IN-PERSON: Prague – Section A

Abstract

Shelterbelts are those long rows of trees one sees interrupting, sometimes defining, the horizontality of agricultural fields in North America’s prairies and plains. Farmstead shelterbelts are those that encompass and demarcate farmers’ residences and work-yards. They are the result of one hundred-plus years of government programs and individuals’ initiative and creativity to care for the land and make it more hospitable for human settlement. They are part of that landscape’s heritage. Yet as farm sizes, technologies and practices have changed so too have the number of farmstead shelterbelts and the work of those they shelter. Selected farmstead shelterbelts were documented in Manitoba, the Canadian province that contains the north-easterly reaches of North America’s Great Plains. Row measurements, species identifications, photographs, videos, and, most significantly here, recorded interviews of those who live and care for the farmstead shelterbelts were conducted over two summers. While sometimes referring to the other project data and documentation, in this talk I analyze these living structures emphasizing the stories these people tell. Farmstead shelterbelts have ecological, aesthetic, personal and symbolic — as well as instrumental — value for those who live and work with them in this changing landscape. While each shelterbelt is different and each person’s stories are their own, taken all together they shed light on the larger landscape and the forces at play in shaping them.