How can Understanding the History of Ecological Change
Help Us with the Future?

The Maryland landscape we know today is the product of millions of years of natural processes. Until recently, that landscape was predominantly shaped by the ecological functions of soil, climate, hydrology, and slope. Global-scale shifts in climate were responsible for governing ecological change in Maryland. But the arrival of humans on the land introduced a new element which through time proved to be an increasingly powerful ecological force which continues to accelerate into the present.

“Environment may initially shape the range of choices available to a people at a given moment, but then culture reshapes environment in responding to those choices.” (William Cronon, 1993:13)

Looking at the history of Maryland’s environment, we recognize that it has never been static. The first European explorers to the New World encountered not a primordial landscape untouched and unchanging, but a dynamic realm of interconnected physical, biological, and cultural forces. Understanding the interaction of these forces and their effects upon a malleable landscape puts the concept of a ”virgin wilderness” into a context where change is constant and humans long played an important role

We share a history with all the Marylanders that have come before us. By being human, through the acts that fulfill our needs for food, shelter, and transportation, as well as our social, political, and spiritual desires, we effect and are affected by the land we live upon. As Marylanders we share a heritage of transforming our environment.

We live in a time where concerns about global warming, deforestation, overpopulation, and our food supply loom large. History helps us to understand the effects of both our conscious and inadvertent actions upon the environment. And hopefully, an understanding of our past will help us to be better stewards of our home and its resources.

Further Information:

Cronon, William
1993   Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. Hill and Wang, New York.

Flannery, Tim
2001   The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and its Peoples. Atlantic Monthly Press, New York.

Krech, Shepard, III
1999   The Ecological Indian. W.W. Norton and Company, New York.

Diamond, Jared
2005   Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Penguin, New York.