Author

Publication

1999 - University of Washington Press, Seattle, Washington (State)

Language

English

Word Count

80,750 words, Guess

Page Count

323 pages

Identifiers

and 2 more
  • Goodreads2986331
  • LibraryThing664016

Classifications

  • DDC333.91/3/097961
  • LCCS616.U6 F54 1999

Description

Irrigation came to the arid West in a wave of optimism about the power of water to make the desert bloom. Mark Flege's study of irrigation in southern Idaho's Snake River valley describes a complex interplay of human and natural systems. Using vast quantities of labor, irrigators built dams, excavated canals, laid out farms, and brought millions of acres into cultivation. But at each step, nature rebounded and compromised their intended agricultural order. The result was a new and richly textured landscape made of layer upon layer of technology and intractable natural forces - one that engineers and farmers did not control with the precision they had anticipated. Irrigated Eden is an unusual and absorbing work, important to anyone interested in western U.S. history, environmental history, or the human-nature relationship.

First Sentence

My understanding of Idaho's irrigated landscape began to take shape on a summer day in 1990.

Subjects

Topics

IrrigationWater-supplyIdaho, historyIrrigation farmingIrrigation -- Idaho.West (u.s.), historyWater-supply -- Idaho.

Series Statement

  • Weyerhaeuser environmental books

Other Editions

  • Irrigated Eden: the making of an agricultural landscape in the American WestUniversity of Washington Press1999-01-01

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