Book ID: CBB122189904

Bitter waters: The struggles of the Pecos River (2016)

unapi

Dearen, Patrick (Author)


University of Oklahoma Press


Publication Date: 2016
Physical Details: xii + 241
Language: English

Rising at 11,750 feet in the Sangre de Cristo range and snaking 926 miles through New Mexico and Texas to the Rio Grande, the Pecos River is one of the most storied waterways in the American West. It is also one of the most troubled. In 1942, the National Resources Planning Board observed that the Pecos River basin "probably presents a greater aggregation of problems associated with land and water use than any other irrigated basin in the Western U.S." In the twenty-first century, the river's problems have only multiplied. "Bitter Waters," the first book-length study of the entire Pecos, traces the river's environmental history from the arrival of the first Europeans in the sixteenth century to today. Running clear at its source and turning salty in its middle reach, the Pecos River has served as both a magnet of veneration and an object of scorn. Patrick Dearen, who has written about the Pecos since the 1980s, draws on more than 150 interviews and a wealth of primary sources to trace the river's natural evolution and man's interaction with it. Irrigation projects, dams, invasive saltcedar, forest proliferation, fires, floods, flow decline, usage conflicts, water quality deterioration--Dearen offers a thorough and clearly written account of what each factor has meant to the river and its prospects. As fine-grained in detail as it is sweeping in breadth, the picture Bitter Waters presents is sobering but not without hope, as it also extends to potential solutions to the Pecos River's problems and the current efforts to undo decades of damage. (Amazon)

...More
Reviewed By

Review Greg Gordon (April 2018) Review of "Bitter waters: The struggles of the Pecos River". Environmental History (pp. 408-409). unapi

Review Sterling Evans (January 2018) Review of "Bitter waters: The struggles of the Pecos River". Technology and Culture (pp. 175-176). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB122189904/

Similar Citations

Book Kenna Lang Archer; (2015)
Unruly waters: A social and environmental history of the Brazos River (/isis/citation/CBB809370798/)

Book Jeffrey P. Shepherd; (2019)
Guadalupe Mountains National Park: an environmental history of the Southwest borderlands (/isis/citation/CBB370794172/)

Book Paul J. Lindholdt; (2018)
The Spokane River (/isis/citation/CBB697263143/)

Book Margaret A. Bickers; (2014)
Red Water, Black Gold: The Canadian River in Western Texas, 1920–1999 (/isis/citation/CBB169198155/)

Book Eric Perramond; (2019)
Unsettled waters: Rights, law, and identity in the American West (/isis/citation/CBB328997487/)

Chapter Paul S. Sutter; (2015)
“Waving the Muddy Shirt” (/isis/citation/CBB792138285/)

Book Crane, Jeff; (2015)
The Environment in American History: Nature and the Formation of the United States (/isis/citation/CBB001551938/)

Chapter Brian Allen Drake; (2015)
New Fields of Battle: Nature, Environmental History, and the Civil War (/isis/citation/CBB154844171/)

Book John Williams; Andrew Sansom; (2016)
The Untold Story of the Lower Colorado River Authority (/isis/citation/CBB248036903/)

Book Johnson, Michael L.; (2007)
Hunger for the Wild: America's Obsession with the Untamed West (/isis/citation/CBB000930096/)

Book Matthew Colloff; (2014)
Flooded Forest and Desert Creek: Ecology and History of the River Red Gum (/isis/citation/CBB535221272/)

Book Jennifer Bonnell; (2014)
Reclaiming the Don: An Environmental History of Toronto's Don River Valley (/isis/citation/CBB230615528/)

Book Wohl, Ellen; (2010)
A World of Rivers: Environmental Change on Ten of the World's Greatest Rivers (/isis/citation/CBB001201858/)

Book Dario Canzian; Remy Simonetti; (2012)
Acque e territorio nel Veneto medievale (/isis/citation/CBB819707896/)

Book Giacomo Bonan; (2020)
Le acque agitate della patria: L’industrializzazione del Piave (1882-1966) (/isis/citation/CBB271732959/)

Chapter Veronica Ghizzi; (2010)
Si durabit tregua intra aquam et nos: fiumi e castelli mantovani nel trecento (/isis/citation/CBB180053135/)

Chapter Dario Canzian; (2012)
Ambiente naturale e intervento umano tra Sile, Piave e Livenza nei secoli XI-XV (/isis/citation/CBB329673887/)

Authors & Contributors
Canzian, Dario
Williams, John
Veronica Ghizzi
Bonan, Giacomo
Jennifer Bonnell
Perramond, Eric P.
Concepts
Environmental history
Environment
Rivers
Nature
Water resource management
Ecology
Time Periods
19th century
Medieval
20th century
Republic of Venice (697–1797)
Renaissance
21st century
Places
United States
Italy
Texas (U.S.)
Western states (U.S.)
Brazos River (Tex.)
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment