Download or read book The Atchafalaya River Basin written by Bryan P. Piazza and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-01 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this comprehensive, one-volume reference, Nature Conservancy scientist Bryan P. Piazza poses five key questions: —What is the Atchafalaya River Basin? —Why is it important? —How have its hydrology and natural habitats been managed? —What is its current state? —How do we ensure its survival? For more than five centuries, the Atchafalaya River Basin has captured the flow of the Mississippi River, becoming its main distributary as it reaches the Gulf of Mexico in south Louisiana. This dynamic environment, comprising almost a million acres of the lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley and Mississippi River Deltaic Plain, is perhaps best known for its expansive swamp environments dominated by baldcypress, water tupelo, and alligators. But the Atchafalaya River Basin contains a wide range of habitats and one of the highest levels of biodiversity on the North American continent. Piazza has compiled and synthesized the body of scientific knowledge for the Atchafalaya River Basin, documenting the ecological state of the basin and providing a baseline of understanding. His research provides a crucial resource for future planning. He evaluates some common themes that have emerged from the research and identifies important scientific questions that remain unexplored.
Download or read book Designing the Bayous written by Martin Reuss and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2004-06-02 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Louisiana’s Atchafalaya River Basin is one of the most dynamic and critical environments in the country. It sustains the nation’s last cypress-tupelo wetland and provides a habitat for many species of animals. Endowed with natural gas and oil fields, the basin also supports a large commercial fisheries industry. Perhaps most crucial, it remains a primary component of the plan to control the Mississippi River and relieve flooding in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and other 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 maintained a precarious equilibrium. Originally published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers primarily for internal distribution, this environmental and political history of the Atchafalaya Basin is an unflinching account of the transformation of an area that has endured perhaps more human manipulation than any other natural environment in the nation. Martin Reuss provides a new preface to bring us up-to-date on the state of the basin, which remains both an engineering contrivance and natural wonder.
Download or read book Possible Capture of the Mississippi by the Atchafalaya River written by John D. Higby and published by . This book was released on 1983* with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Hydrology and Water Quality of the Atchafalaya River Basin written by Frank C. Wells and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Control of Nature written by John McPhee and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While John McPhee was working on his previous book, Rising from the Plains, he happened to walk by the engineering building at the University of Wyoming, where words etched in limestone said: "Strive on--the control of Nature is won, not given." In the morning sunlight, that central phrase--"the control of nature"--seemed to sparkle with unintended ambiguity. Bilateral, symmetrical, it could with equal speed travel in opposite directions. For some years, he had been planning a book about places in the world where people have been engaged in all-out battles with nature, about (in the words of the book itself) "any struggle against natural forces--heroic or venal, rash or well advised--when human beings conscript themselves to fight against the earth, to take what is not given, to rout the destroying enemy, to surround the base of Mt. Olympus demanding and expecting the surrender of the gods." His interest had first been sparked when he went into the Atchafalaya--the largest river swamp in North America--and had learned that virtually all of its waters were metered and rationed by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' project called Old River Control. In the natural cycles of the Mississippi's deltaic plain, the time had come for the Mississippi to change course, to shift its mouth more than a hundred miles and go down the Atchafalaya, one of its distributary branches. The United States could not afford that--for New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and all the industries that lie between would be cut off from river commerce with the rest of the nation. At a place called Old River, the Corps therefore had built a great fortress--part dam, part valve--to restrain the flow of the Atchafalaya and compel the Mississippi to stay where it is. In Iceland, in 1973, an island split open without warning and huge volumes of lava began moving in the direction of a harbor scarcely half a mile away. It was not only Iceland's premier fishing port (accounting for a large percentage of Iceland's export economy) but it was also the only harbor along the nation's southern coast. As the lava threatened to fill the harbor and wipe it out, a physicist named Thorbjorn Sigurgeirsson suggested a way to fight against the flowing red rock--initiating an all-out endeavor unique in human history. On the big island of Hawaii, one of the world's two must eruptive hot spots, people are not unmindful of the Icelandic example. McPhee went to Hawaii to talk with them and to walk beside the edges of a molten lake and incandescent rivers. Some of the more expensive real estate in Los Angeles is up against mountains that are rising and disintegrating as rapidly as any in the world. After a complex coincidence of natural events, boulders will flow out of these mountains like fish eggs, mixed with mud, sand, and smaller rocks in a cascading mass known as debris flow. Plucking up trees and cars, bursting through doors and windows, filling up houses to their eaves, debris flows threaten the lives of people living in and near Los Angeles' famous canyons. At extraordinary expense the city has built a hundred and fifty stadium-like basins in a daring effort to catch the debris. Taking us deep into these contested territories, McPhee details the strategies and tactics through which people attempt to control nature. Most striking in his vivid depiction of the main contestants: nature in complex and awesome guises, and those who would attempt to wrest control from her--stubborn, often ingenious, and always arresting characters.
Download or read book The Atchafalaya River Basin written by Bryan P. Piazza and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2014-02-25 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this comprehensive, one-volume reference, Nature Conservancy scientist Bryan P. Piazza poses five key questions: —What is the Atchafalaya River Basin? —Why is it important? —How have its hydrology and natural habitats been managed? —What is its current state? —How do we ensure its survival? For more than five centuries, the Atchafalaya River Basin has captured the flow of the Mississippi River, becoming its main distributary as it reaches the Gulf of Mexico in south Louisiana. This dynamic environment, comprising almost a million acres of the lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley and Mississippi River Deltaic Plain, is perhaps best known for its expansive swamp environments dominated by baldcypress, water tupelo, and alligators. But the Atchafalaya River Basin contains a wide range of habitats and one of the highest levels of biodiversity on the North American continent. Piazza has compiled and synthesized the body of scientific knowledge for the Atchafalaya River Basin, documenting the ecological state of the basin and providing a baseline of understanding. His research provides a crucial resource for future planning. He evaluates some common themes that have emerged from the research and identifies important scientific questions that remain unexplored.
Download or read book The Atchafalaya River Basin written by David Sebok and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Atchafalaya River and Its Basin written by Joseph D. Martinez and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mississippi River Water Quality and the Clean Water Act written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2008-02-08 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mississippi River is, in many ways, the nation's best known and most important river system. Mississippi River water quality is of paramount importance for sustaining the many uses of the river including drinking water, recreational and commercial activities, and support for the river's ecosystems and the environmental goods and services they provide. The Clean Water Act, passed by Congress in 1972, is the cornerstone of surface water quality protection in the United States, employing regulatory and nonregulatory measures designed to reduce direct pollutant discharges into waterways. The Clean Water Act has reduced much pollution in the Mississippi River from "point sources" such as industries and water treatment plants, but problems stemming from urban runoff, agriculture, and other "non-point sources" have proven more difficult to address. This book concludes that too little coordination among the 10 states along the river has left the Mississippi River an "orphan" from a water quality monitoring and assessment perspective. Stronger leadership from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is needed to address these problems. Specifically, the EPA should establish a water quality data-sharing system for the length of the river, and work with the states to establish and achieve water quality standards. The Mississippi River corridor states also should be more proactive and cooperative in their water quality programs. For this effort, the EPA and the Mississippi River states should draw upon the lengthy experience of federal-interstate cooperation in managing water quality in the Chesapeake Bay.
Download or read book Flux and Sources of Nutrients in the Mississippi Atchafalaya River Basin written by and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Designing the Bayous written by U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and published by . This book was released on 2017-03-06 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the natural resources that bless the United States, none is more important than its water. The nation's rivers and streams provide vital navigation links, hydropower, fishing, recreation, and water for domestic, agricultural, and industrial use. At the same time, they occasionally overrun towns and farms, destroy property, threaten livelihoods, and take lives. Perhaps nowhere in the country have the conflicting purposes of water development stimulated more studies, engineering responses, and public involvement than in Louisiana's Atchafalaya Basin-which includes the largest river basin swamp in North America. Since the early nineteenth century, all levels of government have been involved. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers' part in the basin's development includes providing flood control and maintaining navigable channels. Today, the Atchafalaya Basin serves as a major floodway to convey Mississippi River water to the Gulf of Mexico. In this history, Dr. Reuss tells the complicated, but fascinating story of how local, state, and federal agencies have attempted to reconcile conflicting visions for the basin. In so doing, he illuminates the interaction of politics, technology, and environment. Though focusing on one area of the country, this book addresses many themes associated with the development of water resources throughout the United States. Part I: Assuming Responsibility * Chapter 1 - Early Flood Control Efforts, Louisiana Style * Early Settlers and River Transportation * Clearing the Streams: The Beginnings of State Aid * The First Federal Flood Control Plan * The Beginning of Federal Assistance: The Swampland Acts * Chapter 2 - Interregnum: Growing Federal Involvement * The Humphreys-Abbot Report * The Civil War and the Atchafalaya Basin * Once More, the Levees * The Federal Role Increases * Commerce and Transportation in the Atchafalaya Basin * Chapter 3 - The Outlet Question * The Mississippi River Commission and the Outlet Question * Navigation Interests and the Outlet Question * Floods and Outlets * Chapter 4 - Apres Le Deluge: The Jadwin Plan * New Remedies for Old Problems * The Special Board * The Unwinding of the Jadwin Plan * Part II: Defining Responsibility * Chapter 5 - The Politics of Engineering * The Critics and the Corps * Dredging * Private Property and Public Good: Levee Rights-of-Way * Private Property and Public Good: Flowage Easements * Chapter 6 - Louisiana and Mississippi: The Battle Over Floodways * The Markham Plan * The Overton Act * Real Estate Problems * The 1938 and 1941 Flood Control Acts * Morganza Floodway Construction * Part III: The Burdens of Responsibility * Chapter 7 - The Old River Problem * Nature Takes the Low Road * Seeking Answers * Preparing the Plan * Authorization * Construction * Post-Construction Problems * Chapter 8 - Let the Public Be Heard: Reconciling Multiple Objectives * The Setting * Coordination or Confrontation? * Recreation * Growing State Involvement * Chapter 9 - Environmental Activists and the Corps of Engineers * The National Wildlife Federation-Corps of Engineers Agreement * Institutional Arrangements and Objectives * Impasse and Reorientation * Chapter 10 - Defending the Turf * The Environmental Protection Agency's Approach * The Fish and Wildlife Service Makes Its Move * Environmental Issues, Old and New * Chapter 11 - Denouement? * Real Estate Problems Again * Political Resolution - and Irresolution * New Controversies and Steps Toward Implementation * The Uncertain Future * Afterword: A Sense of Place, A Sense of Balance * Notes * Bibliography
Download or read book Atchafalaya written by C. C. Lockwood and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Atchafalaya America s Greatest River Swamp written by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Atchafalaya Swamp Life written by Malcolm L. Comeaux and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Upper Pointe Coupee Loop Area and PL 566 Johnson Bayou Watershed Project written by and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Lake Verret Watershed written by and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Use of Wetlands to Reduce Nitrogen Loads in the Mississippi Atchafalaya River Basin written by Rachel Susanna Doughty and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
