Cottonwood Grove in the Fisher Pastures. Photo by: Richard.

Peo­ple, out­side of acad­e­mia, often ask me what Envi­ron­men­tal His­tory is and why I study it instead of, say, the Rev­o­lu­tion, the Civil War, or World War II (the most com­monly ref­er­enced his­to­ries). Most of the time, I am at a loss about how to respond to their ques­tions. Gen­er­ally I mum­ble some­thing about the envi­ron­ment as play­ing a very impor­tant and spe­cific role in shap­ing our Amer­i­can His­tory and leave it at that. Of course, this is not nec­es­sar­ily fair to them, or me, or for EH in general.

Now I have an answer … mem­o­ries of my child­hood, roam­ing the Dia­mond 4 ranch with my bor­der col­lie, Mark, in tow and a .22 in hand. Those mem­o­ries remain with me always, and thus I have a strong con­nec­tion to my his­tory and the very impor­tant envi­ron­ments that shaped that his­tory. This photo, taken last Octo­ber while hunt­ing with my Dad, I think best describes that con­nec­tion. I spent many hours and days wan­der­ing through those trees under sunny, blue skies. To answer the ques­tion, I study what I study because it con­nects me to my past and thus our past.