Kelby Ouchley's Books

Bayou D’Arbonne Swamp

A Naturalist’s Memoir of Place

By: Kelby Ouchley

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Bayou D’Arbonne Swamp

A Naturalist’s Memoir of Place

By: Kelby Ouchley

Bayou D’Arbonne Swamp addresses the vibrant natural, cultural, and social history of a north Louisiana swamp. Kelby Ouchley grew up near Bayou D’Arbonne Swamp, and he later spent much of his professional life as a wildlife biologist and naturalist overseeing the national wildlife refuge created from much of the area. His deep personal and professional connections to the landscape give him valuable insight into the enormous changes that have struck the swamp over the last century and the reasons behind this transformation. In this fascinating narrative, Ouchley offers a kaleidoscopic view of Bayou D’Arbonne Swamp that reveals its unique past and distinctive flora, fauna, and people. Although these are stories of a particular swamp, they tell us much about issues facing other wetlands, as well as prairies, mountains, and deserts, when viewed through an ecological, social, and historical lens. Ouchley aims to foster an awareness of the environmental impacts of human decisions that encourages readers to consider ecological choices in their daily lives. The result is a work that presents an intimate and multilayered natural history of Bayou D’Arbonne Swamp that extends beyond the edges of the ever-changing Louisiana wetland, informing the environmental history of Louisiana, conservation, and ecological change.

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Page Count

186

Publisher

LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807178306

ISBN 13

9780807178300

American Alligator

Ancient Predator in the Modern World

By: Kelby Ouchley

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American Alligator

Ancient Predator in the Modern World

By: Kelby Ouchley

Having survived since the Mesozoic era, alligators teetered on the brink of extinction in the 1960s. Their recovery in the 1970s was largely due to legislative intervention, and today populations are closely monitored throughout their range. American Alligator is the most up-to-date and comprehensive treatment of this resilient relic, a creature with a brain weighing less than half an ounce that has successfully adapted to a changing Earth for more than 200 million years. Kelby Ouchley chronicles the evolution of A. mississippiensis from "shieldcroc"--the last common ancestor of modern-day alligators, crocodiles, caimans, and gavials--to its current role as keystone of the ecological health of America's southern swamps and marshes. In Florida, the apex predator uses its snout and feet to clear muck from holes in the limestone bedrock. During the dry season, these small ponds or "alligator holes" provide refuge, food, and water for a variety of wildlife. In Louisiana, millions of dollars are spent on the bounty of the non-native nutria that overgraze marsh vegetation, but alligators prey on these coastal rodents free of charge. The loss of the American alligator would be a blow to biodiversity and an ecosystem disruption affecting all levels of the food chain. While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed it from the endangered species list in 1987 and today regulates the legal trade of the animal and its products, Ouchley cautions us not to forget the lessons learned: human activities, from urban development to energy production, can still threaten the future of the gator and its southern wetland habitat.

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Page Count

187

Publisher

University Press of Florida

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813047765

ISBN 13

9780813047768

Flora and Fauna of the Civil War

An Environmental Reference Guide

By: Kelby Ouchley

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Flora and Fauna of the Civil War

An Environmental Reference Guide

By: Kelby Ouchley

During the Civil War, humans impacted plants and animals on an unprecedented scale as soldiers on both sides waged the most environmentally destructive war ever on American soil. Refugees and armies alike tramped across the landscape foraging for food, shelter, and fuel. Wild plants and animals formed barriers for armies and carried disease, yet also provided medicine and raw materials necessary to implement war, greatly influencing the day-to-day life of soldiers and civilians. Of the thousands of books written about the Civil War, few mention the environment, and none address the topic as a principal theme. In Flora and Fauna of the Civil War, Kelby Ouchley blends traditional and natural history to create a unique text that explores both the impact of the Civil War on the surrounding environment and the reciprocal influence of plants and animals on the war effort. The war generated an abundance of letters, diaries, and journals in which soldiers and civilians penned descriptions of plants and animals, sometimes as a brief comment in passing and other times as part of a noteworthy event in their lives. Ouchley collects and organizes these first-person accounts of the Civil War environment, adding expert analysis and commentary in order to offer an array of fascinating insights on the natural history of the era. After discussing the physical setting of the war and exploring humans' attitudes toward nature during the Civil War period, Ouchley presents the flora and fauna by individual species or closely related group in the words of the participants themselves. From ash trees to willows, from alligators to white-tailed deer, the excerpts provide glimpses of personal encounters with the natural world during the war, revealing how soldiers and civilians thought about and interacted with wild flora and fauna in a time of epic historical events. Collectively, no better sources exist to reveal human attitudes toward the environment in the Civil War era. This one-of-a-kind reference book will spark widespread interest among Civil War scholars, writers, and enthusiasts, as well as environmental historians.

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Page Count

300

Publisher

LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807146218

ISBN 13

9780807146217

Bayou-Diversity

Nature and People in the Louisiana Bayou Country

By: Kelby Ouchley

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Bayou-Diversity

Nature and People in the Louisiana Bayou Country

By: Kelby Ouchley

Through a collection of essays about Louisiana's natural history, Kelby Ouchley's Bayou Diversity details an amazing array of plants and animals found in the Bayou State. Baldcypress, orchids, feral hogs, eels, black bears, bald eagles and cottonmouth snakes live in the well over a hundred bayous of the region. Collectively, Ouchley's vignettes portray vibrant and complex habitats. But human interaction with the bayou and our role in its survival, Ouchley argues, will determine the future of these intricate ecosystems.

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Page Count

241

Publisher

LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807138606

ISBN 13

9780807138601

Flora and Fauna of the Civil War

An Environmental Reference Guide

By: Kelby Ouchley

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Flora and Fauna of the Civil War

An Environmental Reference Guide

By: Kelby Ouchley

During the Civil War, humans impacted plants and animals on an unprecedented scale as soldiers on both sides waged the most environmentally destructive war ever on American soil. In Flora and Fauna of the Civil War, Kelby Ouchley blends traditional and natural history to create a unique text that explores both the impact of the Civil War on the surrounding environment and the reciprocal influence of plants and animals on the war effort. After discussing the physical setting of the war and exploring humans' attitudes toward nature during the Civil War period, Ouchley presents the flora and fauna by individual species or closely related group in the words of the participants themselves. Collectively, no better sources exist to reveal human attitudes toward the environment in the Civil War era.

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Page Count

280

Publisher

LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807137995

ISBN 13

9780807137994

Book's by Kelby Ouchley

Bayou D’Arbonne Swamp

Bayou D’Arbonne Swamp

American Alligator

American Alligator

Flora and Fauna of the Civil War

Flora and Fauna of the Civil War

Bayou-Diversity

Bayou-Diversity

Flora and Fauna of the Civil War

Flora and Fauna of the Civil War

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