Swamplands Tundra beavers, quaking bogs, and the improbable world of peat

Review by Choice Review

Edward Struzik is a fellow at the Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy (Queens's University, Canada). In the book, he visits bogs and peatlands across the Arctic and North America, recounting their long history of human use and disturbance as well as their ecology. He also discusses the history and ecology of wetlands in the southeastern US (including the Everglades) as well as those in the Mojave Desert. Although the "swampland" narrative is frequently thrown off course by stories about humans who have lived in and studied these ecosystems, there is enough ecological detail for most readers to develop an understanding of how such ecosystems formed over tens of thousands of years and why they are so vulnerable to exploitation and climate change. Struzik does admirable work highlighting the diversity and uniqueness of the flora and fauna that depend on such ecosystems and explaining why restoring peatlands, bogs, fens, and wetlands is such an arduous task, rife with failure. Paired with a technical book on wetland ecosystems, Struzik's book would provide an excellent environmental history perspective for courses focused on wetlands, hydrology, and climate change. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates. General readers. --Audrey L Mayer, Michigan Technological University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

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Review by Booklist Review

Not many of us have heard of peatlands, let alone visited these unique ecosystems. How does one explore or write invitingly about an ambiguous landscape that is neither land nor water and which can be dangerous to visit? Peat is formed when partially decomposed plant material builds up over centuries in waterlogged, oxygen-starved conditions in which decay can't keep up with deposition from new growth. Fens, bogs, marshes, and swamps can all accumulate peat. In lyrical prose, Struzik (Firestorm, 2017) describes his often arduous journeys to the peatlands of the world, often in the company of scientists or his wife. From Virginia's Great Dismal Swamp (once a refuge for people escaping enslavement), New York's Central Park (which was created by draining a huge bog), and North Carolina's Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge (home of the last red wolves), the author moves on to Kauai's Alaka'i Swamp (full of rare plants) and bogs in Ontario's Georgian Bay region (where rattlesnakes hibernate in thick beds of peat). Struzik writes with immediacy and a sense of awe, bewitching readers with the unexpected beauty of peatlands.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Library Journal Review

In a series of 13 essays, Struzik (Inst. for Energy and Environmental Policy, Queen's Univ., Kingston, Ont.; Firestorm: How Wildfire Will Shape Our Future; Future Arctic: Field Notes from a World on the Edge) takes readers on a global tour of peatlands, bogs, fens, swamps and marshes. One might think of these underappreciated ecosystems as dark, dank, dismal environs filled with biting creatures, but Struzik's informative book reveals that swamplands (peatlands is an interchangeable term) teem with a variety of wildlife and plants and have had a vital role in human histories. Swamplands cover approximately four percent of the planet and store twice as much carbon as the Earth's forests, but they are being destroyed at an alarming rate, Struzik writes. He points out swampy ecosystems in India, the United States (including Hawai'i, Louisiana, and Texas), and Canada and explains why each of them is so essential. The essays make connections between history and science, in Struzik's personalizing writing style that might motivate readers to save the swamps. The book includes photographs. VERDICT A powerful, impressive feat of popular science that is vitally needed in an era of climate change. Highly recommended for all libraries.--Patricia Ann Owens, formerly at Illinois Eastern Community Coll., Mt. Carmel

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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