*Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker and Literary Hub!* *A 2022 NBCC Awards Nonfiction Finalist and a 2023 Phillip D. Reed Environmental Writing Award Finalist* From Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx, this riveting deep dive into the history of our wetlands and what their systematic destruction means for the planet “is both an enchanting work of nature writing and a rousing call to action” (Esquire). “I learned something new—and found something amazing—on every page.” —Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land A lifelong acolyte of the natural world, Annie Proulx brings her witness and research to the subject of wetlands and the vitally important role they play in preserving the environment—by storing the carbon emissions that accelerate climate change. Fens, bogs, swamps, and marine estuaries are crucial to the earth’s survival, and in four illuminating parts, Proulx documents their systemic destruction in pursuit of profit. In a vivid and revelatory journey through history, Proulx describes the fens of 16th-century England, Canada’s Hudson Bay lowlands, Russia’s Great Vasyugan Mire, and America’s Okeefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. She introduces the early explorers who launched the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, and writes of the diseases spawned in the wetlands—the Ague, malaria, Marsh Fever. A sobering look at the degradation of wetlands over centuries and the serious ecological consequences, this is “an unforgettable and unflinching tour of past and present, fixed on a subject that could not be more important” (Bill McKibben). “A stark but beautifully written Silent Spring–style warning from one of our greatest novelists.” —The Christian Science Monitor

The definitive guide to the flora of northeastern bogs and fens

The first popular book to deal with bogs in a comprehensive yet authoritative manner

In a world filled with breathtaking beauty, we have often overlooked the elusive magic of certain landscapes. A cloudy river flows into an Arctic wetland where sandhill cranes and muskoxen dwell. Further south, cypress branches hang low over dismal swamps. Places like these-collectively known as swamplands or peatlands-often go unnoticed for their ecological splendor. They are as globally significant as rainforests, yet, because of their reputation as wastelands, they are being systematically drained and degraded. Swamplands celebrates these wild places, as journalist Edward Struzik highlights the unappreciated struggle to save peatlands by scientists, conservationists, and landowners around the world. An ode to peaty landscapes in all their offbeat glory, the book is also a demand for awareness of the myriad threats they face. It inspires us to see the beauty and importance in these least likely of places­. Our planet's survival might depend on it.

This volume focuses on the geology, land use history, palaeoecology, ecology and conservation of peatlands (fens and bogs) in The Netherlands. The volume provides detailed accounts that, together, give a representative picture of the studies that have been carried out in the Dutch mires over the past 25 years. Contents: Chapter 1: Verhoeven -- Introduction. Chapter 2: Pons -- is a comprehensive geographic and pedological account of peat formation in space and time in the western coastal plain. Chapter 3: Casparia and Streefkerk -- is a detailed description of the various stages of development from fen to bog of the Bourtanger Moor. Chapter 4: Borger and Stol -- details the history of peat draining, digging and dredging in The Netherlands and Flanders. Chapter 5: Barkman -- deals with bog remnants in the eastern Netherlands and northwestern Germany. This chapter also includes data on oligotrophic heath pools which have a vegetation that is similar to that found in bogs. Chapters 6: Den Held; 7: Van Wirdum et al.; 8: Koerselman and Verhoeven -- are chapters on vegetation, synecology and nutrient dynamics of fens and chapter 9: Wiegers -- focuses mainly on terrestrializing fens that are so characteristic of the western Netherlands where they presently occur in turf ponds created by peat dredging in former centuries. Chapter 10: Vermeer and Joosten -- concludes the volume with a treatment of problems with mire conservation and management.

Exploring and appreciating the fascinating ecosystems of bogs and fens Peatlands--and specifically "bogs"--have long been a source of fascination for humans, and these amazing places are truly living relics of the Ice Age. More recently, bogs have come to be regarded as complex and fascinating wetland ecosystems. Peatlands of Ohio and the Southern Great Lakes Region focuses on the sphagnum peat bogs and rich fens of the lower Great Lakes states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, southern Michigan, and the glaciated northern corners of Pennsylvania. The peatlands of today are products of the Wisconsinan Glaciation, when peatland plants originating in northern latitudes migrated southward in a wide band preceding the glacial wall of ice. After thousands of years, the glacier's retreat severely diminished the sites with the very special environmental conditions needed to sustain these ecosystems. However, in a few sites, kettlehole lakes and cold alkaline hillside seeps and springs enabled remnants of peatland vegetation to survive to this day. Guy L. Denny, with accompanying photographs by Gary Meszaros, closely examines this habitat and its special environmental constraints, the geological and climatological origins, and the flora and fauna unique to the bogs and rich fens of this region. As readers will discover as they learn about places like Cranberry Bog in Michigan or Triangle Lake in Ohio, kettlehole sphagnum peat bogs and rich fens are not only essential places to protect, but they are amazing sites to explore, discover new plants, and observe the beauty and splendor of the natural world.