I am interested in the role of consciousness and symbols about nature, the interaction between productive and reproductive forces in human and nonhuman history, and the place of ecological change in understanding development over time. Studying the past can sometimes suggest guidelines for the future and in this sense environmental history plays a role in policy formation. An analysis of ecological history as the history of an expanding power over nature by social institutions and ideologies, together with identifying possibilities for overcoming an instrumental approach to nature, could lead to a sustainable partnership with the natural world. The viability and success of new human modes of existing within the constraints of the environment and its resources requires both an understanding of the past and the articulation of a new ethic for the future.

My research investigates the environmental history of the United States and California. I explore the development of natural resources--agriculture, forestry, ranching, minerals, and water--and the history of the environmental sciences and conservation. I use documents from ecological and geological history, Native American sources, the gold rush, farming, mining, water use, and urbanization. My approach is designed to cast new light on the nation's and California's environmental history and contribute to a reassessment of policies. My students are currently working on projects as diverse as the history and philosophy of twentieth century complexity theory, the history of open space in the twentieth century, the history and philosophy of human alienation from nature, and women in climate change.