An introduction to the field of Environmental History. We initiate the course with the idea of the Anthropocene, a concept that explains the impact of humans in the natural environment, as well as the biological, climatic and geological feedback mechanisms that impact human societies. We then explore different cases and approaches in the United States, and other areas of the world: the environmental impact of European conquest and capitalist economies; the tensions between conservation and resource exhaustion, utilitarianism and preservation; the emergence of the modern sensibility for wilderness and (later) restoration; the creation of the national parks; movements focused on environmental justice and sustainability. Along with this general introduction, we apply our environmental history skills in a public- history, service-learning project that will create an temporary interpretive trail about an aspect of the history of the Wintergarden/St John’s Woods Nature Preserve.