America's Wetland: An Environmental And Cultural History Of Tidewater Virginia And North Carolina Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
The geologically ancient Tidewater region of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina rests precariously atop millions of years of erosion from the nearby Appalachian Mountains. An immense wetland at near sea level, it is host to every conceivable body of fresh water, ranging from brooding swamps and large hidden lakes to sluggish blackwater rivers and brackish sounds (one of which was so large an early explorer thought he had found the Pacific Ocean). In this engaging book, biologist and Tidewater native Roy T. Sawyer delivers an ecohistory of this unique waterland whose wind-driven tides cover a rich human and natural past.Jutting prominently into the Atlantic, this wetland is the final stop for the warmth of the Gulf Stream before it is deflected from the American mainland. At the top of a narrow, warm coastal strip, it provides an ideal home for a vast array of animal and plant life, including prodigious numbers of reptiles (such as the world’s northernmost population of alligators) and overwintering waterfowl. It is also home to the oldest known living trees east of the Rocky Mountains. The climate and geography made the area a natural choice for very early human habitation--as far back as the last ice age, when the region was a rich oasis just south of a veritable tundra.In examining the impact of humans upon this environment, and vice-versa, Sawyer reveals how our alarming shortsightedness has produced a fragile and endangered present. Although human manipulation started here as early as ten thousand years ago (coinciding with extinction of mammoths and other megafauna), the environment has been altered most radically over only the last one hundred years, particularly in regard to land drainage, deforestation, overfishing, and pollution.The author provides an authoritative overview of the human impact on these wetlands and suggests ways in which we might still salvage them. In so doing, he explores the effects of hurricanes, droughts, forest fires, and ice ages of the past--and anticipates, in this age of global warming, natural events that may be still to come.
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: University of Virginia Press (May 5, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0813929210
ISBN-13: 978-0813929217
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.9 x 9.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #2,826,875 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #95 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Ecosystems > Wetlands #354 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Lakes & Ponds #3845 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Oceans & Seas
I highly recommend this book, it is needed to understand the invasive species of Phragmites australis, and the loss of the "Green Sea"
Excellent environmental history of a fascinating region. Thought provoking as well.
America's Wetland: An Environmental and Cultural History of Tidewater Virginia and North Carolina Wetland Indicators: A Guide to Wetland Identification, Delineation, Classification, and Mapping Butterflies of North Carolina, South Carolina & Georgia: A Guide to Common & Notable Species (Common and Notable Species) Shells of North Carolina, South Carolina & Georgia: A Beachcomber's Guide to the Atlantic Coast (Common and Notable Species) Saltwater Fishes of North Carolina, South Carolina & Georgia: A Guide to Inshore & Offshore Species (Quick Reference Guides) Snakes of North Carolina, South Carolina & Georgia: A Guide to Common & Notable Species (Quick Reference Guides) South Carolina's Wetland Wilderness: The Ace Basin Wetland Habitats of North America: Ecology and Conservation Concerns Birds of Lake Pond & Marsh: Water and Wetland Birds of Eastern North America A Naturalist's Guide to Wetland Plants: An Ecology for Eastern North America Wetland, Woodland, Wildland: A Guide to the Natural Communities of Vermont (Middlebury Bicentennial Series in Environmental Studies) A Guide to the Snakes of Virginia (Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Wildlife Diversity Division, Special Publication No. 2.1) Rock Climbing Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland (Regional Rock Climbing Series) 30th Battalion Virginia Sharpshooters (The Virginia Regimental Histories Series) National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Mid-Atlantic States: New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Virginia Making Salmon: An Environmental History of the Northwest Fisheries Crisis (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books) Decolonizing Museums: Representing Native America in National and Tribal Museums (First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies (University of North Carolina Press Paperback)) Biltmore Estate (Images of America: North Carolina) North Carolina Quakers: (Images of America) The Heart of Confederate Appalachia: Western North Carolina in the Civil War (Civil War America)
