Studio for
Bioregional Study
& Conservation

From September 2000 to August 2004 I was a doctoral student in the Land Resources Program of the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies under the advisorship of Dr. Janet Silbernagel. During this time I was an active member of Dr. Silbernagel's Bioregional Studio and study group. With my background in anthropology, archaeology, and American Indian studies, I was interested in Holistic Landscape Ecology as an approach that could bridge my interests in behavioral and humanistic questions with questions of landscape ecology and landscape change. The focus of my research with Dr. Silbernagel was the application of an integrated approach to the examination of the changing ecological and cultural landscape of maple sugar and syrup production in the western Great Lakes. This research was funded by a three-year USDA McIntire-Stennis grant for forest related research.

During the course of this collaboration, a number of presentations were made to scholarly, popular, and industry audiences, both as general overviews and as detailed cases studies. One particular case study was the evolution of the maple production landscape on Grand Island in Lake Superior, which was published in 2003 in the Michigan Academician (available here as a PDF).

The largest product of this collaboration was the completion of my doctoral dissertation in the spring of 2004 under the title Where the Forest Meets the Farm: A Comparison of the Spatial and Historical Change in the Euro-American and American Indian Maple Production Landscape.

One of the most exciting outcomes of this research has been the development of two book length projects and the participation in the development of a museum exhibit. The first, due for completion in the fall of 2006, is being written for a more popular audience as an illustrated history of the maple industry in the state of Wisconsin. This project has been undertaken in partnership with the Wisconsin Maple Syrup Producer's Association and will be showcased when they host the international meetings of the maple syrup industry in October 2006 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The second book project is a more scholarly volume based on my dissertation that will present a historical narrative of the landscape history of the maple industry in the western Great Lakes region. Looking at both Indian and non-Indian maple production over the last 200 years, this book will be published as part of a new University of Wisconsin Press series edited by Professor Arne Alanen on cultural and vernacular landscapes in the Western Great Lakes.

My participation in the Landscape Tapestry Exhibit has been as a Humanities Scholar where I apply my expertise with the maple production landscape and my overall knowledge of the history of the region and its American Indian communities. In collaboration with the project Director, Dr. Silbernagel, I have worked specifically on the development of the part of the exhibit that focuses on maple sugar and syrup, providing text, images, and feedback on the accuracy, integration, and presentation of project information.

I continue to be involved in ongoing research related to the interface of cultural and ecological landscapes and the history of the maple industry. Two new projects I am working on are a study of the evolution of the ecological and cultural landscape of the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe reservation in northern Wisconsin and a study of the identification and significance of culturally modified trees in the Western Great Lakes. Other more developed projects include a study of the process and significance of changing gender roles in American Indian maple production; and the history and technological significance of the development of plastic tubing for collecting maple sap. In addition, I continue to research and write historical vignettes for each edition of the newsletter of the Wisconsin Maple Syrup Producer's Association. PDF versions of past newsletter articles can be opened on the Studio's "Publications" page.

Since completing my doctoral studies I have relocated to the Washington, DC area where I work as a Social Scientist with the Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences Division of the National Science Foundation.

If you have questions or comments or would like to contact me, I can be reached by email at: mthomas@nsf.gov

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