Landscapes entangle both the practical and the emotional characteristics of their past in ways that trip up the present. Because we experience landscapes as complicated by these strong and often opposed modes of perceiving them, decisions about landscape management are rarely simple. Sometimes, to simplify decisions, we discount the past and favour more modern assessments. But what if both valuable knowledge and the satisfaction of traditions carried forward could be extracted from the history of landscapes? A new framework called historical ecology offers a useful array of concepts and methods for studying the past and future of the relationship between people and their environments. Its holistic, ethical, and place-based approach can ‘grow’ regional expertise for managing the future.
Carole Crumley is Professor of Anthropology (emerita) at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (USA), and is currently Executive Director of IHOPE (Integrated History and Future of People on Earth) at Uppsala University. A founder of historical ecology, she is trained in archaeology, classics, geology, climatology, and landscape ecology. She studies long-term landscape change in Burgundy, France.