Ted Levin

From Publishers Weekly
In 1948, the Army Corps of Engineers launched a project to deal with flooding in Florida's Everglades by building a system of canals, levees and spillways. Misunderstanding the complexities of the ecosystem they were trying to control, the engineers drained the Everglades. In this knowledgeable and carefully researched overview, Levin, a naturalist, writer and photographer, recounts the many negative effects this drainage has had on wildlife and plant life. Half of the original Everglades area has been converted to housing and farmland; the wilderness's ability to recover from natural disasters such as hurricanes has been compromised by human error. Levin, who covered the area by foot, boat and plane, successfully evokes the Everglades of yesterday and today, and details the possibilities that exist for its future. He mentions that $8 billion has been allocated for a Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), which is intended to reverse the decline and restore the wetlands by recapturing water flushed out to sea and redirecting it back without flooding corporate farms and cities. Drawing on extensive research, the author describes the interest groups, corporations and citizens who conflict with one another over the CERP project. A small group of homeowners, for example, composed chiefly of Cuban exiles, will be forced to move because they live on marshland that may be flooded. In this informative and timely account, Levin offers an accessible, engaging narrative of what environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas called "the river of grass." B&w illus.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
It is not without a certain degree of irony that the Everglades, long held as one of the toughest and most inhospitable environments on earth, has become one of its most threatened and fragile. Originally encompassing more than 14,000 square miles, today nearly half this incomparable wilderness is gone and the remainder is at serious risk, the result of nature's ravages and humanity's encroachment. Not everyone, from Florida residents to elected officials, casual visitors to committed activists, agrees on what can, or should, be done to reverse this trend. As an unprecedented restoration project gets underway, Levin travels through the Everglades, reacquainting himself with its unique past, evaluating its unsettled present, and assessing its uncertain future. Writing with poetic sensitivity and pragmatic sensibility, Levin uncovers the Everglades' secrets and rediscovers its treasures, balancing sympathy for even the most bothersome mosquito and fearsome alligator with a realistic appreciation not only for what is possible but also for what is necessary to save this beautiful and ecologically essential environment. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.… (more)