The World of the Salt Marsh is a wide-ranging exploration of the southeastern coast—its natural history, its people and their way of life, and the historic and ongoing threats to its ecological survival.Focusing on areas from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to Cape Canaveral, Florida, Charles Seabrook examines the ecological importance of the salt marsh, calling it “a biological factory without equal.” Twice-daily tides carry in a supply of nutrients that nourish vast meadows of spartina (Spartina alterniflora)—a crucial habitat for creatures ranging from tiny marine invertebrates to wading birds. The meadows provide vital nurseries for 80 percent of the seafood species, including oysters, crabs, shrimp, and a variety of finfish, and they are invaluable for storm protection, erosion prevention, and pollution filtration.Seabrook is also concerned with the plight of the people who make their living from the coast’s bounty and who carry on its unique culture. Among them are Charlie Phillips, a fishmonger whose livelihood is threatened by development in McIntosh County, Georgia, and Vera Manigault of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, a basket maker of Gullah-Geechee descent, who says that the sweetgrass needed to make her culturally significant wares is becoming scarcer.For all of the biodiversity and cultural history of the salt marshes, many still view them as vast wastelands to be drained, diked, or “improved” for development into highways and subdivisions. If people can better understand and appreciate these ecosystems, Seabrook contends, they are more likely to join the growing chorus of scientists, conservationists, fishermen, and coastal visitors and residents calling for protection of these truly amazing places.

Praise for the previous editions of Wetlands:"Wetlands, the field of study, would not be what it is without Wetlands, the book."——Bill Streever, Wetlands, 2001"The Third Edition of this highly successful book manages to set new standards in presentation and content to confirm its place as the first point of reference for those working or studying wetlands."——Chris Bradley, University of Birmingham, UK, Regulated Rivers: Research and Management"This book is the wetlands bible...the most wide-ranging [book] on the subject."——Carl Folke, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Land Use Policy"The single best combination text and reference book on wetland ecology."——Joseph S. Larson, University of Massachusetts, Journal of Environmental Quality"First on my list of references to recommend to someone new to wetland policy management or science."——Jay A. Leitch, North Dakota State University, Water Resources BulletinFor more than two decades, William Mitsch and James Gosselink's Wetlands has been the premier reference on wetlands for ecologists, land use planners, and water resource managers worldwide—a comprehensive compendium of the state of knowledge in wetland science, management, and restoration.Now Mitsch and Gosselink bring their classic book up to date with substantial new information and a streamlined text supplemented with a support web site. This new Fourth Edition maintains the authoritative quality of its predecessors while offering such revisions as:Refocused coverage on the three main parts of the book: 1. An introduction to the extent, definitions, and general features of wetlands of the world; 2. Wetland science; and 3. Wetland management.New chapter on climate change and wetlands that introduces the student to the roles that wetlands have in climate change and impact that climate change has on wetlands.Increased international coverage, including wetlands of Mexico and Central America, the Congolian Swamp and Sine Saloum Delta of Africa, the Western Siberian Lowlands, the Mesopotamian Marshland restoration in Iraq, and the wetland parks of Asia such as Xixi National Wetland Park in eastern China and Gandau Nature Park in Taipei, Taiwan. This expanded coverage is illustrated with over 50 wetland photographs from around the world.Several hundred new refer?ences for further reading, up-to-date data, and the latest research findings.Over 35 new info boxes and sidebars provide essential background information to concepts being presented and case studies of wetland restoration and treatment in practice.

A complete guide to the plants and animals of ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, and wetlands.

The Everglades Handbook is an important new reference that provides the reader with a wealth of information on the entire ecosystem-upstream and downstream.This unique book starts with a brief description of the regions geology and geography. The origin of the Everglades is explained and an historic overview is presented. Plant communities and animal groups are covered, detailing their biogeography and functional roles within the system.The impact of hurricanes (including Andrew) on the ecosystem is discussed. The effect of man on the Everglades and the basic tenets for ecosystem restoration provide an important and final chapter.Fifty-two beautiful black and white photographs, along with eight maps and diagrams, complement the information presented.This book is important reading and a necessary reference for anyone interested in the Everglades ecosystem. Completely referenced, it also serves as a guide to the vast literature on the Everglades.

Lawyers, Swamps, and Money is an accessible, engaging guide to the complex set of laws governing America's wetlands. After explaining the importance of these critical natural areas, the book examines the evolution of federal law, principally the Clean Water Act, designed to protect them. Readers will first learn the basics of administrative law: how agencies receive and exercise their authority, how they actually make laws, and how stakeholders can influence their behavior through the Executive Branch, Congress, the courts, and the media. These core concepts provide a base of knowledge for successive discussions of: the geographic scope and activities covered by the Clean Water Act the curious relationship between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency the goal of no net loss of wetlands the role of entrepreneurial wetland mitigation banking the tension between wetland mitigation bankers and in-lieu fee mitigation programs wetland regulation and private property rights. The book concludes with insightful policy recommendations to make wetlands law less ambiguous and more effective. A prominent legal scholar and wetlands expert, professor Royal C. Gardner has a rare knack for describing landmark cases and key statutes with uncommon clarity and even humor. Students of environmental law and policy and natural resource professionals will gain the thorough understanding of administrative law needed to navigate wetlands policy-and they may even enjoy it.   (20110411)

David Carroll has dedicated his life to art and to wetlands. He is as passionate about swamps, bogs, and vernal ponds and the creatures who live in them as most of us are about our families and closest friends. He knows frogs and snakes, muskrats and minks, dragonflies, water lilies, cattails, sedges--everything that swims, flies, trudges, slithers, or sinks its roots in wet places. In this "intimate and wise book" (Sue Hubbell), Carroll takes us on a lively, unforgettable yearlong journey, illustrated with his own elegant drawings, through the wetlands and reveals why they are so important to his life and ours -- and to all life on Earth.

Ecological approach to natural history provides complete descriptions of 80 common wetland plants.

"A sensitive and elegant amble through both a tragedy and an ecosystem. Required reading for anyone trying to understand the Gulf in its entirety." --Paul Greenberg, author of Four Fish             "Brimming with engaging information about a little-known region and leavened with moments of grace...Rowan Jacobsen succeeds in painting the 'sort of cubist portrait of a beautiful and sometimes contradictory region' he envisioned. And this fragmented portrait turns out to be all the more beautiful and melancholy for being accompanied by the persistent, doleful sounds of a pipe organ." --Wall Street Journal           In the spring of 2010, as we watched oil gushing unstoppably into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, many Americans turned their focus to the region for the first time, wondering how this could happen and demanding corporate and government accountability. Yet Rowan Jacobsen brings a surprising perspective to the tragedy: as bad as the spill was, it is only the latest chapter in a century-long story of destruction.             At the height of BP's dispersant madness, the amount sprayed each day merely equaled the amount of dispersant that washes down the Mississippi from the Heartland's dishwashers and washing machines. Coastal drilling has damaged the region's ecology far more than offshore drilling. And the acres of marshland ruined by oil slicks can't compare to the amount that disappears in every hurricane, due to the work of the Army Corps of Engineers. Southern Louisiana is subsiding. Even if we succeed in restoring every mile of beach and wetland from the oil spill, the entire Mississippi Delta could be lost this century, and New Orleans will sink beneath the waves, an American Atlantis.            Surveying the Gulf Coast by sailboat, skiff, car, and kayak, Jacobsen journeys from the bayous of Terrebonne Parish, where he goes on oil patrol with a Native American man whose tribe is being displaced as their island disintegrates; to the last shucking house in New Orleans's French Quarter, whose oyster supply has vanished; to the pristine barrier islands of Mississippi, where a Kafkaesque cleanup effort is underway. He discovers a little-appreciated ecological wonder of breathtaking natural beauty and rich culture struggling to hold on to the things that have always sustained it.            Shadows on the Gulf details the catastrophe creeping across the region and reveals why the damage to the Gulf will affect us all. Not only are the Gulf's wetlands the best oyster reefs and fish nurseries in the world, they also provide critical habitat to most of America's migratory songbirds and waterfowl. If the Gulf is allowed to fail, the effects will ripple across America. And fail it will, unless BP's blunder can somehow galvanize a national effort to save it.

Wetlands are an important, and sadly diminishing, habitat in many parts of the world. They contribute significantly to the planet's biodiversity, housing thousands of species of plants and animals. Increasingly, human management is required to sustain, and even create these fragile ecosystems, while global changes in climate are also taking their toll. Understanding Wetlands explains how wetlands are created naturally and how they sustain themselves. It describes how the flora and fauna of these unique habitats are ideally adapted to their environment, and how the ecosystem copes with pollutants and climatic change. The impact of human activity such as farming, building, and recreation is also assessed. The book concludes with a look at the need for conservation and various conservation techniques. This integrated and holistic account of wetlands is a valuable reference for students of ecology, biology, and environmental science. Its beautiful illustrations and accessible style also make it ideal for the general reader with an interest in the natural world.