Ellen Stroud: Links Cities, Environmental Studies Programs
Most writers who treat environmental issues, says environmental historian Ellen Stroud, tend to focus on either cities or wilderness, but not both. “And many environmentalists who focus on natural areas,” she says, “sort of wish cities away. But we need to be thinking about how cities can function well in relation to nature.”
Stroud's position — Assistant Professor of Growth and Structure of Cities and Environmental Studies on the Alderfer Fund — is a new one at the college. Stroud earned a B.A. in political science at the University of Michigan. She took an M.A. in U.S. history at the University of Oregon in Eugene, where she was introduced to environmental history; urban historians supervised her Ph.D. training at Columbia University. She comes to Bryn Mawr from Oberlin College, where she had been teaching since 2001. The Bryn Mawr position, she says, offered a rare opportunity to combine her interests in urban and environmental history.
“It's not very often that a position in urban studies is a joint appointment in environmental studies as well,” she says. “It was perfect. And I'm delighted to return to Philadelphia, where I grew up.” Stroud's sister Beth graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1991, so she knew the College not only through reputation, but through alumna enthusiasm as well.
Stroud's research explores relationships between cities and the far larger environments of which they are a part — relationships that sometimes take surprising forms. For instance, her current book manuscript looks at the reforestation of the Northeastern United States that began in the 19th century. The region was concurrently undergoing intense urbanization. That the two processes occurred simultaneously was no accident, Stroud says; in fact, she argues that urbanization was a major causal factor in the return of the forest.
In the 19th century, Stroud explains, the development of cross-country railroads meant that farm products could be shipped east from the fertile Midwest, and less-productive farmland in the Northeast was no longer competitive. Much was allowed to lie fallow and eventually revert to trees.
But that's only half the story, Stroud says. “Just as that land was becoming available on the market, a conception of forests as very complex public resources was beginning to develop. People were beginning to understand — and sometimes misunderstand — concepts that we now term ecology. There was, for example, a widespread popular belief that an impending 'timber famine' would deprive the region of fuel and building materials; some people even believed that trees caused rainfall and that deforestation would result in drought.”
These and other concerns about the uses and necessity of trees encouraged public policies that both conserved and rebuilt forests. As former farmers moved to cities, city residents pressured their municipal governments, their state legislatures and eventually the federal government to purchase land, to change tax policies and to shift land-management priorities. Through their efforts, what had been open fields became national forests, national parks, state reserves, tree nurseries, watershed protection lands, or just as often, private land with new incentives for owners to nurture and preserve standing timber. Believing that more forest was needed to supply resources to increasingly dense urban populations, the nation invested in trees....
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Stroud's position — Assistant Professor of Growth and Structure of Cities and Environmental Studies on the Alderfer Fund — is a new one at the college. Stroud earned a B.A. in political science at the University of Michigan. She took an M.A. in U.S. history at the University of Oregon in Eugene, where she was introduced to environmental history; urban historians supervised her Ph.D. training at Columbia University. She comes to Bryn Mawr from Oberlin College, where she had been teaching since 2001. The Bryn Mawr position, she says, offered a rare opportunity to combine her interests in urban and environmental history.
“It's not very often that a position in urban studies is a joint appointment in environmental studies as well,” she says. “It was perfect. And I'm delighted to return to Philadelphia, where I grew up.” Stroud's sister Beth graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1991, so she knew the College not only through reputation, but through alumna enthusiasm as well.
Stroud's research explores relationships between cities and the far larger environments of which they are a part — relationships that sometimes take surprising forms. For instance, her current book manuscript looks at the reforestation of the Northeastern United States that began in the 19th century. The region was concurrently undergoing intense urbanization. That the two processes occurred simultaneously was no accident, Stroud says; in fact, she argues that urbanization was a major causal factor in the return of the forest.
In the 19th century, Stroud explains, the development of cross-country railroads meant that farm products could be shipped east from the fertile Midwest, and less-productive farmland in the Northeast was no longer competitive. Much was allowed to lie fallow and eventually revert to trees.
But that's only half the story, Stroud says. “Just as that land was becoming available on the market, a conception of forests as very complex public resources was beginning to develop. People were beginning to understand — and sometimes misunderstand — concepts that we now term ecology. There was, for example, a widespread popular belief that an impending 'timber famine' would deprive the region of fuel and building materials; some people even believed that trees caused rainfall and that deforestation would result in drought.”
These and other concerns about the uses and necessity of trees encouraged public policies that both conserved and rebuilt forests. As former farmers moved to cities, city residents pressured their municipal governments, their state legislatures and eventually the federal government to purchase land, to change tax policies and to shift land-management priorities. Through their efforts, what had been open fields became national forests, national parks, state reserves, tree nurseries, watershed protection lands, or just as often, private land with new incentives for owners to nurture and preserve standing timber. Believing that more forest was needed to supply resources to increasingly dense urban populations, the nation invested in trees....