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>> I'm a cultural
geographer.
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I often get asked
what that means.
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Do I study rocks?
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No, that's geologists.
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Do I like maps?
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I do. But there is more to
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cultural geography
than just maps.
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In fact, as cultural
geographers,
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there are pretty
varied bunch in
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study of variety
of phenomena.
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From city planning,
to social issues,
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to the cultural
traditions of places
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our country is enemies
or allies with.
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One avenue for
exploration that
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many cultural geographers
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utilize is the landscape.
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Landscape can tell us
a lot about a culture.
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It can reveal
aspects of the past,
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where we're from, how
culture has changed,
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and it can also reveal
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contemporary circumstances,
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and the values that we
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hold today as a society.
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The beauty of reading
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the landscape is
that is available to
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each and every one of us to
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read and to learn from.
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Have we just know a few
things to look for?
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But first, what's the value
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of reading the landscape?
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Well, one, we live
in it, right?
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The big box store,
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it's a small locally
owned store,
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it's the suburbs,
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the sidewalks, the streets,
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they are all part of
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the landscape and guide us
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in our day-to-day living.
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Two, simply a deeper
appreciation for
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places and the
processes that
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go into creating
those places,
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the people who
are involved,
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the labor that's involved,
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and then knowing
that there are
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individual and
community stories
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that surround each
and every landscape.
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If we take a look at
this building here,
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the Wool Warehouse,
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this is in Big
Timber, Montana.
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It might not look like
much of a building,
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but it stands as
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a reflection of
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the communities
heritage in Big Timber,
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and that it's
historical foundation
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with the sheep industry.
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The really neat
thing is, if you
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step inside that building,
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and it's brick walls
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all around, and what
you'll see here,
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you'll see dates
and signatures,
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some over a 100 years old.
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From anybody who had
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anything to do
with the industry,
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whether they are
wall stamper,
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sheers, herders, ranchers.
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You have this building
that's a reflection
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of the communities
heritage in the industry,
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but then attached
to that building,
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you have individual
stories of family,
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of friendship, of labor,
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and of that hard work.
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When we know more
about the landscape
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and the meanings
behind them,
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we tend to take
better care of them,
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and we appreciate
them more,
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whether that's
a building that
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makes your
community unique,
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or say, public lands that
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surround your community.
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What else can we learn
from the landscape?
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What can we look for?
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Well, we can learn
about the past.
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We can learn about
who people are,
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where they came from.
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One way to do
that is look at
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ethnic signatures
on the landscape,
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and ask the question, Why?
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Why did a
particular group of
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people settle in a
particular landscape?
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Then in turn, how did they
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shape that landscape,
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and how did the traditions
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that they brought
with them,
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how is it
continuing to shape
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that place identity today?
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An example of
this would be,
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if we go to Elko, Nevada,
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North East of
Nevada, and we
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have the star hotel here,
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you can see it
says Basque food.
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Going back to the why,
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why did the Basques from
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France and Spain
come to Elko Nevada?
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That goes back to the
sheep industry also.
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They came in
the late 1800s,
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first half of the 1900s
to work as herders.
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Then other Basques
came and they
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built these Basque
boarding houses,
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which is a combination of
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a restaurant and a hotel,
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and they were used
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to accommodate the herders,
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and offered them
a home away
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from home where their
languages were spoken,
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customs and traditions
could be carried on.
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Today, this one,
the star hotel
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built in 1910 remains.
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Although it's not
a boarding house
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or it is just not
a hotel anymore,
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it is still a restaurant
and those traditions
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then are still carried
on within those walls,
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and also within the
greater Elko community.
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When we have these
ethnic signatures,
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whether it is a
restaurant or say,
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finished sun as
on the landscape,
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is a reminder of the
culture's heritage,
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although that heritage
might be reimagined
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in slight or big ways,
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it's still a connection
to the past,
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and showing that
traditions are carried on,
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and is still shapes
those places then today.
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What else can we learn?
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We can learn about how
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culture has evolved
and how it's changed.
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If we just meander west
of here towards say,
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the Avon area,
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I'm sure many of you have
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driven that road before.
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You maybe even
seen these type of
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landscapes with the big,
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huge haystacks, and
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the strange
contraptions that
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are next to them.
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The picture has to be sure.
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But they also tell us how
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culture has evolved,
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how the scale of ranching
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and farming has evolved,
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how families and
labor have changed.
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This used to be a common
way to put up hay,
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but it was also very
labor-intensive.
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It took a lot
of people which
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wasn't always
necessarily a problem.
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Families were
larger, so you could
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find the labor pool
within your own family,
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within the community,
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even itinerant labor
you could find.
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Well, then technology
evolves, scale evolves,
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and so families
are smaller,
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and now you can just
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have one or two people on
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a tractor in hay baler
to put up your hay.
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We can think of
our landscape
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as of layers, right?
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There's going to be
aspects of the past,
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but then there's
also the present in
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our contemporary values.
What do we value?
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How is that differ
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from community
to community,
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and how is that reflected
on the landscape?
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Let's take a look at
our local example
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here in Helena.
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We have our trails, right?
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You have your signs in
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Mount Helena City
Park this way.
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You follow the signs,
and you go up there,
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you see a large
parking lot,
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many times it's
filled with cars,
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so it is being used.
You can see that.
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Part of reading
landscape is also seeing
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how people interact
with the landscape.
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You go on the
trails and you see
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the runners,
and the bikers,
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the hikers, the toddlers,
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the organized
groups, they're all
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utilizing the landscape.
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That's all part of this
landscape and part of
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Helena's place identity as
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a community that's invested
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in its local trails.
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Then when you're
out on the trails,
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be sure to look out.
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There's a lot of
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different things
that you can see,
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but one thing to take note
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of, is the street patterns.
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We see, are nice
straight streets
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to make that nice grid.
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There's a connection
there that goes all the
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way back to 1682 in
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William Penn when he
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laid out the city
of Philadelphia.
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He wanted that
grid pattern,
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and real estate
sellers and buyers
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loved it too because it
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made the selling of lots,
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nice and easy,
and convenient.
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We're in Helena, we
have our local trails,
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but we're also Westerners,
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so we're surrounded
by public lands from
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national parks to
national forests.
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There's a couple of
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different ways
we could look at
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the national forests and
read that landscape,
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but I want to focus on is,
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how they're managed as
lands of many uses.
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This isn't a new
idea either.
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This goes back to
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the late 1800s,
early 1900s,
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so much of the public
stewardship of
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the forested mountain
areas fell into place.
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We have our lands
of many uses,
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and that's going to
differ depending
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on which forest you are in.
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In this one here, this is
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in Pioneer Mountains.
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On one side, you
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have your grazing
allotments.
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You have cattle grazing,
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fence separating that
from the campgrounds.
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Others you're going to
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see like commercial
logging,
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and logged areas,
and receded forests.
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Going back to
the recreation,
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just the trails
themselves are
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signs for hunting
regulations.
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When we see these
signs of many uses,
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what's that saying
about our culture?
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What do we value,
whether that's
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economic values,
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or cultural values,
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or traditions
being carried on,
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or just what we like to
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do in our leisure time,
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especially as Westerners
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and being outdoor
enthusiasts.
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Enthusiast is part of
our Western identity.
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We have our
landscape and we can
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read it from
different scales.
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We can look at it
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from the
international impact
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on local landscapes through
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such things as immigration,
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both the past and in
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the present that's
still happening today.
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We can also look at
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national policies
on landscape,
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and how that's
impacted places
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through such things
as the public lands.
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Then we can really zoom in
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to the community level,
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and just look at how people
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interact with their
everyday local landscape.
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Scholars have said
that our landscape
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is our autobiography,
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that it reflects our
values, our tastes,
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our preferences, and that
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all human landscapes
reveals something.
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With that can be
overwhelming, right?
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We can't know all of
those answers when we
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go out and read
the landscape,
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but what we can
do is just try to
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ask questions
about what we see.
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What do we see out
there and what
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does that say
about our culture?
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What does that say
about our values?
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Really looking at
just the everyday,
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seemingly mundane features
in the landscape.
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For example, our suburbs,
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what does that
say about us?
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Are they workable
or they not?
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Do we have friend porches,
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or people out
there visiting,
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or do we evaluate privacy
and all activities
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take place and backpack
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you with our
privacy fences?
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Going back to the
recreational landscapes,
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again,
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we're at West
and so there's
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plenty of our playgrounds,
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from the campgrounds to
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the hot springs resorts,
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or the dude ranches,
or the ski resorts.
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What does that
say about what we
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like to do in our
leisure time,
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how we like to
spend our money,
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and so then
these landscapes
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of consumption even?
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If you're curious
about a place,
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or a building in a place,
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any the other type of
landscape feature,
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invite you to
simply ask a local.
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Most people are
so thrilled to
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talk about their hometown,
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and stories about it,
and what makes it
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unique and special to them.
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The next time you're going
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through a small town,
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and you grab a
cup of coffee,
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or you're eating at
a local restaurant,
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simply open up
the conversation
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with a question
about the place.
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Then soon I hope
that we can all
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appreciate road trips
and walks more,
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and see that all
places are filled
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with history and
significance,
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and that we're
just surrounded by
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a storied landscape.
Thank you.