The Sydney Tar Ponds are a huge waste site in Nova Scotia, Canada that contains large amounts of toxic chemicals. The ponds formed in a river mouth, where steel corporations let their largely coal-based pollutants and sludge drain off for many decades.
Beginning in the pre-modern world, the Volga and Mississippi Rivers both served as critical trade routes connecting cultures in an extensive exchange network, while also sustaining populations through their surrounding wetlands and bottomlands. In modern times, “Mother Volga” and the “Father of Waters” became integral parts of national identity, contributing to a sense of Russian and American exceptionalism. Rivers, Memory, and Nation-Building discusses their histories, through which we derive a more nuanced view of human interaction with the environment, which adds another lens to our understanding of the past.
Wild Earth 13, no. 4, focuses on the National Wildlife Refuge System with essays on its history, the wildlife refuge in Southeastern Oregon, wildlands ofthe Great Plains, and pronghorn extinction in the Sonoran Desert.
Wild Earth 14, no. 3/4, is the last issue of the Wild Earth Journal. It presents essays on connectivity and long-distance migration in human-fragmented landscapes, the Great Bear Rainforest archipelago, and rewilding Patagonia.
In Wild Earth 5, no. 3 Wendell Berry writes about private property and the Commonwealth, Thomas P. Rooney reflects on global warming, and Paul J. Kalisz analyses sustainable silviculture in the hardwood forests of the eastern United States.
Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island, New York, was the subject of a struggle over where to dispose of the waste of a city strapped for space. While the landfill was closed in 2001, the events of 9/11 and the need to clear the large amounts of rubble and human remains from the site of the Twin Towers attack turned Fresh Kills into hallowed ground, which posed new questions about the future of the site.
Following catastrophic flooding of the Red River in 1950 in Winnipeg, citizens demanded a more permanent solution to flooding control in the city. The result was the Red River Floodway, a feat of engineering affectionately referred to as “Duff’s Ditch”.
The Sundarbans, one of the largest remaining areas of mangroves in the world with an exceptional level of biodiversity, is inscripted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
