Environmental History Resources

Exploring Environmental History podcast

Exploring Environmental History is the podcast about human societies and the environment in the past. The periodic programmes feature interviews with people working in the field, reports on conferences and discussions about the use and methods of environmental history. You can listen to these audiocasts on your own computer simply by clicking on the "Listen to podcast " links in the list below. Podcast of previous years can be found in the annual archives. The following years are available: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

If you use a podcast aggregator like iTunes you can subscribe to the podcast feed to automatically download the files for syncing to portable audio devices. For more information on how to subscribe and podcasting clients, view the subscription instructions.

You can also follow the podcast on Twitter @EH_Resources.

Do you have comments about or suggestions related to the podcasts? Send us your feedback.

Podcast 51: The Scottish forestry experience and the development of forestry in India

Thursday, 4 April 2013

Since at least the 18th century Scotland has been the centre of forestry knowledge in Britain. Many foresters and botanists trained on Scottish estates went into the colonial service in during the 19th century and what they brought with them was a unique set of forestry skills. This paper examines the influence of Scottish foresters on the development of empire forestry in British India. Scottish-trained foresters aided the adaptation of continental forestry models, mainly German and French, to the Indian conditions, drawing on their experience gained in Scotland. Returning from their service in India they went on to advocate the creation of a forestry service in Scotland, which resonated with landowners who believed that forestry would make the Highlands more productive.

This podcast is the registration of a seminar talk given by Jan Oosthoek in the School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, 22 March 2013.

You can also download a video of the talk containing the slide show used during the presentation.

Music credit
"Where You Are Now" by Zapac Available from ccMixter

Listen to episode #51

Podcast 50: Conquering the Highlands. History of the afforestation of the Scottish uplands

Tuesday, 26 March 2013

Large forest plantation in the Scottish Highlands.
Photo: Jan Oosthoek

By the end of the nineteenth century, Scotland's woodlands were reduced to about six per cent of land cover. Over the course of the twentieth century, foresters worked to establish timber reserves in the Scottish Highlands, creating forests on marginal lands that were not easily adapted to forestry following millennia of deforestation. Using a variety of techniques and strategies drawn from modern forestry practices, the Scottish uplands were afforested in the twentieth century, tripling the forest cover. The creation of new forests to serve strategic and economic interests, however, altered the ecology of the Scottish uplands and eventually came into conflict with the interests of environmentalists in the late twentieth century.

This fascinating history of the afforestation of the Scottish uplands is explored in a new book by environmental historian Jan Oosthoek called, Conquering the Highlands: A History of the Afforestation of the Scottish Uplands. To learn more about this book, this episode features an interview with the author.

Links & sites mentioned in the podcast
Download Conquering the Highlands as a free e-book from the ANU E Press website.
Buy a print copy of Conquering the Highlands from Amazon.
Book companion website
Nature's Past podcast

Music credits

"Lark in the Morning. The Atholl Highlanders" by Sláinte
Available from freemusicarchive.org

"Scotland the Brave" by Shake That Little Foot
Available from freemusicarchive.org

Listen to episode #50

Podcast 49: Kielder: the story of a man-made landscape

Friday, 22 February 2013

Former Forestry Commission workers houses in Kielder Village with
forestry plantations in the background.
Source: geograph.org.uk. Photo: Stephen Richards.

Around the world, rural landscapes have been transformed by human activity as never before. In England, one of the most striking locations of such anthropogenic changes is Kielder Forest and Water in Northumberland. Since the 1920s, this site has seen a massive tree planting effort, creating one of the largest man-made forests in Western Europe. During the 1970s a large dam and reservoir were constructed at Kielder in order to create a secure water supply for the industries at Teeside. As a result Kielder has witnessed significant and dramatic environmental changes over the course of the twentieth century, as it was transformed from a pastoral agricultural landscape, to that of a commercial forest and finally it received the addition of a large man-made lake.

The construction of Kielder Dam and Reservoir.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.

To tease out how people have experienced and perceived the man-made environment of Kielder, the Kielder Oral History Project was conducted. On this episode of the podcast, the two researchers who carried out the Oral History project, Professor David Moon of the University of York and Dr Leona Skelton of Durham University, will discuss some of their findings.

Kielder and surrounding areas in the 1920s. Seamless historical map provided by
the National Library of Scotland.

Books and articles mentioned

Christine McCulloch, Dam Decisions and Pipe Dreams: The Political Ecology of Reservoir Schemes (Teesdale, Farndale and Kielder Water) in North East England (Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag, 2008)

R. McIntosh,'The history and multi-purpose management of Kielder Forest', Forest Ecology and Management, 79 (November 1995) 1–2, pp 1–11.

Ruth Tittensor, From Peat Bog to Conifer Forest: An Oral History of Whitelee, its Community and Landscape (Chichester: Packard Publishing, 2009).

Relevant links
Kielder oral History project report
Kielder Village Website
Kielder Water and Forest Park website
Kielder Water Wikipedia page
Kielder Forest Wikipedia page

Music credits

"Memories of an Old Dog" by Fireproof_Babies
Available from ccMixter

"Where You Are Now" by Zapac
Available from ccMixter

Listen to episode #49

Acknowledgements:
The interviews were conducted by Dr Leona Skelton at Kielder during the week 15-19 October 2012. We would like to acknowledge the support of Northumbrian Water plc, especially Andrew Moore and Tonia Reeve, the Forestry Commission, in particular Graham Gill, Julie and Steve Webb of the Kielder Village Store, Duncan Hutt of the Northumberland Wildlife Trust, and the staff of the Calvert Trust Kielder for their assistance in setting up the interviews and, especially, all those who agreed to be interviewed.

The Kielder Oral History Project and the production of this podcast was funded by the AHRC Landscape & Environment Programme.

This podcast was simultaneously published on the Histories of Environmental Change website.