Designing the Bayous: The Control of Water in the Atchafalaya Basin, 1800-1995 - Softcover

United States; Reuss, Martin; S/N 008-022-00312-6

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0160612705 ISBN 13: 9780160612701

Publisher: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., Congressional Sales Office, U.S. G.P.O, 1998

Synopsis

The Louisiana Atchafalaya River Basin is one of the most dynamic and critical environments in the country. The river's immense floodway is the ancestral home of the American Cajun population; it sustains the nation's last cypress-tupelo wetland and provides habitat for many species of animals. Perhaps most crucial, it remains a primary component of the plan to control the Mississippi River and relieve flooding in communities in the lower river valley. The continuing health of the basin is a reflection not of nature, but of the work of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. With levee building and clearing in the nineteenth century and damming, dredging, and floodway construction in the twentieth, the basin was converted from a vast forested swamp into a designer wetland, where human aspirations and nature needs maintained a precarious equilibrium.Originally published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, this history of the Atchafalaya Basin was hailed as a balanced yet unflinching account of the transformation of an area that has endured perhaps more human manipulation than any other natural environment in the nation. Martin Reuss provides a new preface to bring us up-to-date on the state of the basin, which remains both an engineering contrivance and natural wonder.About the MARTIN REUSS is a senior historian in the Office of History of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He lives in Woodbridge, Virginia.

About this title

About the Author

MARTIN REUSS is a senior historian in the Office of History of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He lives in Woodbridge, Virginia.

Review

..".enhances our understanding and appreciation of both this nationally important wetland region and the evolution of U.S. water management policy."

Edition details

• Publisher: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., Congressional Sales Office, U.S. G.P.O
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0160612705
• ISBN 13: 9780160612701
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 490