Both troubling and encouraging, a well-told tale of environmental activism and citizen action.Kirkus ReviewsaboutRecovering a Lost River
"Hawleys thorough research makes a damning case for rethinking how to source water, and anecdotes about ecosystems that have flourished after dam removals strike an optimistic note about the road ahead. Environmentalists will be riveted." -- Publisher's Weekly
Dams are ineffective and an ecological and humanitarian hazard, contends journalist Hawley (Recovering a Lost River) in this impassioned expose. He surveys the environmental damage caused by dams alongside stories of people displaced and ill-served by their construction. Explaining how dams destabilize ecosystems, he tells how putting up dams in the Westlands Water District near Fresno, Calif., in the 1960s disoriented migrating salmon by disrupting river currents and poisoned bird populations after poor irrigation led to the buildup of toxic chemicals. Hawley argues that the purported benefits of hydroelectric damsgreen energy production and a steady water supplyare largely myths; the decomposition of organic flotsam that builds up in reservoirs produces methane at rates that can rival fossil fuel production, and as the globe heats up, evaporation will take an increasingly large cut of reservoir water. Highlighting the heartbreaking humanitarian consequences of dam construction, the author describes how the Bureau of Reclamation forced the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribes off their ancestral land in North Dakota for a pittance of the tracts value, destroying their way of life. Hawleys thorough research makes a damning case for rethinking how to source water, and anecdotes about ecosystems that have flourished after dam removals strike an optimistic note about the road ahead. Environmentalists will be riveted. -- Publisher's Weekly
"Lavishly displayed color photographs help illustrate Hawleys narrative, which might motivate a nationwide rethinking of these extravagantly expensive, outdated systems." Alan Moores,BooklistStarred Review
"Environmental journalist Hawley, whoseRecovering a Lost River(2012) likely helped spur legislative action to remove four federal dams to resuscitate one of the great salmon rivers of the world, the Snake, here uses a wider lens to examine the dubious value of many of the other dams built worldwide in the last century. According to the author, those dams have decimated fish populations, undermined fragile ecosystems, inundated sacred grounds, created a massive methane footprint, cost outrageous public sums to build and maintain for the actual value they provide to farmers and the electrical grid, and threatened public safetysome 15,600 highhazard dams in the U.S. would cause significant loss of life if any failed. These dams have also lost more water to evaporation than theyve provided to the cities they were intended to serve. Hawley does an excellent job of laying out the history of dam building, especially in the arid American West; its failings; some recent successes in reopening rivers (the Elwah, for example); the mechanicsand grass-roots politickingof dam removal; and viable alternatives to dams, like underground storage of water and solar power. Lavishly displayed color photographs help illustrate Hawleys narrative, which might motivate a nationwide rethinking of these extravagantly expensive, outdated systems." Alan Moores,BooklistStarred Review
"Its not a light read, but its an important one." -- The Drake
In compelling detail and persuasive argument, Steven Hawleymakes a case for the immeasurable environmental, economic, and social damage wrought by the damming of American waterways. Sold to an unwary public as a panacea, industrial dams have, according to Hawleys eloquent reporting, proved themselves in many cases to be exactly the opposite stunningly destructive, wasteful, and, in the end, beneficial to only a very few wealthy people and corporations. Hawleys message is driven home with page after page of vibrant and chilling photography that makes this book as beautiful as it is impelling. -- Big Sky Journal
A teaching tool and a call to action, this well-researched and well-illustrated book should be required reading for any outdoorsman or woman who cares about rivers and watersheds: "Dam removal is not purely an engineering game, nor strictly an exercise in ecological improvement. It's a grassroots organizing project ... a revival of the practice of community-level democracy." -- Gray's Sporting Journal
