Swamp Land Act of 1850

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A U.S. federal law, the Swamp Land Act of 1850, [1] fully titled "An act to enable the State of Arkansas and other States to reclaim the swamp lands within their limits", essentially provided a mechanism for reverting title of federally-owned swampland to states which would agree to drain the land and turn it to productive, agricultural use. [2] Primarily aimed at the development of Florida's Everglades, and transferring some 20 million acres (31,000 sq mi; 81,000 km2) of land in the Everglades to the State of Florida [3] for this purpose, the law also had application outside Florida, and spurred drainage and development in many areas of the United States, including areas around Indiana's Kankakee River, [4] Michigan's Lake St. Clair's shores, and elsewhere, and encouraged settlement by immigrants arriving in the United States after that time. Later considered to have been ecologically problematic, many of its provisions were in time reversed by the Clean Water Act of 1972 [5] and later legislation, but its historical effects on U.S. development and settlement patterns remained.

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In Louisiana, this law gave the state eight and a half million acres of river swamps and marshes to sell to pay for flood control measures. [6] Under this plan, thousands of acres of virgin cypress in the Atchafalaya Basin were sold to large corporations, often for seventy-five cents per acre or less. In return, the state began the construction of a few low levees and performed periodic dredging. But an increase in flooding in the Basin, due to the Great Raft removal on the upper Atchafalaya River, gave Timber companies more water to float their products to market, allowing the complete destruction of the old growth cypress forests to ensue with little pushback.

Restored wetland in Grand Kankakee Marsh County Park in Indiana Slough 5442.jpg
Restored wetland in Grand Kankakee Marsh County Park in Indiana

In multiple states affected by the Swamp Land Act of 1850, as well as the Swamp Land Acts of 1849 and 1860, there have since been efforts to restore drained wetlands. [7]

California

Indiana

New York

Wisconsin

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The Atchafalaya Basin, or Atchafalaya Swamp, is the largest wetland and swamp in the United States. Located in south central Louisiana, it is a combination of wetlands and river delta area where the Atchafalaya River and the Gulf of Mexico converge. The river stretches from near Simmesport in the north through parts of eight parishes to the Morgan City southern area.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Draining and development of the Everglades</span> Development of the Florida Everglades

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An ongoing effort to remedy damage inflicted during the 20th century on the Everglades, a region of tropical wetlands in southern Florida, is the most expensive and comprehensive environmental repair attempt in history. The degradation of the Everglades became an issue in the United States in the early 1970s after a proposal to construct an airport in the Big Cypress Swamp. Studies indicated the airport would have destroyed the ecosystem in South Florida and Everglades National Park. After decades of destructive practices, both state and federal agencies are looking for ways to balance the needs of the natural environment in South Florida with urban and agricultural centers that have recently and rapidly grown in and near the Everglades.

The Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge is located about 30 miles (48 km) west of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and one mile (1.6 km) east of Krotz Springs, Louisiana, lies just east of the Atchafalaya River. In 1988 under the administration of Governor Foster the "Atchafalaya Basin Master Plan" was implemented that combined the 11,780-acre (4,770 ha) Sherburne Wildlife Management Area (WMA), the 15,220-acre (6,160 ha) Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge, and the 17,000-acre (6,900 ha) U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Bayou Des Ourses into the Sherburne Complex Wildlife Management Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fauna of Louisiana</span> State ecology

The fauna of Louisiana is characterized by the region's low swamplands, bayous, creeks, woodlands, coastal marshlands and beaches, and barrier islands covering an estimated 20,000 square miles, corresponding to 40 percent of Louisiana's total land area. Southern Louisiana contains up to fifty percent of the wetlands found in the Continental United States, made up of countless bayous and creeks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beaver Lake (Newton County, Indiana)</span> Drained lake in Newton County, Indiana

Beaver Lake was the largest lake in Indiana. It was drained due to land speculation that followed the Swamp Land Act of 1850. Today, the dry lake bed is part of the Kankakee Sands nature preserve.

Terrebonne Basin is an abandoned delta complex, in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. The area is identified by thick sections of unconsolidated sediments that are undergoing dewatering and compaction which contributes to high subsidence. There is a network of old distributary ridges, associated with past distributaries of the Mississippi River, extending south from Houma, Louisiana into the Gulf of Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Coastal Plain (ecoregion)</span> Level III ecoregion in the United States

The North American Southern Coastal Plain is a Level III ecoregion designated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in six U.S. states. The region stretches across the Gulf coast from eastern Louisiana to Florida, forms the majority of Florida, and forms the coastlines of Georgia and much of South Carolina. It has been divided into twelve Level IV ecoregions.

References

  1. SWAMP LAND ACTS OF 1849, 1850, AND 1860
  2. Anchor Bay Watershed Management Plan
  3. Global Climate Change Affecting the Florida Everglades: Anthropogenic Causes for Dis
  4. Roselawn, Indiana - Back in Time A Glance at History
  5. PlanetPapers – Wetland Research Paper
  6. Guirard, Greg and C. Ray Brassieur. Inherit The Atchafalaya. Lafayette, LA: Center for Louisiana Studies University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2007.
  7. Parrish, Abraham (2024-02-05). "Draining America | Worlds Revealed". The Library of Congress. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  8. Smith, H.R. (Spring 2024). "The Everything Park". Bay Nature . 24 (2): 28–33.
  9. Brandon, Elissaveta M. (November 2, 2022). "How one Indiana park restored the landscape to its 19th Century glory". Fast Company. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
  10. NEAL, ANDREA. "Andrea Neal: Draining of Kankakee Basin destroyed Indiana habitat". South Bend Tribune. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  11. Dobberstein, Michael (2020). "The Selling of Beaver Lake, 1853–1889: How the Largest Lake in Indiana Disappeared". Indiana Magazine of History. 116 (2): 122. doi:10.2979/indimagahist.116.2.02 via Academic Search Complete.
  12. DeVore, Molly (2023-07-30). "Restoration on the range: Kankakee Sands bison a key part of the preserves' environmental efforts". nwitimes.com. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
  13. Sant, Alison (February 21, 2023). "In NYC, Oyster Gardens are Inspiring Residents to Reimagine the Harbor Estuary". Earth Island Journal. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  14. Redman, Henry (2024-02-15). "UW schools benefit financially from thousands of acres of former tribal land • Wisconsin Examiner". Wisconsin Examiner. Retrieved 2024-04-22.