Recovering Borealia: The Social-nature of Canada’s Boreal Forest by William Andrew Baldwin A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography and Environmental Studies Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario March 2006 © copyright 2006 William Andrew Baldwin Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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Abstract Building on recent debates in postcolonial geography and poststructural political ecology concerning the multiple imbrications of nature and culture, this dissertation sets out to explore how the concept of nature operates as one of the dominant metaphors organizing the politics of boreal forest conservation in northern Canada. In so doing, three specific sites of nature’s production in boreal forest politics are considered: forestry, the canoe expedition and forest-carbon management. In the first, it is argued that the boreal forest first attained its visibility as a contiguous space of nature within the nationalized discourse of scientific forestry in the early twentieth century. Here the nationalist rhetoric of Bernard Edward Femow, one of North America’s first professional foresters and a celebrated figure in early twentieth century conservation, is examined for the way it constitutes the northern forests of Canada as a sphere of nature with import to the Canadian imperial economy. It is subsequently argued that through Femow’s rhetoric it is possible to conceive of the boreal forest as an expression of colonial power, which is, in turn, reiterated within contemporary boreal forest conservation discourse, specific to state forestry. In the second, a media publicity campaign, which sought to draw public attention to the environmental significance of the boreal forest in 2003, is interrogated for the way in which it constructed the boreal forest as an important site on which the narrative of national recovery could be staged. Here it is argued that through the tactical choices made by those groups politicizing the boreal forest, the canoe trip, a cherished “Canadian” pastime, becomes one of the privileged means by which such national recoveries might be experienced and lived. However, far from offering an unmediated experience with nature, it is argued that the canoe trip is predicated on an ocularcentrism Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. that bypasses the politics of exclusion that work to construct the boreal forest as a space of national nature. And, in the third, the discourse of forest-carbon management is examined for the way in which it constructs the boreal forest through a narrative of scarcity. It is then argued that this narrative device works as a regulatory schema governing the construction of aboriginal and Canadian national identity. But more than simply interrogating each site for the way the boreal forest is materialized, I argue that each offers a unique vantage from which to consider the genealogical proximity of nature’s production and that of Canadian national identity. By extension it is argued that recent efforts to politicize the boreal forest through a discourse of ecological modernization might also be read as a politics of Canadian nationalism. Along the way, several more arguments are advanced. First, it is argued that nature’s ontological stability is neither found nor discovered in the material world, but is fabricated through the very practices that name it and is, as such, performative. Second, and closely related, it is argued that through its performativity, nature is marked by its constitutive outside, a spatial domain that must be radically foreclosed in order for nature’s geography to appear. And third, it is argued that this radical exclusion, at least insofar as it works alongside representations of the boreal forest, must be considered in raced and gendered terms. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgements This project was made possible by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship and a SSHRC Graduate Supplement provided by the Canadian Forest Service. Additional financial assistance was provided through two Ontario Graduate Scholarships and by Carleton University. Money aside, this project would not have been possible without the affections of so many people. At York University, I want to thank Anders Sandberg for his encouragement and support and for taking an early interest in my work, and Han Kapoor for challenging me to think environments in new ways. At Carleton, I want to thank Abra Adamo, Dale Armstrong, Trish Ballamingie, May Chazen, France-Lise Colin, Fiona Coyle, Andrew Dawe, Shawn Donaldson, Brian Eddy, Brian Egan, Sherrill Johnson, Tracey Lauriault, Shona Leyboume, Jamie Linton, Diego Martino, Nadine Saad, Melanie Sommerville, Paul Steenhof, Tristan Sturm, Anne Wiles, Graeme Williamson and Alette Willis for fostering such a stimulating thinking environment. Were it not for the acuity, insight and dedication of Simon Dalby and Fiona Mackenzie, my dissertation supervisors, this project would never have happened. Both set the bar very high for me early on and for this I am most grateful. Thanks are also due to Iain Wallace and Fran Klodawsky for offering much over the years. Without the help of Hazel Anderson, Elsie Clement and Judy Donaldson, there is no doubt I would still be navigating the complex administrative geographies of Carleton University. I wish to thank each of them for their kind assistance. Thanks also to Susan Tudin for her assistance in helping me navigate McOdrum Library and to Dave Bertram and Peter Heuthorst for their technical wizardry. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Outside academia, I gratefully acknowledge all those practitioners who took time from their busy schedules to speak to me about their work. I learned immensely from our conversations, so thank you. I also gratefully acknowledge the archival work of Louis Cardinal at the Library and Archives of Canada and Andrea Dixon at the National Gallery of Canada. To the International Institute for Sustainable Development (USD), especially Kimo Goree, Pam Chasek and Chris Spence, I owe a special debt of gratitude for giving me the opportunity to traverse the yawning divide between theory and practice and witness multilateralism firsthand. Many thanks also to all the fantastic people with whom I have had the special fortune of globetrotting over the years with USD. Extra special thanks are due Sylvia, Annie, James, Alex, Neel, Geoff and Sue for their friendship and support in Ottawa. And, finally, heartfelt thanks to my family - Margaret, Patricia, Jen and Bill - for their unconditional support as I pursued what may have appeared to them an enigmatic dream and most of all to Tara, whose friendship, humour and love have contributed to this project in ways I am not sure I will ever fully comprehend. Ottawa January 2006 v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Contents Recovering Borealia: The Social-nature of Canada’s Boreal Forest Abstract ii Acknowledgements iv Contents vi List of Figures vii Abbreviations ix PART I: Nature in Question 1. Knowing Borealia 1 2. Social-naturing: Theorizing