Episode 25 National Parks Beyond the Nation: 24 October 2011 [audio: http://niche-canada.org/files/sound/naturespast/natures-past25.mp3][40:56] While Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan’s six-episode PBS documentary series framed national parks as “America’s Best Idea”, that idea has not been limited to the borders of the United States. The world’s first national parks service was established […]
National Parks
Episode 22 A Century of Parks Canada: May 16, 2011 [audio: http://niche-canada.org/files/sound/naturespast/natures-past22.mp3][33:16] On May 19, 2011, Parks Canada celebrates its 100th anniversary, commemorating its founding in 1911 as the world’s first national parks service. Preceding the creation of the National Park Service in the United States by more than five […]
Nature’s Past, the Canadian environmental history podcast, will be recording a live round-table discussion with Claire Campbell and some of the contributors to a new edited collection called, A Century of Parks Canada, 1911-2011, on Monday, April 11th at the University of Calgary (MLT 909, 12pm to 2pm). This event […]
Episode 18 Local and Regional Parks: November 21, 2010 [audio: http://niche-canada.org/files/sound/naturespast/natures-past18.mp3][45:50] The provincial government of British Columbia describes Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park as a “yachter’s paradise” located at the confluence of the Malaspina Inlet and Homfray Channel just north of the town of Power River. The calm, warm waters […]
Preservation versus use. This, according to environmental historian Alan MacEachern, is the “unresolved problem at the heart of park history.” Last weekend I was fortunate to have the opportunity to visit Muir Woods National Monument just north of San Francisco where I came face to face with this tension in […]