to the Equator running East and West, similar to the double red line at the bottom of the above photograph.

 

The crumpled-up paper represents elevations that serve to illustrate different adjacent watersheds. Roll over the map above and reveal the larger watershed areas of river systems in the U.S.

 

Next

September

10            Comparing five points of view to your own: Tell us who you are and what struck you as important in Crosby, Du Bois & Emerson.

Contrast Emerson's description of farms with Du Bois and Siry:

• A) use key phrases to contrast debts and Emerson's ownership, Nature.
• B) Describe divergent context of each author's depiction of early America
• C) choose a selection from the text to explain the two different views.
• D) How might we see these views of the American as describing the ecological conditions of early settlement?

Next

Possible summary:

Two views of early Philadelphia, America's leading city from 1700-1790s

• Geography is intimately related to history
• How the resources are used influences attitudes
• Land systems are inherently tied to air & water [LAW]
• United States land policy is old and influential in the distribution of estates
• land ownership was a principle means of upward mobility though speculation caused financial panics.

Sources:

^A. Estuaries are found the world over where rivers or marshes or wetlands merge into the ocean or inland seas.

They are landscapes that must be understood to restore.

They must be functionally restored to save our fisheries.

"We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender."

Robert Frost "The Gift Outright"

"Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward, . . ."

Law

Deed:

Any deed is a legal document that is signed and delivered to reveal the assured owner of property, real estate, or rights to property in condominium. The proof of ownership of an estate.

L A W

Acronym for L-land, A-air and W-water; the 3 components of ecologically informed understanding of land-use and land-use changes.

Land

By land we mean literally land-use, land policy, landscape and figuratively we will use the concepts of "watershed," cultural landscapes, WEAL, and landscape artists to convey the diversity of our attitudes about nature in terms of forests, fields, wetlands, settlements, and Wallace Stegner's idea of a "Geography of Hope."

A warning

"But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become."

Robert Frost "The Gift Outright"

idealistic

optimistic pessimistic

realistic

^B. The course is designed so you can weigh the optimistic (Adams) with the realistic (Crosby & Du Bois) and the idealistic (Emerson) with the pessimistic (Frost), to better inform your own judgment of Siry's characterization of American's attitudes towards nature & land in particular.

Book overview : Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,