Rivers of North America

AWARDS:2006 Outstanding Academic Title, by CHOICEThe 2005 Award for Excellence in Professional and Scholarly Publishing by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) Best Reference 2005, by the Library JournalRivers of North America is an important reference for scientists, ecologists, and students studying rivers and their ecosystems. It brings together information from several regional specialists on the major river basins of North America, presented in a large-format, full-color book. The introduction covers general aspects of geology, hydrology, ecology and human impacts on rivers. This is followed by 22 chapters on the major river basins. Each chapter begins with a full-page color photograph and includes several additional photographs within the text. These chapters feature three to five rivers of the basin/region, and cover several other rivers with one-page summaries. Rivers selected for coverage include the largest, the most natural, and the most affected by human impact. This one-of-a-kind resource is professionally illustrated with maps and color photographs of the key river basins. Readers can compare one river system to another in terms of its physiography, hydrology, ecology, biodiversity, and human impacts.

"This group of authors includes most of the leading experts in the ecology of North American rivers. They have provided a starting point for investigating our rivers and given us the tools for understanding how our rivers function. Now it is time for us to get to work!"-David R. Lenat, Raleigh, North Carolina, JOURNAL OF NORTH AMERICAN BENTHOLOGICAL SOCIETY

"Clearly a massive undertaking, the work consolidates facts about individual rivers, from geomorphology, hydrology, and water chemistry to biodiversity and ecology...The book's foreword was written by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his capacity as president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, an environmental organization focused on protecting rivers. As he says about the book, 'you will find a few remaining pristine rivers that deserve conservation as benchmark systems.' On the other hand, he notes that a reader will also find that some North American rivers 'have major problems...for which radical and immediate CPR is required.' The book indeed has details about the environmental good and bad for virtually all the continent's major rivers. Art Benke and Bert Cushing have produced a monumental work that will serve as a basic comparative reference for many years. The book is also useful for people who want to reminisce about their favorite rivers."- Whit Gibbons, in AIKEN STANDARD

"...the first comprehensive effort to detail the current state of the continent’s rivers. This marvelous resource began as a coffee-table book. Four years later, ambitiously expanded, it covers more than 200 rivers, from southern Mexico to the Arctic. Its 22 chapters, written by scientists and hydrologists, discuss specific basins or regions such as the Colorado River Basin and the Pacific Coast rivers of Canada and Alaska. Rivers describes the physiography, geomorphology, hydrology, biodiversity and ecology of each system, in addition to detailing human impacts and special features. Winner of a 2005 Award for Excellence in Projects and Scholarly Publishing by the Association of American Publishers and a Library Journal Best Reference Work citation, this large-format, full-color volume contains copious maps and illustrations...The well-organized book conveys the 'bewildering heritage' of the continent’s rivers and examines contemporary challenges."- Irene Wanner for HIGH COUNTRY NEWS

"This unique and beautifully illustrated volume fills a gap in the reference literature of conservation biology, geography, geology, ecology, and hydrology by providing information on more than two hundred rivers...A particularly valuable and attractive feature of the book is its detailed maps of each river system, created from data held in the major cartographic datasets of the US Geological Survey, Canada's GeoGratis, and Mexico's Hydrolk Elevation Derivative Database...this book should be acquired by all public library systems, museum libraries, regional historical societies and special collections, corporate libraries in firms involved with river management, and college and university libraries supporting undergraduate and graduate programs in biology, conservation ecology, hydrology, geography, geology and agriculture."- Robert Ridinger, Electronic Information Resources Management, Northern Illinois University, for E-STREAMS