Chase W. Fleece

Hello! I’m currently a second-year master’s student in the Department of History at Bowling Green State University. As an environmental historian, my research explores the intersections between nature, anthropogenic pollution, and international relations during the mid to late tweinth century in the United States and Canada. More specifically, I’m interested in how devastated flora and fauna populations in the Great Lakes region–from the smallest insects to the biggest mammals–informed scientific knowledge and influenced international agreeements between the two nations. In doing so, this work illuminates how this robust cooperation offered the world a case study in effective environmental diplomacy. 

My thesis project “Mayhem in the Muck: An Environmental History of Ohio’s Scioto Marsh,” examines how human settlement and agricultural production turned a once extensive wetland–an estimated 20,000 to 16,000 acres–in northwest Ohio from vibrancy to disappearance in less than 100 years. Centered around the region’s sapric soils, known colloquially as ‘muck,’ a prodigiously fertile but non-renewable resource, this study argues that profits drove degradation and inhibited sustainability until it was too late. In addition to this study, I’m also working on a journal article that explores how cultural eutrophication in Lake Erie triggered a local extinction of mayflies and what shoreline residents, scientists, and international agencies learned about its connections to water quality. 

Alongside my work inside the academy, I’m also a passionate public historian. Driven by a desire to make scholarship accessible, I have seen first-hand the significance of community collaborations and of history in practice. As such, I currently serve on the Board of Directors at the Hardin County Historical Museums in Kenton, Ohio, as well as advise regional students on Ohio History Day research projects. 

If you’d like to contact me, please use the attached form below. You can also learn more about my ongoing research and professional experiences by using the site navigation above.