front cover of Freshwater Ecoregions of Africa and Madagascar
Freshwater Ecoregions of Africa and Madagascar
A Conservation Assessment
Michele L. Thieme, Robin Abell, Melanie L. J. Stiassny, and Paul Skelton
Island Press, 2005

As part of a global effort to identify those areas where conservation measures are needed most urgently, World Wildlife Fund has assembled teams of scientists to conduct ecological assessments of all seven continents. Freshwater Ecoregions of Africa and Madagascar is the latest contribution, presenting in a single volume the first in-depth analysis of the state of freshwater biodiversity across Africa, Madagascar, and the islands of the region. Looking at biodiversity and threats in terms of biological units rather than political units, the book offers a comprehensive examination of the entire range of aquatic systems.

In addition to its six main chapters, the book includes nineteen essays by regional experts that provide more depth on key issues, as well as six detailed appendixes that present summary data used in the analyses, specific analytical methodologies, and a thorough text description for each of Africa's ninety-three freshwater ecoregions.

Freshwater Ecoregions of Africa and Madagascar provides a blueprint for conservation action and represents an unparalleled guide for investments and activities of conservation agencies and donor organizations.

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Freshwater Marshes
Ecology and Wildlife Management
Milton W. Weller
University of Minnesota Press, 1994

Freshwater Marshes was first published in 1994. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

Prairie potholes, wetland edges of lakes and rivers, and other freshwater marshes play a vital role in maintaining a clean and plentiful water supply for wildlife and human use. These wetland areas provide habitat for spawning fish, feed waterfowl, purify and retain water, and control erosion. In this updated third edition, Milton W. Weller describes the components of the freshwater marsh: its annual and seasonal dynamics as affected by rainfall cycles and the plant and animal population's response to such changes. Weller discusses how such wetland areas are managed for wildlife populations and diversity, and how such processes can be used in wetland conservation and restoration. He considers the impact society has on wetlands and offers conservation goals for freshwater wetland complexes.

Weller broadens the third edition to include an analysis of how prairie wetlands compare in water dynamics with swamps, tidal marshes, and other wetlands. He also expands the discussion of wetland classification, evaluation, mitigation, and restoration, and introduces a new glossary of current wetland terminology.

Freshwater Marshes is Volume 1 of Wildlife Habitats.

Milton W. Weller is professor emeritus and former Kleberg Chair in Wildlife Ecology, at Texas A&M University.

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Water Always Wins
Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge
Erica Gies
University of Chicago Press, 2022
Winner of the Rachel Carson Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism, Water Always Wins is a hopeful journey around the world and across time, illuminating better ways to live with water. 

Nearly every human endeavor on the planet was conceived and constructed with a relatively stable climate in mind. But as new climate disasters remind us every day, our world is not stable—and it is changing in ways that expose the deep dysfunction of our relationship with water. Increasingly severe and frequent floods and droughts inevitably spur calls for higher levees, bigger drains, and longer aqueducts. But as we grapple with extreme weather, a hard truth is emerging: our development, including concrete infrastructure designed to control water, is actually exacerbating our problems. Because sooner or later, water always wins.

In this quietly radical book, science journalist Erica Gies introduces us to innovators in what she calls the Slow Water movement who start by asking a revolutionary question: What does water want? Using close observation, historical research, and cutting-edge science, these experts in hydrology, restoration ecology, engineering, and urban planning are already transforming our relationship with water. 

Modern civilizations tend to speed water away, erasing its slow phases on the land. Gies reminds us that water’s true nature is to flex with the rhythms of the earth: the slow phases absorb floods, store water for droughts, and feed natural systems. Figuring out what water wants—and accommodating its desires within our human landscapes—is now a crucial survival strategy. By putting these new approaches to the test, innovators in the Slow Water movement are reshaping the future.
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Water War in the Klamath Basin
Macho Law, Combat Biology, and Dirty Politics
Holly Doremus and A. Dan Tarlock
Island Press, 2008
In the drought summer of 2001, a simmering conflict between agricultural and environmental interests in southern Oregon’s Upper Klamath Basin turned into a guerrilla war of protests, vandalism, and apocalyptic rhetoric when the federal Bureau of Reclamation shut down the headgates of the Klamath Project to conserve water needed by endangered species. This was the first time in U.S. history that the headgates of a federal irrigation project were closed—and irrigators denied the use of their state water rights—in favor of conservation. Farmers mounted a brief rebellion to keep the water flowing, but ultimately conceded defeat.
 
In Water War in the Klamath Basin, legal scholars Holly Doremus and A. Dan Tarlock examine the genesis of the crisis and its fallout, offering a comprehensive review of the event, the history leading up to it, and the lessons it holds for anyone seeking to understand conflicts over water use in the arid West. The authors focus primarily on the legal institutions that contributed to the conflict—what they call “the accretion of unintegrated resource management and environmental laws” that make environmental protection so challenging, especially in politically divided regions with a long-standing history of entitlement-based resource allocation.
 
Water War in the Klamath Basin explores common elements fundamental to natural resource conflicts that must be overcome if conflicts are to be resolved. It is a fascinating look at a topic of importance for anyone concerned with the management, use, and conservation of increasingly limited natural resources.
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