Recognizing the importance of wetland protection, the Bush administration in 1988 endorsed the goal of "no net loss" of wetlands. Specifically, it directed that filling of wetlands should be avoided, and minimized when it cannot be avoided. When filling is permitted, compensatory mitigation must be undertaken; that is, wetlands must be restored, created, enhanced, and, in exceptional cases, preserved, to replace the permitted loss of wetland area and function, such as water quality improvement within the watershed. After more than a dozen years, the national commitment to "no net loss" of wetlands has been evaluated. This new book explores the adequacy of science and technology for replacing wetland function and the effectiveness of the federal program of compensatory mitigation in accomplishing the nation's goal of clean water. It examines the regulatory framework for permitting wetland filling and requiring mitigation, compares the mitigation institutions that are in use, and addresses the problems that agencies face in ensuring sustainability of mitigated wetlands over the long term. Gleaning lessons from the mixed results of mitigation efforts to date, the book offers 10 practical guidelines for establishing and monitoring mitigated wetlands. It also recommends that federal, state, and local agencies undertake specific institutional reforms. This book will be important to anyone seeking a comprehensive understanding of the "no net loss" issue: policy makers, regulators, environmental scientists, educators, and wetland advocates.

For the past three decades, many history professors have allowed their biases to distort the way America’s past is taught. These intellectuals have searched for instances of racism, sexism, and bigotry in our history while downplaying the greatness of America’s patriots and the achievements of “dead white men.” As a result, more emphasis is placed on Harriet Tubman than on George Washington; more about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II than about D-Day or Iwo Jima; more on the dangers we faced from Joseph McCarthy than those we faced from Josef Stalin. A Patriot’s History of the United States corrects those doctrinaire biases. In this groundbreaking book, America’s discovery, founding, and development are reexamined with an appreciation for the elements of public virtue, personal liberty, and private property that make this nation uniquely successful. This book offers a long-overdue acknowledgment of America’s true and proud history.

Concepts and definitions of soil; terminology and relationships between segments of the earth's crust; ABC system of horizon nomenclature; introduction to ways of thinking about and studying soil genesis; mineral and organic matter transformation; eluviation and illuviation and closely related processes (diffusion, wicking); phyto- and other biocycling; pedoturbation and soil structure formation; erosion, alluvation and other additions to soils; sulfidization and sulfuricization; salinization, solonization, and solodization; calcification; lessivage; podzolization; latosolization and lateritization; gleization; general principles and kinds of soil classification systems; soil classification in the past - roots and philosophies; history leading to the development of soil taxonomy; pedons and polypedons and their relationship to mapping delineations; soil taxonomy: epipedons; diagnostic subsurface horizons; pans and plinthite; proposed special diagnostic characteristics for highly man-influenced soils; other characteristics and terms used in defining mineral soils and classes of them; dignostic criteria for organic soils; general view of division of soils into orders; entisols; vertisols; inceptisols; aridisols; mollisols; spodosols; alfisols; ultisols; oxisols; histosols; the factors of soil formation - overview; soils in relation to their parent material; soils in relation to their age; soils in relation to climate; soils in relation to organisms other than man; effects of man; soils in relation to topography; minerals and mineral stabilities; overview for water movement in soils and soil genetic effects; subgroups of udorthents and classification of some highly man-influenced soils; textural triangles.