We know that the Industrial Revolution in America started in New England, and we know that it changed the landscape and ecology of the region forever. But it wasn’t the first time New England’s ecology had been changed to fit the needs of the creatures who inhabited it.
When the Puritans arrived in 1620 the coast had already been cleared for agriculture by native American tribes. These groups lived in an ecosystem that had been shaped by the animals who had been living in New England since the last ice sheet retreated.
The human and animal processes are connected. Meditate on a dammed mill pond created by an 18th century entrepreneur and a dam built by beavers who created a marshland around it, and you will see connections between the industrial world and the world of nature. Economy, ecosystems and reflections on Yankee ingenuity.
(Hosted by Michael Goldfarb)
Guests:
Diana Muir, author of Reflections in Bullough’s Pond: Economy and Ecosystem in New England.