This book documents nearly 500 US and Canadian locations where wildlife refuges, nature preserves, and similar properties protect natural sites that lie within the North American Great Plains, from Canada's Prairie Provinces to the Texas-Mexico border. Information on site location, size, biological diversity, and the presence of especially rare or interesting flora and fauna are mentioned, as well as driving directions, mailing addresses, and phone numbers or internet addresses, as available. US federal sites include 11 national grasslands, 13 national parks, 16 national monuments, and more than 70 national wildlife refuges. State properties include nearly 100 state parks and wildlife management areas. Also included are about 60 national and provincial parks, national wildlife areas, and migratory bird sanctuaries in Canada's Prairie Provinces. Many public-access properties owned by counties, towns, and private organizations are also described.

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.

Eastern waterfowlers, who know the black duck best, regard this big dusky bird as the top game bird against which all other ducks are measured. In parts of the Northeast this feeling of affection is so strong that in some circles only the black rates the name of "duck." All other species, even the famed canvasback, are "coots," "fish ducks," or are known by even less complimentary titles. Much of this devotion is justified. Without the black duck, wildfowling in much of the thickly settled East would be an unrewarding pastime. Big as a mallard, as wary as a Canada goose, and as handsome in full plumage as any duck that flies, the black duck fills a place on the American sporting scene that could be filled by no other waterfowl. Here is the dramatic story of the life of the black duck, from the time the broods hatch on the spruce-lined ponds of eastern Canada, through the hazardous flights to the southern wintering areas, to the return of the paired birds to the nesting grounds in spring. It is a story told authoritatively by a Canadian scientist whose adult life has been spent in studying the black duck from the fastnesses of its northern breeding grounds in Labrador and Ungava Bay, to the marshes of Louisiana. In this book are facts on the black and other species of waterfowl that will be new to many students of waterfowl as well as to sportsmen. Here also are recommendations for perpetuating the flights of these magnificent game birds.