Discovering the Unknown Landscape: A History Of America's Wetlands - Hardcover

Vileisis, Ann

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 155963314X ISBN 13: 9781559633147

Publisher: Island Press, 1997

Synopsis

A valuable history of America's treatment of its wetlands from Colonial times to the present day traces the various influences--political, cultural, economic, and aesthetic--on the way Americans have viewed, used, and often destroyed the country's wetlands. IP.

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Reviews

Whether seen as "bugs and mud" or as breeding grounds for countless species of fish, birds and other organisms, wetlands have borne much of the brunt of our development as a nation, argues environmental historian and naturalist Vileisis. Here, her painstaking research into the changing ways people thought, wrote about and thereby legislated wetlands throughout the many stages of the country's development makes a compelling case for their central role in our history. Vileisis takes us through our many uses of wetlands resources, from the filling of Boston's marshes, early rice-milling dams and the travels in search of "`rare and Useful productions'" of 18th-century botanist William Bartram, to the "great Florida land giveaway" of the 1870s and the over-logging of Southern swamps. Nearly two thirds of the book deals with our own century, including the formation of the Army Corp of Engineers (and their rise to power in controlling wetlands alteration) and the enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act in the late 1960s, as well as the expanding role of concerned citizens in policy making after WWII. Along the way, Vileisis shows how America's explosive population growth and subsequent housing development decimated the habitats of waterfowl as well as those of other species. In her fine book, Vileisis provides a comprehensive account of a not so slow-motion natural disaster. Illustrations.

Copyright 1997 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

In this timely, well-documented work, environmental historian Vileisis explains the confusion and contention surrounding wetlands preservation in terms of the differing cultural values Americans have historically assigned to these problematic habitats, which are half public water, half private land. In the early chapters, she traces traditional beliefs stemming from the Colonial era that swamps are worthless unless drained to create private wealth. She then explores the more positive attitudes that emerged in reaction to pollution and impoverished landscapes and the scientific evidence of the valuable role of wetlands in providing clean water, flood control, and viable fish and wildfowl populations. From the salt marshes of Colonial New England to the recent efforts to restore the Florida Everglades, Vileisis discusses not only the changes in common practices, laws, and regulations but also the shifts in cultural and social attitudes. Highly recommended for most environmental collections.?Joan S. Elbers, formerly with Montgomery Coll., Md.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Island Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 155963314X
• ISBN 13: 9781559633147
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 445