BiblioVault - Books about Marsh ecology

Absence And Light

Meditations From The Klamath Marshes

John R. Campbell

University of Nevada Press, 2002

"In order to accept the enormous responsibility that comes of being in the world, we must first conceive, in spite of all the obstacles, the state of actually being the world." It is for this reason that John R. Campbell came to the Klamath marshes, a wetland in southern Oregon formed by three ancient, shallow lakes.

Absence and Light is Campbell's account of his exploration of the marshes and a meditation on the world he found there, on his growing understanding of the physical, emotional, moral, and aesthetic meaning of that world, on his own growth as a man. Through Campbell's eyes, we observe the stirring and astonishing beauty of the marshes and their creatures, and the utter poignancy of their fragility before the heedless ambitions of humankind.

This is nature writing at its most profound and moving, writing that in examining and defining the world of nature helps us to understand the very complicated and contradictory realities of being human. Campbell's luminous descriptions and mystical insights will long linger in the reader's memory.

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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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The Marshes of Southwestern Lake Erie

Louis W. Campbell

Ohio University Press, 1994

The marshes along the Ohio shore of Lake Erie represent less than ten percent of the vast wetlands that were there two hundred years ago. Virtually unknown outside the region and, indeed, little known even by area residents, the western Lake Erie marshes are among the most mysterious, beautiful, and vulnerable of all the wild lands remaining in Ohio. Constantly threatened throughout the years with destruction by high lake waters or human enterprises, they have been critically important to the large populations of migrating waterfowl, raptors, and songbirds that twice a year face the treacherous air currents above the lake.

This book explores both the human and natural history of the marshes between Toledo and Port Clinton, Ohio. The author, Louis Campbell is the acknowledged authority on the birds of the Toledo area. Mr. Campbell began weekly birding trips to the marshes in the 1920’s, carefully recording his observations. His discerning eye and inquiring mind have accumulated a wealth of information, presented here in a style that is comfortably conversational, whether the subject is glacial moraines, nesting eagles, or a drunken meadow mouse.

The book begins with an almanac, a celebration of marsh life throughout the year, enriched by personal experiences. Mr. Campbell’s encounters include a pair of bloodthirsty shrews, a roguish gallery of courting waterfowl, and a rhythm-challenged bittern. He invites the reader to share the risky pleasures of punting and the eerie night sounds of the marsh in May.

Part II describes the history of the low-lying marshes from the Ice Age to the present, as they were transformed into drained, flood-plagued farmland then to drought-and flood-plagued private hunting clubs, and finally to government-protected marshes sealed off by huge dikes from the gift and the threat of Lake Erie. Readers of this book will never again take these wetlands for granted.

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Of Men and Marshes

Paul Errington

University of Iowa Press, 1957

Standing with such environmental classics as Loren Eiseley’s TheImmense Journey, his friend and mentor Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, and Joseph Wood Krutch’s The Voice of the Desert, Paul Errington’s Of Men and Marshes remains an evocative reminder of the great beauty and intrinsic value of the glacial marshland. Prescient and stirring, steeped in insights from Errington’s biological fieldwork, his experiences as a hunter and trapper, and his days exploring the marshes of his rural South Dakota childhood, this vibrant work of nature writing reveals his deep knowledge of the marshland environments he championed.

Examining the marsh from a dynamic range of perspectives, Errington begins by inviting us to consider how immense spans of time, coupled with profound geological events, shaped the unique marshland ecosystems of the Midwest. He then follows this wetland environment across seasons and over the years, creating a compelling portrait of a natural place too little appreciated and too often destroyed. Reminding us of the intricate relationships between the marsh and the animals who call it home, Errington records his experiences with hundreds of wetland creatures. He follows minks and muskrats, snapping turtles and white pelicans, red foxes and blue-winged teals—all the while underscoring our responsibility to preserve this remarkable and fragile environment and challenging us to change the way we think about and value marshlands.

This classic of twentieth-century nature writing, a landmark work that is still a joy to read, offers a stirring portrait of the Midwest’s endangered glacial marshland ecosystems by one of the most influential biologists of his day. A cautionary book whose advice has not been heeded, a must-read of American environmental literature, Of Men and Marshes should inspire a new generation of conservationists.

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