Böcker av Kelby Ouchley

Louisiana's bayous and their watersheds teem with cypress trees, alligators, crawfish, and many other life forms. From Bayou Tigre to Half Moon Bayou, these sluggish streams meander through lowlands, marshes, and even uplands to dominate the state's landscape. In Bayou-Diversity, conservationist Kelby Ouchley reveals the bayou's intricate web of flora and fauna.Through a collection of essays about Louisiana's natural history, Ouchley 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. Bayou-Diversity narrates the story of the bayou one flower, one creature at a time, in turn illustrating the bigger picture of this treasured and troubled Louisiana landscape.

"Kelby Ouchley's "Bayou D'Arbonne Swamp: A Naturalist's Memoir of Place" is an environmental history of Bayou D'Arbonne in northeast Louisiana. Ouchley grew up near the swamp and has deep familial roots in the area. He later spent much of his professional life as a wildlife biologist and naturalist, overseeing a wildlife refuge superimposed on most of Bayou D'Arbonne. His work addresses the vibrant natural history of the bayou and its cultural and social history. The result is a kaleidoscopic view of the place that reveals its unique history and distinctive flora, fauna, and people. In addition, Ouchley addresses the enormous changes that have occurred in the bayou over the last century, including the array of reasons behind the vast transformations. One of his main goals is to foster an awareness of the environmental impact of human decisions that encourages readers to consider ecological choices in their daily lives. While Ouchley's work is about a specific bayou, readers can apply the themes within his narrative to other wetlands or even prairies, mountains, and deserts. The result is a work that presents an intimate and multi-layered natural history of Bayou D'Arbonne. It is certain to appeal to a broad swath of readers interested in the environmental history of Louisiana, conservation, naturalism, and ecological change"--

Louisiana's bayous and their watersheds teem with cypress trees, alligators, crawfish, and many other life forms. These sluggish streams meander through lowlands, marshes, and even uplands to dominate the state's landscape. In Bayou-Diversity, conservationist Kelby Ouchley reveals the bayou's intricate web of flora and fauna.

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 "e;shieldcroc"e;--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 "e;alligator holes"e; 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.