Bayou-Diversity: Nature and People in the Louisiana Bayou Country

6. Junction: The Act or Process of Joining to Become One in Harmony

6 Junction The Act or Process of Joining to Become One in Harmony Friends of Black Bayou [a nationally recognized Loui­ si­ ana conservation advocacy group] Fall Celebration event, 10th Anniversary; 2,000 in attendance. —KO Field Diary, 13 October 2007 Good article today in “New York Times” about our efforts to remove­ levees on Mollicy Unit of Upper Ouachita NWR and restore natural­ hydrology to 16,000 acres of bottomland hardwood habitat. —KO Field Diary, 20 June 2009 Attitudes Since the founding of America, attitudes toward nature have changed, and they continue to do so. Early pioneers maintained a European mindset, considering nature an entity to be conquered, civilized, and rid of competing wild beasts as necessary. The theory of manifest destiny reflected a theological belief that settlers were divinely appointed to “use” the Earth for the enhancement of civilization , no holds barred. Such attitudes eventually led to the decimation of Native Americans and the extinction or near extinction of several animals. Barely tempering this prevalent thought in the 1830s and 1840s, 200 Junction: Joining to Become One in Harmony / 201 the poets Lord Byron and William Wordsworth and artists associated with the Hudson River school of painting championed a “romantic attitude” in which nature was promoted for its aesthetic values . With his publication of Walden in 1854 Henry David Thoreau argued not for sentimentality but for the wisdom of seeking God in nature. His position contained the embryonic thoughts of what later became known as the “preservation attitude.” The aftermath of the Civil War left a country wallowing in reconstruction and soon to begin a broad-based assault on the wild flora and fauna of North America. Two factors fueled the destruction : new technology and the rush to rebuild the South. Both resulted in the near total elimination of virgin forests in the eastern United States. Wildlife was not spared. Within two generations of the war, regional and global extinctions of such species as eastern elk, red wolves, ivory-billed woodpeckers, whooping cranes, Carolina parakeets, and passenger pigeons occurred. The saga of American bison, plume-bearing wading birds, East Coast fisheries, and waterfowl is well documented. Wildlife populations plunged because of loss of habitat and direct overexploitation such as market hunting that accelerated with the development of railroads and refrigeration . The biblical mandate to subdue the Earth was pursued in earnest and few protested. The tide began to turn after misuse of natural resources of the eastern United States peaked, and large-scale clearing of western forests along with the slaughter of millions of bison began. Enough influential people valued a frontier of some sort that the preservationist movement was born to set aside and protect at least a small part of it. The era of conservation followed with intensive efforts to manage and enhance the remaining populations of plants and animals , especially those with monetary or sporting value. The present era of conservation biology attempts to address flora and fauna on a broad landscape scale encompassing all ecosystems on the planet. In the history of humans and nature, the challenges are unprecedented. 202 / Confluence: A Flowing Together of Two or More Streams of Life Demography Demography is the statistical study of human populations. Little is known about the demographics of Native Americans in northeast Loui­ si­ ana prior to European settlement. Abundant archaeological evidence indicates that Indians frequented this area for at least ten thousand years, but that their population levels fluctuated over time. Large, complex sites, such as Poverty Point and Watson Brake, supported many people, but their cultures vanished thousands of years before Europeans became established. One thing is known for sure: when French Canadian trappers entered the area in the mid1700s , the only folks around were small, itinerant bands of natives. European settlement progressed from the eastern seaboard. Many northeast Loui­ si­ ana settlers were second- or third-generation Americans born in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. They were farmers and cleared the fertile lands along the banks of the major waterways. By 1860, just prior to the Civil War, four times as many people lived in East and West Carroll parishes as in Ouachita Parish , today’s metropolitan area. The population of Tensas Parish was three times that of Ouachita, and even the hill country of Union Parish supported twice the population of Ouachita. The state as a whole was still rural even though one out of four citizens lived in New...