Book review: Riparian ecosystem recovery in arid lands: Strategies and references

Increasingly, ecosystem managers are attempting to restore riparian ecosystems in the arid West that have been degraded by land and water management practices. This book will fill a vacant niche in the library of these practitioners. Briggs emphasizes several concepts that should be fundamental to restoration projects but that too often are ignored. One of these central concepts is that the underlying causes of degradation need to be identified before restoration projects are undertaken. Briggs advocates considering multiple impacts, interactions between impacts, and site history when assessing causes of site degradation. Causes can be complex and difficult to assess and may include depletion of water availability by ground water pumping, alteration of flood flow regimes, overgrazing by cattle, and increased soil salinity from upstream agricultural activities, to name a few

Review info: Riparian ecosystem recovery in arid lands: Strategies and references. By: Mark K. Briggs. 1996. ISBN 0-8165- 1644-8, 159 pages.