Recalling Your Presence While Calling Your Name

In a recent project called Protect Your Love, I left the city to seek encounters with wild animals in Nova Scotia’s protected wilderness areas. Sadly, after many days backcountry, I was not able to make contact with a single animal. I wanted to feel connected to those wild places, but in the end, I did not. http://www.protectyourlove.wordpress.com

But the city of Halifax— the very place I left behind in search of wildlife— was once part of this vast network of ancient ecosystems.

And so it begins: pouring over old maps, scouring the provincial archives… I am looking for signs of human and wildlife encounters in the city of Halifax since the arrival of the first European settlers. I am tracking the removal of a lush hinterland from the peninsula, beginning in 1749.  What was it like to start a city in virgin forest? When did the forest disappear? What happened to the animals? What records are there of this transformation?

My findings and reflections will be posted here, as well as other projects emerging from this research…