Awards

• Joint winner of K.D. Srivastava Prize 2012 (Canada)
• Winner of Clio Prize for the Prairies, Canadian Historical Association 2012 (Canada)
• Winner of Manitoba Day Award, Association for Manitoba Archives 2013 (Canada)

Overview

The Canadian prairies are often envisioned as dry, windswept fields; however, much of southern Manitoba is not arid plain but wet prairie, poorly drained land subject to frequent flooding. Wet Prairie brings to light the complexities of surface water management in Manitoba, from early artificial drainage efforts to late-twentieth-century attempts at watershed management. Irregular water-flow patterns challenged the checkerboard landscape of the 1872 federal Dominion Lands Act, and homesteaders found their agricultural ambitions at odds with local environmental realities. Thus, in keeping with liberal principles, the provincial government undertook substantial drainage efforts. Flooding and drainage became the subjects of intense and persistent debate among provincial officials, drainage experts, and Manitoba residents. New alliances and rivalries emerged amid shifting social, political, and environmental contexts, with enduring consequences for both the landscapes and people of the wet prairie. This account of an overlooked aspect of Prairie environmental history traces how the biophysical nature of southern Manitoba helped shape both Manitoba society and the provincial state.

Full Product Details

9780774818537

Table of Contents

Reviews

A welcome addition to the growing global literature on wetland historical geography and environmental history. Carefully researched, well argued, and clearly written, Stunden Bower's first book is a valuable read for scholars in these fields. -- Adam Mandelman H-Net online, H-HistGeog Brings to light the often overlooked problems and complexities of dealing with surface water in Manitoba, from early efforts to drain the landscape to late-twentieth-century attempts to establish watershed management. Prairie Books Now, No. 59, Summer 2012 Wet Prairie is excellent environmental history that evaluates the human/nature relationship. -- Sterling Evans, Department of History, University of Oklahoma Great Plains Research Vol. 22 No.2, Fall 2012

<p> The work represents environmental history at its best ... As Canadian history, it further illuminates the federal-provincial contest over natural resources in the west, arguing that the political jurisdictional battle had real consequences on Manitoba's wet agricultural landscape, even as wetlands forced the various levels of government to adjust their relationships with one another. Drainage, to many, seems rather uninteresting; Stunden Bower shows how important it really is, even to people who live far from the Red River. <br> - Geoff Cunfer, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan

Wet Prairie is excellent environmental history that evaluates the human/nature relationship. -- Sterling Evans, Department of History, University of Oklahoma Great Plains Research Vol. 22 No.2, Fall 2012 A welcome addition to the growing global literature on wetland historical geography and environmental history. Carefully researched, well argued, and clearly written, Stunden Bower's first book is a valuable read for scholars in these fields. -- Adam Mandelman H-Net online, H-HistGeog Brings to light the often overlooked problems and complexities of dealing with surface water in Manitoba, from early efforts to drain the landscape to late-twentieth-century attempts to establish watershed management. Prairie Books Now, No. 59, Summer 2012

Brings to light the often overlooked problems and complexities of dealing with surface water in Manitoba, from early efforts to drain the landscape to late-twentieth-century attempts to establish watershed management. Prairie Books Now, No. 59, Summer 2012 Wet Prairie is excellent environmental history that evaluates the human/nature relationship. -- Sterling Evans, Department of History, University of Oklahoma Great Plains Research Vol. 22 No.2, Fall 2012 A welcome addition to the growing global literature on wetland historical geography and environmental history. Carefully researched, well argued, and clearly written, Stunden Bower's first book is a valuable read for scholars in these fields. -- Adam Mandelman H-Net online, H-HistGeog

Author Information

Shannon Stunden Bower is the research director for the Parkland Institute at the University of Alberta.

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