Environmental History Timeline June, 1780

David Zeisberger records the arrival of European honey bees in eastern Ohio

David Zeisberger, indomitable Moravian missionary, penned his detailed observations, knowledge and experience with Native American life ways and of wild North America during the Contact Period as tentacles of pioneer settlement fingered westward across the Alleghenies. Zeisberger cataloged wildlife in later sections of his history while at his remote mission, Schoenbruun Village, near today's New Philadelphia, Ohio, most likely completing his notes during the summer of 1780.
Zeisberger noted (page 152):

Of bees, nothing was known when we came here in '72, now they are to be found in large numbers in hollow trees in the woods.

Zeisberger's fascinating history and bestiary can be viewed online here: David Zeisberger's History of Northern American Indians.

Honey bees were, and remain, agricultural partners with Western commercial agriculture. They were introduced alongside pioneer European agriculture and alongside the many species of undesired European weeds that came with imported livestock feed and crop seeds. Westward spreading exotic flowering weed species provided essential nutrition for westward spreading honey bees. Pioneer honey bees, always just ahead  of  pioneering peoples, did not reach eastern Ohio for 150 years following introduction in Virginia by 1622.

Native American agriculture produced abundance through partnerships with native pollinators, among them, butterflies, hummingbirds, ants, flies, beetles, and our numerous species of solitary bees, small semi-colonial native ground-nesting bees, and our heavyweight pollinators, bumblebees.

More on honey bees:
Colony collapse disorder CCD
First record of honey bees imported to North America

Environmental History Timeline April, 1622

Honey bees introduced in North America by early colonists, beehives listed as ship's cargo.

Bee historian, retired USDA Apiculturist Everett Oertel summarized available information about the introduction of honey bees in North America in his article, History of Beekeeping in the United States, Agriculture Handbook, No. 335 (1971):

Information available indicates that colonies of honey bees were shipped from England and landed in the Colony of Virginia early in 1622. One or more shipments were made to Massachusetts between 1630 and 1633, others probably between 1633 and 1638. The author was not able to find any records of importing honey bees into other Colonies, but it is reasonable to assume that they were brought by the colonists to New York, Pennsylvania, Carolina, and Georgia.

Brenda Kellar, Oregon State Beekeeper's Association, assembled additional information from multiple early sources for her paper, Honey Bees Across America. At least two ships arrived in Virginia during March and April, 1622, at least one of them carried beehives, most likely the second identified only as "this Shipp", likely the Bona Nova:

The only evidence we have of the initial importation of honey bees to North America is a letter written December 5, 1621 by the Council of the Virginia Company in London and addressed to the Governor and Council in Virginia, "Wee haue by this Shipp and the Discouerie sent you diurs [divers] sortes of seedes, and fruit trees, as also Pidgeons, Connies, Peacockes, Maistiues [Mastiffs], and Beehives, as you shall by the invoice pceiue [perceive]; the preservation & encrease whereof we respond vnto you..."

Kingsbury, Susan Myra. The Records of the Virginia Company of London The Court Book, From the Manuscript in the Library of Congress 1691 -- 1622 Vol 1 and 2. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1906.

Thomas Jefferson penned copious notes about agriculture and all aspects of frontier wilderness, including comments about honey bees, the "white man's fly". Accounts by Jefferson and Zeisberger (see the next blog post, 3/29/2013), together, suggest that pioneer honey bees swarmed westward ahead of pioneer settlers, first occupying broad open landscapes long managed by Native Americans, and presumably, natural prairie openings and pigeon balds--swaths of collapsed forest where vast numbers of Passenger Pigeons had nested or roosted, wherever sunshine reached the ground and abundant warm season flowering plants could be found. Honey bees became increasingly abundant and widespread with the opening of the temperate deciduous forests for European agriculture.

Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia c1781.

The honey-bee is not a native of our continent. Marcgrave indeed mentions a species of honey-bee in Brasil. But this has no sting, and is therefore different from the one we have, which resembles perfectly that of Europe. The Indians concur with us in the tradition that it was brought from Europe; but when, and by whom, we know not. The bees have generally extended themselves into the country, a little in advance of the white settlers. The Indians therefore call them the white man's fly...How far northwardly have these insects been found? That they are unkown in Lapland I infer from Schefer's information...Kalm tells us the honey bee cannot live through the winter in Canada.

 Monticello.org accessed 03/07/2013.

Environmental History Timeline June, 2002

Emerald Ash Borer discovered killing ash trees near Detroit, Michigan

Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) Agrilus planipennis, an exotic beetle thought likely to have arrived in North America in green (fresh) wooden shipping containers delivered to the Detroit area from its native Asia, begins devastating ash trees in Michigan at about the start of the new millennium. During June of 2002 extensive damage to local area ash trees is discovered. EAB larvae are found under the bark of ailing trees, disrupting these trees' transport of water and nutrients. Quarantine efforts fail to stop the invasive insect's spread. EAB's devastating history is made anew daily as ash tree death accelerates geometrically.

Today, EAB is established in two Canadian Provinces, Ohio (2003), Indiana (2004), Illinois and Maryland (2006), Pennsylvania and West Virginia (2007), Wisconsin, Missouri and Virginia (2008), Minnesota, New York, Kentucky (2009), Iowa and Tennessee (2010), Connecticut, Kansas, and Massachusetts (2012). EAB continues to expand its range, eventually killing all infected trees in three to five years: current losses of billions of ash trees have cost communities, forest owners and households many tens of millions of dollars.

Federal and state agencies are cooperating with universities in multidisciplinary efforts to slow ash mortality. The SLAM (SLow Ash Mortality) pilot project is testing methods to slow the spread in outlier forest infestations.

The marketplace offers homeowner solutions, some more effective and less toxic to non-target species than others. Valued landscape ash trees can be saved only through costly insecticide treatments: injectable TREE-age insecticide performs best, by far, according to university research. TREE-age (emamectin benzoate) remains inside professionally injected trees, greatly reducing impacts to other species. Without pesticide treatments, once infested, all ash trees of all native species are expected to die.

Ash trees are wonderful dooryard shade trees. They were planted by many homeowners and communities to replace the grand curbside elm trees that once defined so many boulevards in Midwestern towns, until the large elms themselves were lost to another foreign invader, Dutch Elm Disease. Today, urban foresters recommend diversity in selections of trees to green our streets. Single species boulevards may no longer be a responsible choice. Must global commerce equal global species?

Emerald Ash Borer
Emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, is an exotic beetle that was discovered in southeastern Michigan near Detroit in the summer of 2002. The adult beetles nibble on ash foliage but cause little damage. The larvae (the immature stage) feed on the inner bark of ash trees, disrupting the tree's ability to transport water and nutrients. Emerald ash borer probably arrived in the United States on solid wood packing material carried in cargo ships or airplanes originating in its native Asia. Emerald ash borer is also established in Windsor, Ontario, was found in Ohio in 2003, northern Indiana in 2004, northern Illinois and Maryland in 2006, western Pennsylvania and West Virginia in 2007, Wisconsin, Missouri and Virginia in the summer of 2008, Minnesota, New York, Kentucky in the spring of 2009, Iowa in the spring of 2010, Tennessee in the summer of 2010, and Connecticut, Kansas, and Massachusetts in the summer of 2012. Since its discovery, EAB has: - See more at: http://www.emeraldashborer.info/#sthash.FK8QIdTK.NHaPRM8R.dpuf

Emerald Ash Borer
Emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, is an exotic beetle that was discovered in southeastern Michigan near Detroit in the summer of 2002. The adult beetles nibble on ash foliage but cause little damage. The larvae (the immature stage) feed on the inner bark of ash trees, disrupting the tree's ability to transport water and nutrients. Emerald ash borer probably arrived in the United States on solid wood packing material carried in cargo ships or airplanes originating in its native Asia. Emerald ash borer is also established in Windsor, Ontario, was found in Ohio in 2003, northern Indiana in 2004, northern Illinois and Maryland in 2006, western Pennsylvania and West Virginia in 2007, Wisconsin, Missouri and Virginia in the summer of 2008, Minnesota, New York, Kentucky in the spring of 2009, Iowa in the spring of 2010, Tennessee in the summer of 2010, and Connecticut, Kansas, and Massachusetts in the summer of 2012. Since its discovery, EAB has: - See more at: http://www.emeraldashborer.info/#sthash.FK8QIdTK.NHaPRM8R.dpuf

Lean about treatment options and follow the impacts of this devastating insect invader at emeraldashborer.info.

Environmental History Timeline July, 1721

Pierre de Charlevoix reports catastrophic epidemic mortality among Native American groups, abandoned anthropogenic landscapes

Pierre de Charlevoix*, French Jesuit priest touring New France in the early 18th century, authored a dispassionate record of conditions he observed during his continent-spanning travels. Charlevoix described forests, lakes, rivers, geography, travel routes, communities among the French and among Native Americans, and the successes and failures of groups and efforts to prosper in New France. Charlevoix repeatedly comments on epidemics among Native American groups. While riding a bark canoe and camping along the west shore of Lake Michigan, Charlevoix estimated epidemic mortality in New France while writing of the...

...depopulation of all the Indian nations, who are at present reduced to less than the twentieth part of what they were one hundred and fifty years ago. If this continues we shall certainly see them entirely disappear. [vol. II page 78]

Charlevoix described fallow abandoned villages and entire landscapes left to nature by lost peoples. Late in December of 1721, near present day Baton Rouge, LA, Charlevoix discovers the ruins of an ancient village in transition to a successful plantation growing mulberry, indigo, and tobacco...

The next day, we advanced eleven leagues, and encamped a little below the Bayagoulas, which we left upon our right, after having visited the ruins of an ancient village... This was very well peopled about twenty years ago; the small pox destroyed part of the inhabitants, and the rest have dispersed in such a manner, that no accounts have been heard of them for several years, and it is doubted if so much as one single family of them is now remaining. Its situation is very magnificent, and the Messrs. Paris have now a grant here, which they planted with white mulberries, and have already raised very fine silk. They have likewise begun to cultivate tobacco and indigo with success. If the proprietors of the grants were every-where as industrious, they would soon be reimbursed their expenses. [vol. II, page 284]

Close examination of documented Contact Period conditions in North America reveal the importance and real value of Native American landscape management practices preceding and facilitating pioneer settlement and successes. Many anthropogenically managed landscapes, later found in various stages of succession, predated European settlement.

*Charlevoix, Pierre-Francois-Xavier De. Journal of a Voyage to North America. London: Dodsley., 1761.

Environmental History Timeline April, 1896

Global warming with increasing carbon dioxide predicted by Svante August Arrhenius

Swedish chemist, Nobel laureate, Svante August Arrhenius recognized the disproportionate warming capacity held by small quantities of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. He was first to connect atmospheric CO2 with climate change. Arrhenius summarized scientific opinion about the effect of CO2 (carbonic acid) in the atmosphere, predicting a global temperature increase of 8 or 9 degrees F for a doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere. In future publications, Arrhenius was first to predict global warming must result from widespread combustion of fossil fuels causing build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere.

On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Ground by Svante August Arrhenius. Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, Series 5, Volume 41, April 1896, pages 237-276

Environmental History Timeline September, 1847

George Perkins Marsh delivers a foundational speech inspiring the new philosophy of managing human impacts and a cascade of founding conservation efforts in North America.

But though man cannot at his pleasure command the rain and the sunshine, the wind and frost and snow, yet it is certain that climate itself has in many instances been gradually changed and ameliorated or deteriorated by human action. George Perkins Marsh, "Address Delivered Before the Agricultural Society of Rutland County, Sept. 30, 1847," page 11.

George Perkins Marsh, polymath, intellectual leader, "Prophet of Conservation"*, a US Congressman form Vermont, at the time, gave this foundational speech about the impacts of agriculture and human activity on climate, forests, soil and water to the Agricultural Society of Rutland County, Vermont.  Marsh's acclaimed speech later was published in 1848.

Marsh developed his human impacts material further for his seminal book Man and Nature; or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action 1864. Marsh's book, still in print, is a foundational work of the conservation movement and presaged modern environmental science.


*"Prophet of Conservation" is the title of David Lowenthal's 2000 biography, George Perkins Marsh: Prophet of Conservation. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Environmental History Timeline July, 1802

Invasive jimsonweed plagues Ohio pioneers

The European plant jimsonweed Datura stramonium is found invading disturbed ground at Alexandria (West Portsmouth), Ohio and other small towns along fertile terraces of the Ohio River and at the mouth of the Scioto River. Traveling French Botanist F. A. Michaux* reports...

At Alexandria, and the other little towns in the western country, which are situated upon a very rich soil, the space between every house is almost entirely covered with Stramonium. This dangerous and disagreeable plant has propagated surprisingly in every part where the earth has been uncovered and cultivated within twelve or fifteen years; and let the inhabitants do what they will, it spreads still wider every year. It is generally supposed to have made its appearance at James-Town in Virginia, whence it derived the name Jamesweed. Travelers use it to heal the wounds made on horses' backs occasioned by the rubbing of the saddle.

*Thwaites, Reuben Gold, 1853-1913 (1904); Michaux, Andre, 1746-1802; Michaux, Francois Andre, 1770-1855; Harris, Thaddeus Mason, 1768-1842. Travels west of the Alleghanies: made in 1793-96 by Andre Michaux, in 1802 by F.A. Michaux, and in 1803 by Thaddeus Mason Harris. A.H. Clark company Cleveland.