Defending a Borderland: Canadian and American Environmental Activism in the St. Lawrence Valley (Environmental History of the Northeast) - Hardcover

Forkey, Neil S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1625349181 ISBN 13: 9781625349187

Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press, 2026

Synopsis

Tracing grassroots activism in response to a devastating transnational oil spill
 
On the morning of June 23, 1976, the NEPCO 140 barge, carrying 8.7 million gallons of thick crude oil, ruptured twice while plying the swift straits of the St. Lawrence River’s Thousand Islands region. Before the spill was halted, 300,000 gallons of oil had leaked, polluting eighty miles of the river and ruining shorelines on both the New York and Canadian sides. It was the largest inland oil spill in United States history to that date, and the clean-up took 122 days and cost around $8 million. The disaster also prompted concerned citizens to form Save the River, one of the most enduring environmental organizations in North America.

In Defending a Borderland, environmental historian Neil S. Forkey examines environmental activism along the St. Lawrence River from both sides of the international border. He focuses on the period from the 1970s to the 1990s, when numerous citizen groups activated to protect the natural environment against pollution, development, and other perceived threats. Along with reacting to the “Slick of ’76,” their actions included stopping low-level military flights, preventing government land acquisition to create an extended park, and blocking new power lines through the countryside.

By considering the St. Lawrence Valley—a shared space between Canada, the United States, and Mohawk territory—Forkey brings a rare transnational approach to environmental analysis. He also highlights rural, local, and conservative perspectives, all of which are understudied. Using deep archival research and oral histories, Forkey reveals the myriad ways US and Canadian citizens organized before social media, gathering around kitchen tables, and in school auditoriums, to determine ways to reach government officials and neighbors and make lasting changes to protect the natural areas around them for future generations.
 

About this title

About the Author

NEIL S. FORKEY is associate professor of Canadian Studies at St. Lawrence University, where he is also the Archie F. MacAllaster and Barbara Torrey MacAllaster Professor of North Country Studies. He is author of Canadians and the Natural Environment to the Twenty-First Century and Shaping the Upper Canadian Frontier: Environment, Society, and Culture in the Trent Valley, and his writing has appeared in the Canadian Historical Review, the Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d'études canadiennes, the American Review of Canadian Studies, Forest and Conservation History, Ontario History, and New York History.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1625349181
• ISBN 13: 9781625349187
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 248