Key Places: Glacier Bay, Glacier, and ANWR...

Apologies for the delay in getting this post up; the week slipped away from me.

The reading assignment this week is to read the photocopied packet I distributed in class, therein you will first find two anthropological essays. As I mentioned last week, if you are pressed for time, you can skip all the "comments" to the first essay in the packet, Hunn's "Huna Tlingit Traditional Environmental Knowledge, Conservation, and the Management of a 'Wilderness' Park," but be sure to read the essay itself as well as the Dombrowski essay.  The third reading is a chapter from Louis Warren's 1997 book The Hunter's Game entitled "Blackfeet and Boundaries at Glacier National Park," and finally read the short selections from Jonathan Waterman's 2013 book Northern Exposures.  

Wednesday's class will take a slightly different format, as we will begin with a short presentation and discussion with Chris Behnke, a UAF graduate student working on a thesis exploring management conflicts in Glacier Bay National Park.  We will have a bit of time for our own discussion, and then we will conclude class with a visit from Jon Waterman, who is in town to promote the book we are reading selections from.  While Behnke will make a short presentation and lead us through a discussion of the first two anthropological articles, we should be prepared to ask him questions.  For Waterman's visit, we will need to ask the questions, so please think of things you may want to ask him about the readings in the packet.  Waterman is also giving a public lecture Thursday evening (details are here).

See you Wednesday!

Kevin

PS I'll bring page 81 from the Waterman book to class on Wednesday... sorry for the omission!

McPhee and Brower

After two weeks of history we will turn to a bit of literature--or at least some literary non-fiction.  I hope you have fun with John McPhee's breezy portrait of the the fellow leading the charge here.  I'll let you read without too much set-up, but I do want to say that if Robert Wernick's arguments in "Let's Spoil the Wilderness" weren't persuasive for you, I suspect a few of the interlocutors McPhee finds for David Brower will develop some rebuttals to the wilderness idea you might find compelling.

You are welcome to read the entire book, but we will focus on sections 1 and 3.  As per the usual routine, post your questions and meditations in the comments here--and don't hesitate to e-mail with any questions, comments or concerns.

Until Wednesday,

Kevin

Week Two: Roderick Nash's Wilderness and the American Mind

Following Carolyn Merchant's lead, we spent considerable time reading this famous John Gast painting tonight.  I hope you had as much fun as I did doing this interpretative work!

We decided that, as the title "American Progress suggests, the narrative argument of this painting furthers the story of westward expansion that a progressive version of history might champion--hunters fight off Native Americans, making way for settlers, which is followed by agriculture, and eventually trains, commerce, and civilization.   We also crafted a antithetical or declensionist narrative in response to the painting, noting that this version of history doesn't do justice to the genocide implied in this westward colonial march, nor does it tell the ecological history of the decline of the buffalo, the Dust Bowl, or the laundry list of environmental problems associated with industrialization.  Seen from one angle, this painting depicts the advent of a great nation; seen from another, it depicts the unjust use of force and ideology by one culture over another, leading to great ecological trouble.

Based on this good discussion, I tried to ask what I think will be the central question of our course.  Namely, I wanted you to think about stories from American environmental history that might help us better address future ecological problems.  We could argue that the declensionist reading of this painting might serve as a one such cautionary tale, reminding us not to overreach in our quest for progress.  This might help us, then, tell a story what would "help perpetuate life from the land" in the future, to borrow Merhcant's phrasing.  That is, we might avoid a future dustbowl, say, or we might argue that our lives would be better if we avoid destroying cultures that have stories about how to effectively perpetuate life from the land. The question for us to ponder this semester, then, is whether the wilderness story--that is, the history of the idea, the politics, and narrative implied in the word--is a story that might similarly help guide our behavior.   As I scribbled on the board, that is, does the wilderness story help us perpetuate life from the land?  

My hunch is that our reading of Roderick Nash will help us answer this.  I think his answer is a yes--and I suggested tonight that it will be fairly enthusiastic yes--but I hope you can use the tools and questions Merchant offers to really engage with Nash's famous book.  

As a reminder, you should read the preface, introduction, prologue, chapters 1-3, 12-14, and the epilogue.  This is about 200 pages of reading--I hope you find it engaging and fun.  I look forward to reading your questions and answers about the book in the comments here.    
 

12-Minute write about Merchant's American Environmental History.

This is the first image that appeared in a google image search for "wilderness."  Not surprisingly, it's from the wikipedia entry on Wilderness.  Oddly, however, it's a shot of an old growth forest in a National Park in Montenegro.  I wonder how this happened?

In any case, please post your first question and 12-minute response under the comments here.  As a reminder, here's the assignment as outlined on the syllabus.

Twelve-Minute Blog Writes:

For every section meeting noted on the syllabus you will prepare one interpretative question and then attempt to answer this question.  Your post should demonstrate that you have read thoughtfully and thoroughly; it should also spark discussion about the significance of the course texts.  To earn full credit, these assignments must be posted to the course blog http://uaswilderness.blogspot.com/ by 3:00pm on Wednesday.  While the blog should provide an opportunity for dialogue (and you are encouraged to respond to posts by your peers), you should also try to develop and answer your own questions about the texts. Please print out and bring your posts to class, collecting them to turn in as a portfolio at the end of the term along with a self-assessment.  You may miss one blog entry without penalty.

I hope the reading proves informative and useful.  I look forward to continuing the necessarily brief conversation from tonight next week.  

As always, e-mail if you have any questions or concerns:  kevin.maier@uas.alaska.edu