Marsh and Barn / Author
Memory, Place & Change on the Tantramar Marshes
Aiden Fudge, MLA Candidate, University of Guelph / Grant $1,500
The Tantramar Marshes, located at the heart of the maritime provinces of Canada, is a landscape layered in cultural and natural significance. As one of the largest contiguous salt marsh ecosystems on the east coast of North America, it possesses a stunning diversity of ecological services. A rich cultural history parallels its ecological value, a past that tells the story of pre and post-Canadian history, writ large across its fields, rivers, dykes, and architectural and landscape artifacts.
It is a landscape of 7,000-year-old evidence of Mi’kmaw hunting practices, 350-year-old Acadian traces of land reclamation from inhospitable salt marshes and the site of their expulsion by the British colonial forces. It is recognized in the maritime provinces as a cultural and ecological crossroads, an essential bridge of fragile land that connects Nova-Scotia to New Brunswick and the western expanse of mainland Canada. Rising sea levels and intensified storm systems are now threatening its future. It is in a vulnerable position. It has no overarching protection; there is currently no implemented adaptive strategy to protect its assets. This Master’s thesis will tell its story as a landscape narrative, capture its genius loci through an inventory and analysis of its features, overlaid by predictions of the drastic change that is forecasted by the effects of climate change. This research will help to inform and empower future landscape interventions and conservation practices that seek to respond to the challenges of our times on the Tantramar Marshes.
Updates
2019.09.23
Abstract:
The Tantramar Marshes are one of the largest contiguous salt marsh ecosystems on North America’s Atlantic Coast. The Marshes represent a hybrid landscape of agriculture, cultural artifacts, and transportation and energy infrastructure, marking a cultural and ecological crossroads- an essential bridge of fragile land connecting Nova-Scotia to New Brunswick. Rising sea levels are threatening the Marshes’ functions; they are in a vulnerable position with no overarching regulatory protection or adaptive strategy.
The goal of the research was the creation of a landscape narrative of the Tantramar Marshes for use as catalyst for future landscape interventions. The landscape narrative method uses archival and secondary source data to interpret existing conditions and predictions of future outcomes, defining distinct epochs of landscape change. This research is intended to inform future landscape interventions that seek to respond to the challenges of climate change and shifting land use on the Tantramar Marshes.
Aiden Fudge > Masters Thesis_ Memory, Place and Change on the Tantramar Marshes