Analysis Of John Grisham 's The Pelican Brief

Giving full credit to restricting the Mississippi River as the culprit for loss of wetlands is not accurate. The booming oil and gas exploration of the 1970’s and 1980’s merits a name on the marquee as well. The pipelines and canals used to transport the resources to the outside world placed a great deal of stress on the fragile wetlands. Erosion from the barges in and out of the marshes as well as the salt water allowed into the fresh water, providing a precarious habitat for fresh water species – flora and fauna alike. Plants provide root systems to hold soil in place. Fish and fowl provide an economy for the area. Enter

Much of the coast of Texas is made up of marshes which are wetlands where a variety

Based on research completed by University of Minnesota soil scientists, the state mandates that every wetland should be protected by a 50-foot buffer zone. The City of Lilliput, a rural town located 30 miles north of St. Cloud, Minnesota, increased the buffer zone to150 feet in1990 within their municipality. The rationale behind Lilliput’s increase was because the town is zoned for predominantly rural uses, i.e. farming and cattle ranching. Due to the animal wasted and farmers’ use of pesticides on their crops, the Town Council felt that increasing the buffer around surrounding wetlands would better protect it from these sources of contamination than would the state minimum of 50

To begin with, wildlife is brutally being affected by the draining and pollution. In the early 1900’s settlers from outside of Florida took over the Everglades and decided it was “useless swampland.” Their idea of draining the wetlands was not a smart decision. As it states in passage 1 lines 17-19, “The US Army Corps of engineers and government officials authorized the digging of the canals, the creating of water storage facilities, and

Louisiana should be concerned about the wetlands because of the wildlife and fisheries. Without it, Louisiana would not be able to supply seafood and wildlife. Another concern, is the land going under and people could lose their homes. According to Allured and Martin, “the destruction of the wetlands came from the coastal and offshore oil and gas development” (p.332). Also, there is some thought that humans play a role in the destruction. According to Allured and Martin, “swamps symbolize as dark and chaotic places of the earth” and “marsh as a type of wet area that harbored disease” (p. 333). The importance of ascertaining the cause of the vanishing wetlands is to help restore the wetlands and protect from a hurricane

The article “Louisiana is losing a football field of wetlands an hour, new U.S. Geological Survey study says” by Mark Schleifstein provides the reader with lots of detail on how much land Louisiana is losing. By giving statistics and reason why Louisiana is losing so much land.

Wetlands improve water quality by helping with nearby flood control. The bottomland hardwoods areas contain large amount of nutrient rich soil which is capable of soaking up excess water from floods or runoff. These types of wetlands also contain marshes or swamps where the water is gathered to create a new environment for other

Louisiana is gradually declining in size due to the loss of coastal marshes and wetlands. After several years, Louisiana has a big probability of having no land whatsoever. The problem is slowly getting larger, and if something isn’t performed, soon enough Louisiana will be a place that only contains water. Regarding coastal erosions, it alters places economically, environmentally, and socially. Natural events happen that leads to the destruction of Louisiana’s wetlands; however, human activities causes it too.

The wetlands are a natural environment for native fish and shellfish population shellfish that make up Louisiana’s seafood and fisheries. Without these habitats the region’s fisheries will find it difficult to cultivate and live on.3

One of the most important things that wetlands can do is improve our water quality. With the increasing usage of pesticides in farming and other pollutants that get spread around, most of these chemicals end up in our water supply from runoff. When a lake has wetlands at or near its borders, it tends to be cleaner and more protected from pollutants. Groundwater also benefits from wetlands, as the plants use the extra nitrogen from the runoff. In Iowa, nitrogen is the most common pollutant in out drinking water (Iowa Wetlands). In one study, it was found that “it

These wetlands support a wide variety of life; it has the ability to control flood waters and protect them from those dangers. The loss of wetlands would put humans at risk, because wetlands serve as a natural buffer-zone against storms and hurricanes, slowing down storms and reducing their force before they move inward. They act as a filter by cleaning and restoring the quality of the water that is used daily in Florida. “One out of every three Floridians (7 million people) rely on the Everglades for their water supply” (The Everglades: Quick facts). Florida’s Everglades also provide a source of livelihood, as there are specific centers for hunting, fishing, and recreation.

If this rate of Louisiana’s wetlands being lost, the state will lose another fifteen percent by the year 2050. With these numbers being said, Mark stated “Louisiana’s coastline has been losing wetlands at a rate of 16.57 square miles a year during the past 25 years, equal to the loss of a football field of coast every hour, according to a study released today by the U.S. Geologicial Survey” (Mark).This loss of wetlands is five square miles a year faster than a study showed between 1985 and 2004.

“Thousands of miles of shipping channels, gas, and oil lines have but cut into the wetlands, allowing saltwater to be let in” (BP oil). This destroys the balance of salinity and has been killing the vegetation, which in turn kills the native species that live there. The huge oil reserves cause the oil companies to flock toward Louisiana and when that happens mistakes are made. “The BP oil disaster dumped nearly five million barrels of oil— the equivalent of over 200 million gallons—into the Gulf of Mexico” (BP oil). The oil came from the Deephorizon oil rig and the Louisiana coast was hit the hardest by this catastrophe. The delicate ecosystem was crushed by this blow and is still recovering from what happened in 2010. The delta has also suffered from human because all the levees and dams that have been put on the Mississippi River. The sediment that is crucial for the delta get trapped behind all the levees and dams and without it Louisiana keeps losing land (BP oil). This is a huge loss to the habitats of all sorts of animals and plants. The good news is that there are now very many different projects, conservation acts, and organizations that try to help preserve these great lands. The Louisiana Fowl Project has teamed up with several different oil companies to try and help with this noble task (SGP). North American Wetlands Conservation Act

I remember walking on the rocky shore of an endless, blue lake and feeling the fresh breeze shield me from the brutal, summer heat. My Uncle and I used to take out a Piragus canoe and paddle across the lake’s vastness as I peered down into the glassy water and clearly saw the castle rock formations. The fish quickly swam in and out of their hiding places like swarms of people making their way to work on a busy New York morning. The lake breathed with life and movement. Rolling green bluffs encircled the lake, creating a storybook-like haven. So many beautiful woodlands and waterways like this continue to disappear due to the frac sand mining industry. Towering machinery replaces billowing trees with piles of red, earthy mounds, and the heavy clanking of metal on metal echoes across the land. Frac mining and fracking scars the land around it indefinitely. I am not an expert on environmental habitats or the mining industry, but my love for the outdoors and fishing drives me to investigate the harmful effects of frac sand mining. The frac sand mining industry exploits the remaining wilderness of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and surrounding states by selfishly polluting the environment; taking millions of gallons of water from freshwater resources, and disturbing essential minerals from the ground, thus prohibiting future habitat growth and creating significant health issues due to a surplus of dust.

Wetland soils are extremely varied. They are found from the tropics to the subarctic. They can be seasonal or year-round, freshwater or saltwater, organic or mineral. The one thing that all of them have in common is that for at least part of the year they are saturated with water. This saturation has a significant impact on the soil's physics, chemistry, and biota. However, over the past century more than half of all the wetlands in the United States has been drained for agriculture and other uses such as construction. When the soils are drained the physics, chemistry, and biota are drastically changed. This paper is an attempt to