Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references: p. 139-154.

1. Introduction -- Ecological Locale: The Trent Valley as a Living Place -- Human Cultures: The Settlement and Resettlement of Trent Valley -- Nature and National Narrative in Canada -- 2. Changes in Mississauga Lands: Ecology and Economy, 1790s-1830s -- Mississagua Lands -- Resistance -- Adaption and Persistence -- Toward Resettlement -- 3. Creating New Home Places: Anglo-Celtic Migrants, 1820s-1850s -- Ecological Locales: Ireland -- Human Cultures: Ireland -- Making a Home Place: Ecological Locales and Human Cultures of the Trent Valley -- 4. Damning the Dam: Ecology and Community in Ops Township -- "The largest mill-dam in the world" -- The Natural Setting -- Second Nature: Toward a Home Place -- Second Nature: The Pre-industrial Context -- Second Nature: The Trent Canal, Purdy's Mill, and Threats to Home Place -- Crafting a Defence of Public Rights -- Nature Responds -- Conclusion -- 5. The Road from Bobcaygeon: Lumber and Colonization, 1850s-1870s -- The Natural Setting -- Second Nature: Regional Expansion and the Lumberman's Vision -- Second Nature: The Settlers' Reality: Occupational Pluralism on the Northern Frontier -- Local Knowledge: Road Construction and the Folly of Settlement -- Postscript: Toward an Era of Conservation -- Conclusion -- 6. The Trent Valley Oracle: Catharine Parr Traill -- Natural History: Catharine's Early Years -- Second Nature: Homing in the Backwoods -- Second Nature: The "Canadian Gilbert White" -- 7. Conclusion.