Where land & water meet : a Western landscape transformed / Nancy Langston ; foreword by William Cronon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Langston, Nancy.

Series:

Weyerhaeuser environmental book.

Weyerhaeuser environmental books

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wetland management--Oregon--Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Wetland management.

Nature--Effect of human beings on--Oregon--Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Nature.

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge (Or.)--History.

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge (Or.).

Physical Description:

xiv, 230 p., [24] p. of plates : ill., maps.

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Where land and water meet

Place of Publication:

Seattle : University of Washington Press, c2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Water and land interrelate in surprising and ambiguous ways, and riparian zones, where land and water meet, have effects far outside their boundaries. Using the Malheur Basin in southeastern Oregon as a case study, this intriguing and nuanced book explores the ways people have envisioned boundaries between water and land, the ways they have altered these places, and the often unintended results.The Malheur Basin, once home to the largest cattle empires in the world, experienced unintended widespread environmental degradation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. After establishment in 1908 of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as a protected breeding ground for migratory birds, and its expansion in the 1930s and 1940s, the area experienced equally extreme intended modifications aimed at restoring riparian habitat. Refuge managers ditched wetlands, channelized rivers, applied Agent Orange and rotenone to waterways, killed beaver, and cut down willows. Where Land and Water Meet examines the reasoning behind and effects of these interventions, gleaning lessons from their successes and failures.Although remote and specific, the Malheur Basin has myriad ecological and political connections to much larger places. This detailed look at one tangled history of riparian restoration shows how-through appreciation of the complexity of environmental and social influences on land use, and through effective handling of conflict-people can learn to practice a style of pragmatic adaptive resource management that avoids rigid adherence to single agendas and fosters improved relationships with the land.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Foreword / On the Margins, by William Cronon

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 / Ranchers in the Malheur Lake Basin

2 / Conflicts between Ranchers and Homesteaders

3 / Buying the Blitzen

4 / Managing Ducks

5 / Grazing, Floods, and Fish

6 / Pragmatic Adaptive Management

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [205]-218) and index.

ISBN:

9780295989839

0295989831

OCLC:

698590899