Abstract

In 1988, Congress authorized a study of "the Northern Forest" of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine which was meant to determine how best to preserve the last expanses of undeveloped forest in the Northeast and its traditions. While both the Study and the succeeding Northern Forest Lands Council deliberations were designed to be as inclusive of multiple voices and interests as possible, the vast majority of the people who live in the North Country did not participate despite the far-reaching implications for the future of the forest which they call home. ;It is around the question of what Nature is and how it is to be understood that rural people come into conflict with environmental professionals who have been trained in the methods and mores of modern science. To the latter, Nature is "the environment". It is "out there", surrounding us but not an integral part of the human world or of ourselves. Rural people, on the other hand, not only see the natural world as an essential part of their everyday lives but as part of themselves. ;Chapter One reviews the history of the study of rural communities and of Nature by social and natural scientists, and attempts to explain why these professionals do not see these phenomena in the same ways that rural people do. Chapter Two explores how historical perspectives affect people's understandings of themselves and their consequent understandings of the "proper" ways of "preserving tradition". Chapter Three uses hermeneutic theory to examine ways in which rural people learn about Nature, themselves and their "place" in the world. Chapter Four draws on feminist epistemological theory to argue that rural people's ways of learning about the natural world are as valid as those accepted within the traditions of science and academe. Chapter Five turns this lens onto the activities of rural men to show that ways of knowing that, within academe, have been considered "feminine" may also be characteristic of men who routinely work closely with Nature. Education plays a central role in people's perceptions of themselves as knowers. In Chapter Six, I argue that, by valuing "scientific" ways of knowing over those that are essential to being grounded in a place, schools teach rural children that they are not competent knowers. It is this belief, I conclude, that kept local people from participating in the NFLC process and deprived the Council of important knowledge about preserving Nature they could have gained from local people