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UNIVERSITY OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND The Environmental Pre-History of Prince Edward Island 1769-1970; A Reconnaissance in Force by COLIN ALLEN MACINTYRE A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ISLAND STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND CHARLOTTETOWN, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND November, 2010 © COLIN MACINTYRE 2010 Library and Archives Bibliothèque et 1^1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l’édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-82231-9 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-82231-9 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L’auteur conserve la propriété du droit d’auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author’s permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privée, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de thesis. cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n’y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. Canada SIGNATURE PAGE ilù REMOVED Abstract Academic analysis of the historical interaction between humans and the environment has been extremely limited on Prince Edward Island. The following thesis is one of the first studies to utilize Island Studies research methodologies to examine Prince Edward Island as a case study in environmental history. Prince Edward Island’s “islandness” plays a significant factor in this history because any environmental changes are amplified by the compression of the limited geographical area of the Island. The main question revolves around how Islanders’ attitudes have evolved toward the environment. Before a conscious environmental movement began in the 1970s, Islanders have had concerns over the environment. These early concerns over the environment generally revolved around conserving natural resources that had economic value as opposed to preserving the environment for the sake of nature. However, there were some surprising examples of individuals who were ahead of their time as far as understanding the importance of preserving the environment. Thus, if such awareness toward environmental issues did not emerge in an organized way until the 1970s, this thesis examines changing attitudes over time, to create a “pre-history” of environmental concerns. The thesis is organized chronologically and thematically. The introduction describes the research method, environmental history historiography, the importance of conservation law in environmental history. Island Studies research methods, and the idea of garden and Eden mythologies effecting legislation on islands. Chapter One reviews the impact of the Aboriginal and French impact to the environment, because their limited footprint justifies why the study focuses on the British Colonial and post-Confederation 111 periods. Chapter Two outlines the impact that the British settlement era had on the Island’s environment. Chapter Three covers changing environmental attitudes from the post-Confederation period to the Second World War. The final chapter covers postwar environmental impacts until the watershed of the Comprehensive Development Plan in 1970. The thesis examines the evolution of attitudes toward the environment on Prince Edward Island through one major research method: the provincial government’s legislative records. The Journals of the Legislative Assembly provided the bulk of the research material because they contain records of the legislation and government reports. Researching environmental related legislation is often the most fundamental research method in environmental history because it can be used to illustrate when and why humans became concerned for regulating and protecting the environment. This thesis adds to the historiography of Prince Edward Island by expanding environmental history scholarship. Aside from geographies, natural history articles, forestry research, and works by Alan MacEachem focusing on National Parks and the Institute of Man and Resources, environmental history has been limited on Prince Edward Island. However, Prince Edward Island has a long history of trying to protect the environment, which was accelerated by “islandness” and limited geographical area. It is hoped that this thesis will add historical perspective to policy makers working on sustainable development in the future. IV Preface Contemporary society still grasps the “garden myth”^ on Prince Edward Island. However, in contradiction to the myth, the Island is currently facing a number of serious environmental issues. Some of the environmental issues are bom out of simply being an island, and others are created by human practices. The Island is still a beautiful garden landscape, but under the surface of the beautiful landscape is a different story. Perhaps one of the key aspects to survival on the Island is maintaining the ground water supply, but it is slowly being polluted by human introduction of chemicals and toxins, along with the fact that islands are prone to sea salt water intrusion. In addition to ground water damage, interior waterways are being damaged by soil erosion run off, and also bulldozed for other purposes. Fish-kills in waterways have been consistently in the news throughout the last decade. The Island is slowly eroding away due to natural and un natural practices. Insects, particularly bees, which are necessary for pollination, are decreasing due to changes induced by chemicals in the environment. It would be easy to continue to recite many more contemporary environmental issues, but Prince Edward Island is not unique in facing environmental degradation. However, Prince Edward Island is an island and any environmental problems are “amplified by compression.” ^ In other words, the closeness of the Island’s geographical boundaries can make changes occur at accelerated rates. For example, ecological and evolution processes for plants are amplified on small islands, but the small geographical * The “garden myth” is a romantic desire to believe that Islanders live by more innocent, less destructive, traditional practices, in a pastoral environment. (Michelle McDonald, "Did the Figure in the Landscape really make the Landscape? The Garden Myth in Prince Edward Island History" (B.A. Honours; History, 2006, University of Prince Edward Island), 2. ^ Dianna M. Perry, Stephen Blackmore, and Quentin C.B. Cronk, “Chapter 5, Island Flora,”in A World of Islands: An Island Studies Reader, ed. Godfrey Baldacchino (Charlottetown, PEL: Institute of Island Studies, 2007), 193. area can also make islands susceptible to biological disturbances. The amplification by compression that occurs on islands can be useful to decipher trends that would otherwise be difficult to observe on a large continent.^ Prince Edward Island is no exception to the rule, and the limited geographical boundaries can potentially accelerate human awareness of environmental changes. Finally, the writer must divulge the personal motivation behind writing an environmental history of Prince Edward Island. I am one of a shrinking number of Islanders with heritage or roots in the agriculture industry. As a child, I spent every minute allowed by my parents on my grandparent’s farm because my greatest interest was learning how to be a farmer. I craved the independence that the farming lifestyle had to offer, because stepping on to your own land to view the results of your hard physical labour and decisions can be one of the most rewarding feelings that life has to offer. I enjoyed so many aspects of farming, from admiring the large loft of a bam stuffed to the rafters with square bales of hay, every bale packed by your own hands, to the sense of satisfaction after all the crops are harvested in the fall. Farming is a way of life where you work closely with the environment every day, and the more I learned about environmental issues in the Masters of Island Studies program, the more I thought about ways to improve both farming incomes and the environment, because the two are intereonnected. When did my farming eareer end? It occurred sometime in high school, during the transition from childhood to young adulthood, when decisions regarding a career begin. Farming as a career