I first came to Sabana Grande, Nicaragua, nearly 5 years ago, drawn by the opportunity to spend a sabbatical semester observing and participating in the sustainable development projects here that have garnered international recognition (a United Nations SEED prize). I have a dual appointment in both history and environmental studies at my institution, but for that semester I was mostly wearing my environmental studies hat, focusing on the present and future as I learned about grass-roots alternative energy development, natural construction, climate change adaptation efforts, and agro-ecological restoration from community members and the Nicaragua NGO based in the community, Grupo Fénix.

But I am by inclination and training an environmental historian first, and I found that many of the questions I was asking during that first sojourn here focused on the past. I wondered what things were like here before these development initiatives began in the 1990s, especially the ways people generated energy, cultivated food crops, and collected and used water. As I heard people lament less predictable rainfall, I wondered how the climate had changed more generally in a place where, as in many parts of the world, precipitation in the best of times falls only during the rainy season (May-October). I pondered the historical impact of the Pan-American Highway, the stretch running right through the community built in the 1960s (with Alliance for Progress funding).

The research framework has proven durable, though as with any project I have had to adjust my vision of what's possible along the way. Written and photographic documentation of change and continuity over time is very hard to come by. In municipal and departmental archives I have found some limited source material for changes in population, land use practices, public health, and other categories of analysis of interest to environmental historians. The richest sources are the more than 30 oral history interviews (with community members ranging from 20-94 year's old) I and my collaborators here have conducted. It will take months of listening and re-listening upon my return, but the stories have converged around the theme of profound and rapid change over the past 20 years.

Sabana Grande has followed a pattern of development similar to many places in Latin America without a valuable export commodity shaping its destiny (save for the ocote pine forests that were decimated by U.S. and Canadian logging interests in the 1960s and 1970s, something that every person over the age of 60 has told me changed the climate of the region perceptibly). It was settled rather late (late 1800s) by pastoral indigenous and mestizo families, the community's relationship to the land revolving around subsistence roza y quema agriculture supplemented by migratory labor to the coffee plantations of the Central Highlands of Nicaragua.

Twenty years ago, people have told me, things really began to change - when the first wells were drilled, when the limited electricity from the grid began to be supplemented by solar panels, when the diet began to expand to include more vegetables but more junk food too, when the population began to grow very quickly (from a few dozen families to more than 100), accelerating deforestation. I look forward to weaving my research into a story that both the community and other scholars will appreciate, recognizing that decades will need to pass to fully grasp the impact of more recent changes here, including climate change (for more on that, see the segment on Sabana Grande in Al Gore's 24 Hours of Reality program, Hour 22 at the 35 min. mark).

To enhance inclusiveness and the value of membership in ASEH, we are moving to expand and invigorate the ASEH mentoring program. This program has run in a relatively small way for a few years now, thanks to the good offices of Lisa Mighetto who initiated it and has continued to facilitate it. Thanks are due Lisa for this valuable effort and to those who have participated as mentors thus far. 

Details of the program as it exists can be found at http://aseh.net/resources/for-students/aseh-mentoring-program.

After consultation and several conversations with interested parties, we wish to build upon this model.  Going forward, we envisage mentoring groups of three or four students (as per specifications on the webpage above) and one established scholar (or professional from beyond the academy). As now, groups will be established for a calendar year, although engagement may continue beyond this. Groups will be encouraged to "chat" electronically at least 3 or 4 times during the year, and to meet at the ASEH Annual meeting if possible. Mentoring conversations will focus on career advice, professional advancement, and facilitating contacts rather than reading student work.

What is new? Bringing several students together with a mentor should create a livelier dynamic and enhance the experience. Students will benefit from contact with peers in other institutions as well as their mentor.  Mentors and students will be provided with a set of guidelines on which to base their interactions. The matching of mentors and students will be done by an ad hoc committee (to be established). Mentors will be recognized in the Newsletter and elsewhere.

What we need?  Participants. Engagement is essential to success: we need mentors and we need mentees to identify themselves. If you are interested in either - which I hope you will be - please notify Lisa Mighetto at director@aseh.net  asap but no later than 12 January 2018, and include a brief statement about yourself.  I will come chasing mentors if the response is insufficient, so please save me the task and stand as a volunteer rather than a conscript. Please let me (wynn@geog.ubc.ca) or Lisa know if you are willing to serve on the ad hoc matching committee.

ASEH has two positions available:

ASEH Seeks Editor for Environmental History
ASEH and the Forest History Society seek applicants to serve as editor of the journal Environmental History for a 5-year term beginning July 2019. The successful applicant will serve as editor-elect for a transition period of 6 to 12 months. For information on qualifications, responsibilities, application materials, and search procedures click here. Interested parties may request further information from chair of the search committee by writing to  Nancy_Jacobs@brown.edu. Review of applications will begin on January 15, 2018; the final deadline for receipt of applications is February 1, 2018. 

ASEH Seeks Executive Director
This full-time position starts in October 2018. Deadline for application: December 20, 2017. Click here for details.