“Who hears the fishes when they cry?”: Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, reprint ed. (New York: Penguin, 1998), 31.
Bigheads can, on occasion, weigh as much as a hundred pounds: Duane C. Chapman, “Facts About Invasive Bighead and Silver Carps,” publication of the United States Geological Survey, available at: pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2010/3033/pdf/FS2010-3033.pdf.
“Bighead and silver carp don’t just invade ecosystems”: Dan Egan, The Death and Life of the Great Lakes (New York: Norton, 2017), 156.
on some waterways the proportion is even higher: Dan Chapman, A War in the Water, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, southeast region (March 19, 2018), fws.gov/southeast/articles/a-war-in-the-water/.
The result was fifty-four thousand pounds of dead fish: Egan, The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, 177.
“no greater threat to the ecosystem of the Great Lakes”: Cited in Tom Henry, “Congressmen Urge Aggressive Action to Block Asian Carp,” The Blade (Dec. 21, 2009), toledoblade.com/local/2009/12/21/Congressmen-urge-aggressive-action-to-block-Asian-carp/stories/200912210014.
Michigan filed a lawsuit: “Lawsuit Against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Chicago Water District,” Department of the Michigan Attorney General, michigan.gov/ag/0,4534,7-359-82915_82919_82129_82135-447414--,00.html.
According to the Corps’ assessment: The Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study, or GLMRIS report, is available at: glmris.anl.gov/glmris-report/.
On the Great Lakes side: A list of the (at last count) 187 invasive species established in the Great Lakes is provided by NOAA at: glerl.noaa.gov/glansis/GLANSISposter.pdf.
A woman I read about: Phil Luciano, “Asian Carp More Than a Slap in the Face,” Peoria Journal Star (Oct. 21, 2003), pjstar.com/article/20031021/NEWS/310219999.
the China Daily ran an article: Doug Fangyu, “Asian Carp: Americans’ Poison, Chinese People’s Delicacy,” China Daily USA (Oct. 13, 2014), http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/epaper/2014-10/13/content_18730596.htm.
2
officially retired thirty-one Plaquemines place names: Amy Wold, “Washed Away: Locations in Plaquemines Parish Disappear from Latest NOAA Charts,” The Advocate (Apr. 29, 2013), theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/article_f60d4d55-e26b-52c0-b9bb-bed2ae0b348c.html.
“We harnessed it, straightened it, regularized it, shackled it”: Cited in John McPhee, The Control of Nature (New York: Noonday, 1990), 26.
some four hundred million tons’ worth annually: Liviu Giosan and Angelina M. Freeman, “How Deltas Work: A Brief Look at the Mississippi River Delta in a Global Context,” in Perspectives on the Restoration of the Mississippi Delta, John W. Day, G. Paul Kemp, Angelina M. Freeman, and David P. Muth, eds. (Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2014), 30.
had been assured by a Bayogoula guide: Christopher Morris, The Big Muddy: An Environmental History of the Mississippi and Its Peoples from Hernando de Soto to Hurricane Katrina (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 42.
wading “mid-leg deep” to get to their cabins: Cited in Morris, The Big Muddy, 45.
“I do not see how settlers can be placed on this river”: Cited in Morris, The Big Muddy, 45.
“The site is drowned under half a foot of water”: Cited in Lawrence N. Powell, The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2012), 49.
slave-built levees stretched along both banks: Morris, The Big Muddy, 61.
extended for more than a hundred and fifty miles: John M. Barry, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America (New York: Touchstone, 1997), 40.
In 1735, a crevasse-induced flood: Donald W. Davis, “Historical Perspective on Crevasses, Levees, and the Mississippi River,” in Transforming New Orleans and Its Environs, Craig E. Colten, ed. (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 2000), 87.
observed “one sheet of water”: Cited in Richard Campanella, “Long before Hurricane Katrina, There Was Sauve’s Crevasse, One of the Worst Floods in New Orleans History,” nola.com (June 11, 2014), nola.com/entertainment_life/home_garden/article_ea927b6b-d1ab-5462-9756-ccb1acdf092e.html.
In 1858, forty-five crevasses opened up: For a full account of crevasses, 1773–1927, see Davis, “Historical Perspectives on Crevasses, Levees, and the Mississippi River,” 95.
two hundred and twenty-six crevasses were reported: Davis, “Historical Perspectives on Crevasses, Levees, and the Mississippi River,” 100.
caused an estimated $500 million worth of damage: Estimates of the damages caused by the Great Flood of 1927 vary widely; some are as high as a billion dollars, or almost $15 billion in today’s money.
the most important piece of water-related legislation: Cited in Christine A. Klein and Sandra B. Zellmer, Mississippi River Tragedies: A Century of Unnatural Disaster (New York: New York University, 2014), 76.
within four years, it had added: D. O. Elliott, The Improvement of the Lower Mississippi River for Flood Control and Navigation: Vol. 2 (St. Louis: Mississippi River Commission, 1932), 172.
On average, the levees were raised by three feet: Elliott, The Improvement of the Lower Mississippi River: Vol. 2, 326.
A poem commemorating the Corps’ efforts: The excerpt comes from Michael C. Robinson, The Mississippi River Commission: An American Epic (Vicksburg, Miss.: Mississippi River Commission, 1989).
“The Mississippi River was controlled; land was lost”: Davis, “Historical Perspectives on Crevasses, Levees, and the Mississippi River,” 85.
The authority had taken them anyway: John Snell, “State Takes Soil Samples at Site of Largest Coastal Restoration Project, Despite Plaquemines Parish Opposition,” Fox8live (last updated Aug. 23, 2018), fox8live.com/story/38615453/state-takes-soil-samples-at-site-of-largest-coastal-restoration-project-despite-plaquemines-parish-opposition/.
dropping by almost half a foot a decade: Cathleen E. Jones et al., “Anthropogenic and Geologic Influences on Subsidence in the Vicinity of New Orleans, Louisiana,” Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 121 (2016), 3867–3887.
“New Orleans’ drainage problem is a terrible one”: Thomas Ewing Dabney, “New Orleans Builds Own Underground River,” New Orleans Item (May 2, 1920), 1.
The Case Against Rebuilding the Sunken City of New Orleans: Jack Shafer, “Don’t Refloat: The Case against Rebuilding the Sunken City of New Orleans,” Slate (Sept. 7, 2005), slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/09/the-case-against-rebuilding-the-sunken-city-of-new-orleans.html.
“It is time to face up to some geological realities”: Klaus Jacob, “Time for a Tough Question: Why Rebuild?” The Washington Post (Sept. 6, 2005).
An advisory group appointed by New Orleans’s mayor: Reports of the Bring New Orleans Back Commission, appointed by Mayor Ray Nagin, are archived at: columbia.edu/itc/journalism/cases/katrina/city_of_new_orleans_bnobc.html.
twelve thousand cubic feet of water per second: Mark Schleifstein, “Price of Now-Completed Pump Stations at New Orleans Outfall Canals Rises by $33.2 Million,” New Orleans Times-Picayune (last updated July 12, 2019), nola.com/news/environment/article_7734dae6-c1c9-559b-8b94-7a9cef8bb6d8.html.
twenty miles closer to the Gulf: Klein and Zellmer, Mississippi River Tragedies, 144.
for every three miles a storm has to travel: How much wetlands buffer storm surges is a much-debated topic. This estimate is cited in Klein and Zellmer, Mississippi River Tragedies, 141.
Jean Marie’s children, in turn, married descendants: The history of the Isle de Jean Charles Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe, as well as the latest on the resettlement plan, can be found at isledejeancharles.com.
the project’s billion-dollar price tag: The price of the Morg
anza to the Gulf project keeps changing. These figures come from the late 1990s, when the Corps decided not to include Isle de Jean Charles inside the levees.
“The Corps of Engineers can make the Mississippi River go”: McPhee, The Control of Nature, 50.
“The word will now come to mind”: McPhee, The Control of Nature, 69.
Into the Wild
1
not far from Mount Stirling: In Manly’s day, the mountain had not been officially named; his location is reckoned in Richard E. Lingenfelter, Death Valley & the Amargosa: A Land of Illusion (Berkeley: University of California, 1986), 42.
a “bounteous stock of bread and beans”: William L. Manly, Death Valley in ’49: The Autobiography of a Pioneer, reprint ed. (Santa Barbara, Calif.: The Narrative Press, 2001), 105.
Most of the members of Manly’s group: Lingenfelter, Death Valley & the Amargosa, 34–35.
a bloody liquid “resembling corruption”: Manly, Death Valley in ’49, 106.
asked him please to shut up: Manly, Death Valley in ’49, 99.
“Creator’s dumping place”: The account of this exchange comes from Manly, Death Valley in ’49, 113.
“enjoyed an extremely refreshing bath”: Cited in James E. Deacon and Cynthia Deacon Williams, “Ash Meadows and the Legacy of the Devils Hole Pupfish, in Battle Against Extinction: Native Fish Management in the American West, W. L. Minckley and James E. Deacon, eds. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1991), 69.
“not much more than an inch long”: Manly, Death Valley in ’49, 107.
a “beautiful enigma”: Christopher J. Norment, Relicts of a Beautiful Sea: Survival, Extinction, and Conservation in a Desert World (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2014), 110.
fuzzy shots of two feet walking: The surveillance video was posted with a story by Veronica Rocha, “3 Men Face Felony Charges in Killing of Endangered Pupfish in Death Valley,” Los Angeles Times (May 13, 2016), latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-pupfish-charges-20160513-snap-story.html.
described him as potbellied and stern: Paige Blankenbuehler, “How a Tiny Endangered Species Put a Man in Prison,” High Country News (Apr. 15, 2019).
weighed in at about a hundred grams: This calculation is based on figures from Norment, Relicts of a Beautiful Sea, 120.
“suitable for either ball or shot”: Manly, Death Valley in ’49, 13.
“the finest kind of food, fit for an epicure”: Manly, Death Valley in ’49, 64.
“Is it not a maimed and imperfect nature”: Henry David Thoreau, Thoreau’s Journals, Vol. 20 (entry from March 23, 1856), transcript available at: http://thoreau.library.ucsb.edu/writings_journals20.html.
took place in 1882: Joel Greenberg, A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon’s Flight to Extinction (New York: Bloomsbury, 2014), 152–155.
“It would have been as easy to count”: William T. Hornaday, The Extermination of the American Bison with a Sketch of Its Discovery and Life History (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1889), 387.
“hardly a bone will remain above ground”: Hornaday, The Extermination of the American Bison, 525.
“For one species to mourn the death of another”: Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, reprint ed. (New York: Ballantine, 1970), 117.
Extinction rates are now hundreds: Anthony D. Barnosky et al., “Has the Earth’s Sixth Mass Extinction Already Arrived?” Nature, 471 (2011) 51–57.
a list of “common birds in steep decline”: The list, compiled by the U.S. North American Bird Conservation Initiative, is available at: allaboutbirds.org/news/state-of-the-birds-2014-common-birds-in-steep-decline-list/.
Even among insects: Caspar A. Hallmann et al., “More than 75 Percent Decline over 27 Years in Total Flying Insect Biomass in Protected Areas,” PLoS ONE, 12 (2017), journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185809.
The tests left behind a more or less permanent marker: C. N. Waters et al., “Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the Anthropocene Series: Where and How to Look for Potential Candidates,” Earth-Science Reviews, 178 (2018), 379–429.
“peculiar race of desert fish”: Proclamation 2961, 17 Fed. Reg. 691 (Jan. 23, 1952).
That spring, the Department of Defense: For a full list of nuclear tests by date, see U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Safety Administration Nevada Field Office, United States Nuclear Tests: July 1945 through September 1992 (Alexandria, Va.: U.S. Department of Commerce, 2015), nnss.gov/docs/docs_LibraryPublications/DOE_NV-209_Rev16.pdf.
His plan was to construct from scratch: This plan is described in Kevin C. Brown, Recovering the Devils Hole Pupfish: An Environmental History (National Park Service, 2017), 315. An electronic copy of the history was generously provided by the author.
By the end of 1970: Brown, Recovering the Devils Hole Pupfish, 142.
the National Park Service rigged up a bank: Brown, Recovering the Devils Hole Pupfish, 145.
Some went to Saline Valley: Brown, Recovering the Devils Hole Pupfish, 139.
Then rival stickers appeared: Brown, Recovering the Devils Hole Pupfish, 303.
“Water, water, water”: Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, reprint ed. (New York: Touchstone, 1990), 126.
“All living things on earth are kindred”: Abbey, Desert Solitaire, 21.
“To watch a small school of pupfish”: Norment, Relicts of a Beautiful Sea, 3–4.
dubbed “misanthropic synanthropes”: Stanley D. Gehrt, Justin L. Brown, and Chris Anchor, “Is the Urban Coyote a Misanthropic Synanthrope: The Case from Chicago,” Cities and the Environment, 4 (2011), digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cate/vol4/iss1/3/.
currently listed as “possibly extinct”: For the latest on the IUCN’s list of “possibly extinct” animals, see: iucnredlist.org/statistics.
The term of art for such creatures is “conservation-reliant”: J. Michael Scott et al., “Recovery of Imperiled Species under the Endangered Species Act: The Need for a New Approach, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 3 (2005), 383–389.
“Old deeds for old people”: Henry David Thoreau, Walden, reprint ed. (Oxford: Oxford University, 1997), 10.
it is the “destiny of every considerable stream”: Mary Austin, The Land of Little Rain, reprint ed. (Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 2015), 61.
Among those creatures that lasted long enough: Robert R. Miller, James D. Williams, and Jack E. Williams, “Extinctions of North American Fishes During the Past Century,” Fisheries, 14 (1989), 22–38.
“I distinctly remember being scared to death”: Edwin Philip Pister, “Species in a Bucket,” Natural History (January 1993), 18.
He managed to save thirty-two of them: C. Moon Reed, “Only You Can Save the Pahrump Poolfish,” Las Vegas Weekly (March 9, 2017), lasvegasweekly.com/news/2017/mar/09/pahrump-poolfish-lake-harriet-spring-mountain/.
“Men make their own biosphere”: J. R. McNeill, Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World (New York: Norton, 2000), 194.
2
something like half of the Caribbean’s coral cover disappeared: Richard B. Aronson and William F. Precht, “White-Band Disease and the Changing Face of Caribbean Coral Reefs,” Hydrobiologia, 460 (2001), 25–38.
In 1998, a so-called global bleaching event: Alexandra Witze, “Corals Worldwide Hit by Bleaching,” Nature (Oct. 8, 2015), nature.com/news/corals-worldwide-hit-by-bleaching-1.18527.
“stop growing and begin dissolving”: Jacob Silverman et al., “Coral Reefs May Start Dissolving When Atmospheric CO2 Doubles,” Geophysical Research Letters, 36 (2009), agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2008GL036282.
“rapidly eroding rubble banks”: O. Hoegh-Guldber
g et al., “Coral Reefs Under Rapid Climate Change and Ocean Acidification,” Science, 318 (2007), 1737–1742.
“curious rings of coral land”: Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle (New York: P. F. Collier, 1909), 406.
“raised by myriads of tiny architects”: Darwin, Charles Darwin’s Beagle Diary, Richard Darwin Keynes, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1988), 418.
“thirty-five folio pages of crabbed, elliptical scrawl”: Janet Browne, Charles Darwin: Voyaging (New York: Knopf, 1995), 437.
“We see nothing of these slow changes”: Darwin, On the Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1964), 84.
“Beneath this laurel’s friendly pitying shade”: From an “Epitaph for a Favourite Tumbler Who Died Aged Twelve,” signed Columba, full poem available at: darwinspigeons.com/#/victorian-pigeon-poems/4535732923.
“retch awfully”: Darwin wrote this in a letter to his friend Thomas Eyton, cited in Browne, Charles Darwin, 525.
“I have kept every breed”: Darwin, On the Origin of Species, 20–21.
“If feeble man can do [so] much”: Darwin, On the Origin of Species, 109.
after The End of Nature: Bill McKibben, The End of Nature (New York: Random House, 1989).
more than ninety percent of the Great Barrier Reef: This figure comes from Neal Cantin, a research scientist I interviewed at the SeaSim (Nov. 15, 2019).
half its corals had perished: Robinson Meyer, “Since 2016, Half of All Coral in the Great Barrier Reef Has Died,” The Atlantic (Apr. 18, 2018), theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/since-2016-half-the-coral-in-the-great-barrier-reef-has-perished/558302/.
a “catastrophic” collapse: Terry P. Hughes et al., “Global Warming Transforms Coral Reef Assemblages,” Nature, 556 (2018), 492–496.
a healthy patch of reef: Mark D. Spalding, Corinna Ravilious, and Edmund P. Green, World Atlas of Coral Reefs (Berkeley: University of California, 2001), 27.
Under a White Sky Page 18
