Book Description

With wry humor and rare insight, The Habit of Rivers tells the story of Leeson's passion for rivers, trout, and fly fishing, and his experiences as a newcomer to the Pacific Northwest - "the land of unceasing seasons" - he looks beneath the surface of fly fishing to explore questions that engage most fishermen: "What is the strange gravity of a trout stream? What is it about rivers that draws us so irresistibly, and why does fly fishing seem such an aptly suited response?"

Above all, The Habit of Rivers is a book about ways of seeing the wonderfully textured world that emanates from a river. "Despite its reliance on the line," Leeson writes, "fly fishing is not linear. It is radial and weblike. At the center is a rising trout, and millimeters above his nose is the fly. From it, paths trace outward . . . just as far as you wish to go." In pursuing these paths, Leeson finds everything from salmon, steelhead, and trout, to driftboats, art, insects, gravity, death, philosophy, books, fly tying, and microbreweries - and links them together with an intelligence that is provocative, witty, and illuminating.

What emerges is a brilliantly original book about a certain vision of fishing, and fishing as a certain habit of vision, about seasons as spaces and landscapes as times, about rivers that express interior geographies as much as exterior ones. The Habit of Rivers begins with a deep respect for trout and trout streams, and ends in wisdom earned by hard and faithful attention to the natural world. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Too many metaphors, not enough fish.
I can't read this book. If you're going to write about fishing, write about it honestly and tell us why you love it, don't start out with a web of "points of fixity" "dim inferences" "sources of hidden significance". Hemingway once said if you know something truly, and write about it truly, it will represent all things. I can't give this book a fair review, because after just reading Robert Traver's yarns, the styloe of this one just irritates me.

Read it.
Mr. Leeson's book is about flyfishing, but it is not your typical flyfishing book. It is much more well-written and insightful than anything else written on the subject. Read it; you will not be disppointed.

Must reading for all flyfishers and naturalists
With the poetic delivery of Maclean, and the naturalist vision of Thoreau, Ted Leeson paints a beautiful,and sometimes comical, mosiac of fly fishing the Northwest. As I read this book I am reminded that the most noble and rewarding aspect of my sport is not the mere catching of fish, but it is the beautiful & mystical arena in which we are privileged to practice it. ... Read more

Book Description

Once known as the Callimink River by the area’s Potawatomi Indians, the Calumet River has been home to swimmers and fishermen, steamboats and canoes, and shipyards and factories for generations. Recreation and industry have coexisted along its banks for decades. Communities along the Calumet River—from South Chicago to northwest Indiana—have long derived their life blood from the river. With abundant wilderness, many recreational activities, and a convenient transportation corridor, the Calumet River has long been an important resource for the communities along its banks. Along the Calumet River presents the history, evolution, and development of the river corridor using over 200 vintage images. ... Read more

Book Description

Water plays an important part in today's environmental concerns. Since the publication of the first edition there have been rapid developments in the application of hydrology, geomorphology and ecology to stream management. In particular, growth has occurred in the areas of stream rehabilitation and the evaluation of environmental flow needs. The concept of stream health has been adopted as a way of assessing stream resources and setting management goals.

Stream Hydrology: An Introduction for Ecologists Second Edition documents recent research and practice in these areas. Chapters provide information on sampling, field techniques, stream analysis, the hydrodynamics of moving water, channel form, sediment transport and commonly used statistical methods such as flow duration and flood frequency analysis. Methods are presented from engineering hydrology, fluvial geomorphology and hydraulics with examples of their biological implications. This book demonstrates how these fields are linked and utilised in modern, scientific river management.

• Emphasis on applications, from collecting and analysing field measurements to using data and tools in stream management.
• Updated to include new sections on environmental flows, rehabilitation, measuring stream health and stream classification.
• Critical reviews of the successes and failures of implementation.
• Revised and updated windows-based software.

Book Description

John Hildebrand sets out in a canoe . . . to explore the greatriverway of northwestern Canada and Alaska. . . . The geography isclosely rendered and the characters especially sharply drawn. Thecountry is filled with mad dropouts at river fish camps, good-heartedgirls in the towns, sullen natives in tumbledown villages, crankyold-timers, terrible drunks and worse moralizers who live off the wildlandscape and its abundant resources. . . . This is a fine work, andHildebrand is a fine writer.Charles E. Little, WildernessFor many ofus the North has been the one place where a certain elementalexperienceof land, water, and peoplecan still be had. John Hildebrandspersonal account of this experience has a particular freshness andpoignancy.It is the record of a journey, as much inward as it isoutward, and all the better for that.John Haines, author of The Stars,The Snow, The FireA finely written account of coming to terms withones self, of the realities of ones dreams.Recommended for anyone whowould follow Thoreau into the woods, even now.Library Journal Hildebrand has every skill of mind and craft to enfold us in hisexperience.The New Yorker

... Read more

Reviews (4)

Excellent. A marvel of a tale.
Having once been an Alaskan traveler myself, I found myself slightly skeptical before plucking this tattered book off the shelf. Everything I'd read of modern Alaska seemed wrong, off-key, and too liberal or too commercialized. But after skimming through a few pages, I was hooked. Never before have I found such wonderful, accurate descriptions of the land, its people, and the emotional tracks it leaves on a person. Somehow, I assumed I was alone in my journeys and my memoirs of Alaska, and unable to share them with people. Here is a man who has weaved together a beautiful adventure, honest and simple. I felt as though I was reading a diary of my own excursions in the North. Reading the River is definitely one of the best books I have ever read. I recommend it to anyone who has ever wondered what draws people away from the city, for those living in the city who craves the wild, and to every dreamer, explorer, and 'old-timer'.

Unexpected Treasure
A complete surprise. Much more than a travelogue or river guide. Excellent prose from a gifted writer. One of the best books I've read in years.

Sad but well written tour of the people on the Yukon

A well written book; good primer for anyone planning a Yukon River trip, or anyone who just likes good adventure reading. Ride down the river with author in his canoe-with-motor and see Alaska through the eyes of a now-grown hippie returning to Alaska to find the self he left behind years before.

A "coming of middle age" adventure down the Yukon
Hildebrand takes you from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, across into Alaska, to the Arctic Circle at Fort Yukon, and through nearly the whole state of Alaska as he canoes down the Yukon River. Along the way you meet ordinary people with legendary stories of the intense lonliness of winter, of bear attacks, of battles with the US and Alaskan state governments, and of survival. You also get a glimpse into John's recently failed marraige, his life in Fairbanks, and his abandoned homestead near Denali National Park. Even for those who don't own SUVs or long to take on a thousand-mile canoe trip, this book is an intellectual adventure well worth the price of admission. ... Read more

Book Description

More than just a hiker's guide, this guidebook describes more than 200 waterfalls in the Mid-Atlantic region, along with instruction on how to reach them.

Residents of the Mid-Atlantic states may know of Passaic Falls in New Jersey, Bushkill Falls (the "Niagara of Pennsylvania"), or the Great Falls of the Potomac in Maryland. Yet there are many other falls that are less known, just beyond the view from the highway. Some thunder awesomely, others are gossamer trickles. And, surprisingly, some are in the heart of the region's biggest cities. These natural water wonders are for the most part on public lands throughout Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

This is the first comprehensive guidebook to the region's waterfalls, rated by author Gary Letcher on a scale of 1-5. Each of the falls are described according to:

• Location, including GPS coordinates
• Access and directions
• Trail length and difficulty
• Stream and waterfall characteristics
• Geological factors
• Natural, historical, and cultural features

Reviews (1)

THIS BOOK IS A MUST HAVE -INCREDIBLE READ!
THis book is a must have for any outdoor enthusiasts, bikers who enjoy daytrips, photographers, families, and everyone in between!

This book not only SHOWS you these wonderful Natural Wonders, but also gives you the ability to travel to them and see them for yourself, the directions are fabulous!

Mr. Letcher goes a step further by providing history to the falls that will allow you to understand the nature of the falls as well as tell your children or friends each fall you visit.

THIS BOOK IS A MUST HAVE, YOU WONT BE DISAPPOINTED! i have already purchased several for gifts. THIS IS A GREAT GIFT BOOK~! ... Read more

Book Description

It has been called the Everest of the whitewater world. However, unlike Everest, the Tsangpo River in Tibet has yet to be explored and charted. No other place in the world possesses more drama than the magnificent series of gorges that house the Tsangpo. Looping around the eastern anchor of the Himalayan Range, cutting the deepest canyon on Earth, and emerging more than nine thousand feet below on the plains of India, the Tsangpo is a geographical riddle that has fascinated Western explorers since 1926 when botanist F. Kingdon Ward described it as one of modern exploration’s greatest challenges.

In 1998, a world-class, four-man paddling team attempted to make history by becoming the first to navigate a remote, 140-mile stretch of the river. But when one of the men—renowned chemist and kayak racer Doug Gordon—fell victim to the lethal strength of the river’s current, their expedition was abruptly abandoned. Gordon’s remains were never found, and the mystery of the Tsangpo endures. Here is the complete, never-before-told story of the ill-fated expedition. Wick Walker’s Courting the Diamond Sow is an enthralling epic, featuring the kayakers’ firsthand diary accounts as they passed through the gorges, fascinating insights into this enigmatic corner of the world and the attempts to explore it, and 16 pages of dramatic, full-color photographs.

Reviews (6)

Diamond Sow or Last River??
My comments come after finishing the books "The Last River" and "Courting the Diamond Sow", both of which I read over the last 2 weeks, and was provoked to write by a couple of factors. Reading the existing reviews for "The Last River" particularly, I was struck by the number of people who felt it necessary to slam the book.

First, after reading these books I have a better appreciation for the writing skill needed to write a book that is entirely engaging, brings the personalities to life, allows the reader to become part of the adventure, all the while being true to its subject.

Second, I appreciate that the writers made the story available so that we could learn about this trip and I don't mean to suggest that either effort was a waste of time and that the writers should hang up their quills.

Sadly, in my opinion neither of the books written about the same 1998 Tsangpo journey is terribly engaging. Last River is an easier read while I found the first half, particularly, of Sow a literary slog. Not sure if it was bogged down in description or what; I just found it slow going.

Neither book had much of an ebb and flow in the narrative. Even as the tragic events of Doug Gordon's death neared, there was nothing to indicate that one's blood should be heating up and that now was not the time to put the book down. They were very flat in that regard. I differentiate between sensationalism and a literary tidal cycle; perhaps the authors were extremely cognizant of avoiding the former.

The Last River spends a greater percentage of ink relating the experiences of the 4 paddlers on the river and off while Sow balances more equally the stories of both paddlers and support team. Also, Wickliffe Walker in Sow deals with the 'fallout' from Gordon's death much more comprehensively than does Todd Balf; Walker spends several pages relating the effort needed to battle rumours and judgments that were circulating at home half-way around the world.

While the actual journey and the salient events I expect to remember, these books I expect to forget quickly (but then, I forgot Into Thin Air fairly quickly also). If there are poignant moments from the tale and thoughts to come away with, the one I recall most easily is the second-guessing of Gordon's paddling buddies as described most clearly in The Last Rivers account of Roger Zbel's "What if" self-flagellation. As a paddler, I pray that I am never faced with that.
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It was disappointing that The Last River did not have any photos at all of the area and only a minimalist map. On the other hand, Sow's small collection of photos was hardly comprehensive though the satellite photo was helpful in placing the story.

Nether book rates more than a 2.5 - 3, in my mind, nor does one stand head and shoulders above the other.

My context: Canadian class IV kayaker; 3 Himalayan river trips in Nepal (in fact and unbeknownst, I was on the Tamur River at exactly the time this group was on the Tsangpo); read years ago the American Whitewater article of the Gordon/McEwan trip down the Homothko in BC.

Courting the Diamond Sow
Anyone interested not only in kayaking, but also in mountain expeditions, exploration and trekking should read this. An account of truly BIG WATER, Tibetan mysteries, individual courage, top-notch kayaking, featuring some of the World's best kayakers.

Great Adventure Story
Great adventure story for the kayaking community

More Than a Trek
This story expands on the notion that an expedition does not necessarily revolve completely around kayaking on a dangerous river. Instead, it reveals that the arduous trek, diverse people, personal challenges, and team dynamics are what define an expedition. Overcoming that, the challenge of the Tsang Po presents itself as a reward.

There's much to ponder about the challenges that contain the certain risk of death. Wick Walker's recount of this expedition helps us remember just what to consider.

Quite a Story
This is a pretty good book, all in all. Of course, it's not too hard to produce something good when one has such a powerful story, but Wick is able to maintain both stories -- that of the support team (their tense dealings with the natives, their desperate race to find Doug Gordon's body, and later their difficult trek back to civilization) and that of the paddlers (especially through Jamie McEwan's journal entries). My favorite parts are actually these entries, actually, vivid and powerful.

The power of the Tsangpo River is hard to imagine. These were some of the best paddlers in the world. Roger Zbel ("King of the Portages" on the Tsangpo . . .) was locally famous back in the States for his still-unmatched descents of massive, flood-swollen rivers. Tom McEwan (and Wick Walker, at that) were the first to run Great Falls, back in 1976, and that run is still perhaps the most famous extreme run in the East. Since then he has spent his life charging down dangerous rivers, leading trips for his paddling school. Jamie McEwan is a two-time Olympian, a bronze medalist, and Doug Gordon was apparently the best of them all . . .

Why buy this book over Balf's "The Last River", also about this trip? I asked Jamie, and he said, "Well, Wick's book has pictures . . ." I've never read Balf's book, but I do know that the paddlers themselves had much more imput into Wick's book. I don't even think Balf's was authorized. This book was written by a team member, and it shows. There are details, anecdotes, lots of quotes. All in all, it's a fascinating story of four men -- not the type of crazy adrenaline-junkies one might imagine, but middle-aged Ivy League types, who left their domestic lives for a while to take on "The Everest of Whitewater." ... Read more

Reviews (1)

If you thought you knew front-range rivers, read this...
Ellen's book gives a historical perspective on the forces that have shaped the rivers of Colorado's front range. I grew up on the Colorado's front-range and would never have suspected the extent of change that these rivers have undergone. She covers the period from the Beaver Men to the present. During a recent fishing vacation back to the area I was able to stand where some of the photos were taken, read the descriptions, and envision the changes for myself. Hopefully, concerned citizens and their elected officials will take her advice throughout the book seriously and protect these valuable resources for the future! ... Read more

Book Description

In Goodbye to a River, John Graves defined what it means to know a river--as a real place, as a landscape of memory and imagination, and as "a piece of country, [that] hunted and fished and roamed over, felt and remembered, can be company enough." Readers who've taken the canoe trip down the Brazos with him have long wished to travel other rivers with John Graves. Those journeys now begin in Texas Rivers.This book marries the work of two Texas legends. John Graves brings to Texas Rivers his ability to weave history, geography, and culture into a vibrant portrait of a land and its people. Through photographs of rare beauty, Wyman Meinzer reveals the rivers as few will ever see them in person, distilling decades of experience in capturing light on film into a tour de force presentation of Texas landscapes.In essays on the Canadian, Pecos, Llano, Clear Fork of the Brazos, Neches, and Sabinal rivers, Graves captures the essence of what makes each river unique. While the Canadian is a river of the plains that runs through big ranch country, the Neches is a forest stream heavily impacted by human encroachment. The Llano and the Sabinal remain largely unspoiled, though the forces of change ebb and flow about them. The Pecos shows ripples of its Old West heritage, while the Clear Fork of the Brazos flows through country still living in those times. Meinzer's photographs offer a stunning visual counterpoint to Graves's word portraits, and, together, they show clearly that rivers have been central to the development of the unique character of Texas. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

It's always on top of the pile ...
... because I keep taking it out to look at again. The photographs are stunning. And Graves's prose is just lovely, as it always is. The reason the essays are all too brief (as the previous reviewer noted) is that they originally appeared in "Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine," which set strict limits on length. I read each piece in the series as it came out, but it's lovely to see them all in one place, with more - and very well printed - illustrations.

More Words Please
Meinzer's photography was great but John Graves seemed at a loss for words, i.e. his essays were far too short. Graves takes time to get into his subject ("Goodbye to a River" and "Hardscrabble"). Even though I wanted more, what he wrote is first rate. He understands the magic and individuality of each river, even my Llano. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A must for any fan of the Mighty Hudson
River of Mountains is more than a travel journal. It is also an historical and anecdotal work about the Mighty Hudson River.The author recounts his journey from the headwaters high in the rugged Adirondacks (Lake Tear of the Clouds), down 315 miles of whitewater, dammed water, polluted water, and brackish water to New York City and the Atlantic Ocean.He meets many interesting river people along the way, and relates much historical information about river.A must for anyone with any interest at all about the Hudson River ... Read more

Book Description

Here is the definitive history of the development of the ColoradoRiver and the claims made on its waters, from its source in the Wyoming Rockiesto the California and Arizona borders where, so saline it kills plants, itpeters out just short of the Gulf of California. Ever increasing demands on theriver to supply cities in the desert render this new edition all too timely.Philip Fradkin has updated this valuable book with a new preface. ... Read more

Book Description

Three centuries ago, the Los Angeles River meandered through marshes and forests of willow and sycamore. Trout spawned in its waters and grizzly bears roamed its shores. The bountiful environment the river helped create supported one of the largest concentrations of Indians in North America. Today, the river is made almost entirely of concrete. Chain-link fence and barbed wire line its course. Shopping carts and trash litter its channel. Little water flows in the river most of the year, and nearly all that does is treated sewage and oily street runoff. On much of its course, the river looks more like a deserted freeway than a river.

The river's contemporary image belies its former character and its importance to the development of Southern California. Los Angeles would not exist were it not for the river, and the river was crucial to its growth. Recognizing its past and future potential, a potent movement has developed to revitalize its course. The Los Angeles River offers the first comprehensive account of a river that helped give birth to one of the world's great cities, significantly shaped its history, and promises to play a key role in its future. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Impressive History of Los Angeles and its River
If you've ever wondered why Los Angeles is in the middle of a desert (hint: it wasn't always), what the river looked like before there was a city, and why the river was buried in concrete, this is the book. An excellent description of the origins of the river and the city, with insights into the modern revitalization movement.

Among the things I learned:
--The river starts in the San Fernando Valley, but the city of Los Angeles has claimed the water as its own since at least 1810, a claim eventually known as the Pueblo Water Right.
--Not all of those concrete beds in L.A. are technically the L.A. river, which starts along the south edge of the San Fernando Valley, dodges a number of movie studios, and makes a right turn through downtown before heading for the Pacific. The others are creeks and washes that feed (fed) the river.
--The area's light rainfall was sufficient to keep the river flowing year-round until suburbia took over. Concrete and asphalt reduced the water that soaked into the ground to be released slowly into the river. Now, the primary source of flowing river water is the what's been reclaimed from sewage treatment plants.

Worth the read for all Angelenos or anyone who is interested in Los Angeles.

Essential - An Amazing History of Los Angeles and its River
This fascinating book is packed with information about the history of Los Angeles. Not many present-day Angelenos would know that the location for the city was chosen because of the once-abundant flow of the Rio de Porciuncula, or Los Angeles River. Blake Gumprecht pulls an amazing feat in researching the River's many incarnations alongside the history of the growth of Los Angeles. In addition to providing detailed reports of the River's former courses, and devastating accounts of some of the River's infamous catastrophic floods, Mr. Gumprecht explains the River's role in shaping the course of Los Angeles city politics in greater detail than any previous study.

Once an ample stream that sustained all of the city's water needs for over 100 years, the Los Angeles River was then pumped dry, smothered in concrete, and almost pushed out of the city's consciousness. Incredible photographs appear throughout the book; many of these photos will make nature-loving Angelenos yearn for the Los Angeles River of yesteryear, with its bubbling, meandering stream, and its banks lined with willows and sycamores.

Long before you approach the end of this book, you realize that, in an over-zealous attempt to control flooding, the Los Angeles River was essentially raped, depleted, and buried. The fact that, at present, most of its 51 miles are cement is a shame -- especially in a city with so little park space. Amazingly, the River still provides up to 15% of L.A.'s drinking water, albeit from subterannean pumps that tap the River's flow before it ever reaches the surface. And millions of gallons of River water were diverted to the Silver Lake reservoir.

People who never knew that there was a Los Angeles River should go see the few surviving River greenbelts in the Glendale Narrows and the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area to appreciate our city's River as it used to be.

P.S. - I encourage other Los Angeles River buffs to look at Kevin Roderick's book "San Fernando Valley: America's Suburb" to see other beautiful pictures of the River in its natural state, before the concrete obscured it.

The River that Made Los Angeles
As a boy growing up in North Long Beach in the 1930s, I often camped out with my friends on the banks of the Los Angeles River. We would go skinny dipping, catch pollywogs and lizards, make willow whistles, and trudge through the oily sludge that lined the river bottom. We did not know that once the river flowed year-around crystal clear, teeming with fish and supporting a heavily wooded flood plain rich with swamps, lakes, and wildlife. My first surprise on reading the biography of this once-ample river was the fact that it supported one of the largest concentrations of natives in the country. The first Europeans who settled on its banks named their village after it. This book really tells three stories. The first is how the river contributed to the growth of agriculture during the first 100 years of European settlement, creating a lasting image of fertile vinyards and orchards in the sunshine. After the railroad came, the needs for water grew so rapidly they pumped the river dry and built an aqueduct to the Owens River in the north to supply their needs. The second story is about the river's revenge and the periodic devastation it caused by flooding. Time after time, the river, swollen by storms in the San Gabriel Mountains, would smash through its levies, carry off whole houses, factories, herds of cattle, orchards and vinyards, destroy roads, bridges, cemeteries, and towns, putting the whole county under water. It was not until the late 1930s that an earnest attempt was made to tame the river with a system of dams, catchment basins, and pavement. The third story is about the recent attempts to restore the river to its natural state, an exercise about which the author is skeptical. Blake Gumprecht has given us a splendid book that again shows us how much geology, climate, and topography affect how we live and think of ourselves as a people. ... Read more

Book Description

RIPRAP is a widely used engineering method for protecting river banks and coastlines from erosion. This book studies the fundamental issues and problems concerned with various aspects of this method of erosion control. ... Read more

Book Description

Analysis of Failure and Survival Data is an essential textbook for graduate-level students of survival analysis and reliability and a valuable reference for practitioners. It focuses on the many techniques that appear in popular software packages, including plotting product-limit survival curves, hazard plots, and probability plots in the context of censored data. The author integrates S-Plus and Minitab output throughout the text, along with a variety of real data sets so readers can see how the theory and methods are applied. He also incorporates exercises in each chapter that provide valuable problem-solving experience. In addition to all of this, the book also brings to light the most recent linear regression techniques. Most importantly, it includes a definitive account of the Buckley-James method for censored linear regression, found to be the best performing method when a Cox proportional hazards method is not appropriate.Applying the theories of survival analysis and reliability requires more background and experience than students typically receive at the undergraduate level. Mastering the contents of this book will help prepare students to begin performing research in survival analysis and reliability and provide seasoned practitioners with a deeper understanding of the field. ... Read more

Book Description

The Delaware River has been home to steamboats and canoes, swimmers and fishermen, and shipyards and factories for generations. Recreation and industry have long coexisted along its changing banks. Along the Delaware River presents the Delaware River corridorófrom Hancock, New York, in the Catskill Mountains, to the mouth of the Delaware Bayóat the beginning of the twentieth century. Postcards, many nearly a hundred years old, are used to show a river system that both resembles and differs greatly from the one we know today.ÝÝ ... Read more

Book Description

This is a completely revised and updated edition of David Knighton's River Forms and Processes. Looking at the wide range of forms developed by natural rivers and the processes responsible for that development, the book combines empirical and theoretical approaches, and provides a critical assessment of the many schools of thought which have emerged for dealing with adjustment in the fluvial system. It is fully illustrated throughout by a superb range of figures, photographs and tables.

Starting with the network scale, the book examines the interaction of hillslopes, drainage networks and channels, and goes on to considerations of catchment hydrology and catchment denudation. Fluvial processes are analysed in detail, from the mechanics of flow to sediment transport and deposition. Detailing the major components of river channels, the book examines the nature of river adjustment, particularly with respect to equilibrium concepts, and concludes with a look at channel changes through time, affected by flood discharges, climatic change and human activities. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Clear thinking, eloquent writing
"Sand County Almanac" presents Leopold's thoughts and impressions concerning nature and conservation. This book shows Leopold in a far wider context. Leopold held many jobs and had many hobbies in his full life: forest ranger, administrator, hunter, game manager, laboratory director, wilderness traveler, professor. Every time he encountered a new situation he thought about it deeply and creatively, and recorded his thoughts in vivid, non-technical essays, many of which are collected in this book.

I was particulaly impressed by Leopold's thoughtfullness -- that he reached his conclusions not by following the majority nor by catering to the powerful nor by jerking his knee, but by deep and clear thinking. Reading these essays renders vivid the fact that current public discourse is dominated by power play and snide insults rather than by civil, reasoned debate. ... Read more

Book Description

The floodplain forest of the Amazon is the last major agricultural frontier of the Americas. This unique habitat, inundated in some places to a depth of thirty feet a year, contains a marvelous variety of plant and animal resources that inhabitants have long reaped--fruit, nuts, building materials, fuelwood, and medicinal plants. While the floodplain has great potential for food production, its natural resource base is becoming increasingly threatened by ranching and agricultural expansion and impaired by inappropriate land-use practices.

This important book, based both on field observations carried out over the past quarter century and historical material, demonstrates that knowledge possessed by area dwellers offers vital insights for promoting the sound economic development of the floodplain. Nigel Smith argues for the importance of balance between land-use systems, and suggests that research and development should be realigned to incorporate both modern science and traditional systems. Beautifully illustrated with the author's own photographs, this authoritative volume explores a broad range of ecological, historical, cultural, and socioeconomic issues, and offers practical suggestions for developing the floodplain that enhance, rather than destroy, biodiversity. ... Read more

Book Description

Winner of the 9th annual Southern Environmental Law Center Phillip D. Reed Memorial Award (in Literary non-fiction) for outstanding writing on the southern environment.

From its beginnings as a trickle of icy water in Virginia's northwest corner to its miles-wide mouth at Hampton Roads, the James River has witnessed more recorded history than any other feature of the American landscape--as home to the continent's first successful English settlement, highway for Native Americans and early colonists, battleground in the Revolution and the Civil War, and birthplace of America's twentieth- century navy.

In 1998, restless in his job as a reporter for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, Earl Swift landed an assignment traveling the entire length of the James. He hadn't been in a canoe since his days as a Boy Scout, and he knew that the river boasts whitewater, not to mention man- made obstacles, to challenge even experienced paddlers.But reinforced by Pilot photographer Ian Martin and a lot of freeze-dried food and beer, Swift set out to immerse himself--he hoped not literally--in the river and its history.

What Swift survived to bring us is this engrossing chronicle of three weeks in a fourteen- foot plastic canoe and four hundred years in the life of Virginia. Fueled by humor and a dauntless curiosity about the land, buildings, and people on the banks, and anchored by his sidekick Martin--whose photographs accompany the text--Swift points his bow through the ghosts of a frontier past, past Confederate forts and POW camps, antebellum mills, ruined canals, vanished towns, and effluent-spewing industry. Along the banks, lonely meadowlands alternate with suburbs and power plants, marinas and the gleaming skyscrapers of Richmond's New South downtown. Enduring dunkings, wolf spiders, near-arrest, channel fever, and twenty-knot winds, Swift makes it to the Chesapeake Bay.

Readers who accompany him through his Journey on the James will come away with the accumulated pleasure, if not the bruises and mud, of four hundred miles of adventure and history in the life of one of America's great watersheds. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

an ego trip, not a canoe trip
The author comes acros as egotistical. Most readers, other than his family and friends, probably won't care about his opinions and the personal details of his trip. When telling us of the people he encounters who work, live and play along the rivers banks, he displays a superior attitude (the educated reporter meets us uneducated local yokels)

I love it!
I love the book and love Swift's writing.
Can't get enough of his writing in our local paper.
We learned so much about a river we never thought much about. It is a very interesting and exciting book. When my freind returns it, I'm also going to read it again. Great writing about outdoor Virginia.

once was enough
I read about the journey when it came out in the newspaper and was interested to see how the book would be. The addition of more of the so-called "adventure" is not very interesting and comes across as filler. The story worked best as a shorter newspaper series.

Loved it.
A canoe adventure chocked with well researched history, wonderful trivia, great tight writing and subtle wit.
I gave it as a gift to my outdoorsy friends but the best compliment I can give is--I'm on my second reading.

I'm fortunate enough to live in Hampton Roads where Swift is journalist for the Virginian Pilot newspaper. He's surely one of--if not "the"--finest writers in Virginia!

about us, but not for us
I was surprised to find that this book is largely a history book. Mr. Swift has garnered a great deal of research about pre-twentieth century life along the James River and incorporated the research into the account of his journey, a canoe trip along the length of one of Virginia's longest waterways.

I was, however, hoping for reasonably detailed descriptions of the folks who visit the waters or live near them. Instead, interactions with the people he meets along the way are cursory. Granted, if someone were to choose to travel down a river by canoe, meeting people along the way would be more challenging than if someone were to follow the river by foot. Challenging, yes, but not impossible.

Most annoying about his descriptions of the local color is that everyone appears to be viewed through an elitist lens. Here's the approach: savvy, educated city newspaper reporter meets the ignorant masses. Virtually everyone you'll meet in this book has been squeezed into one of the following categories: eccentric elderly, small-brained local yokels from small towns (in the form of fishermen, swimmers and boaters), clueless teens, representatives from Greedy Corporations, Evil Developers and Money-Mad Big Businesses, thickheaded security guards and policemen, ill-mannered tourists (in the form of boaters and water skiers) and young women whose only roles are romantic interests or sex objects.

While the descriptions of the people are sketchy and often unflattering, Swift's descriptions of the river and the landscape are lengthy and reverential as he frets about the various forms of pollution he encounters and its effects on the land and water. He also fusses about the polluted river's effects on the those whose lives intersect it, but I began to wonder, given his accounts of the people he meets along the way, why we should care about any of them.

Virtually anyone the author speaks well of he has met during his research: Apparently most of the brave, interesting or intelligent Virginians to grace the flanks of the James or traverse its waters lived before the twentieth century. (Even here some stereotypes present themselves. The actions of a woman settler who escapes her Indian captors are described as . . . brave? Heroic? No, they're " a testament to pluck." About another formidable woman settler, the author writes that although she was "short, mannish, foul-mouthed, handy in a fistfight, prone to drunkenness, she nonetheless snagged a second husband . . . " Please.)

After reading this book, if I were to in turn stereotype Mr. Swift, I would pigeonhole him as the typical exploitative, grandstanding reporter. Swift seems to view the James as a long stage down which to parade and the people he meets in the wings as mere props to use for his story. So, in the end, what we have is a book stuffed with an impressive array of footnotes and clever turns of phrases written by a professional writer to dazzle other professional scribes. However, while the writing experts huddle in a circle (with their backs to everyone else) admiring the book's technical expertise, the "ordinary" readers wander away looking for something with life and soul, with relevance to their lives. As for me, I don't believe virtually the only people worth meeting along the James's 430-mile length are dead. ... Read more