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

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

ISBN 10: 0160612705 / ISBN 13: 9780160612701

Published by For Sale By the Supt. of Docs. , Congressional Sales Office, U. S. G. P. O, 1998

About this Item

Octovo in wraps, Signed/inscribed by author on title page, tight binding, fresh unmarked piages, faint rub at spine tip from retail handling, else FINE . Illustrated, photos, map, individuals, dam, etc. History of largest delta in the US and conflicting interests and engineering demands. A monumental work. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall.

Seller Inventory # 25793

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Designing the Bayous The Control of Water in the Atchafalaya Basin, 1800-1995
• 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: Softcover
• Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

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.

Review

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