THE GREAT BLACK SWAMP

Troubled waters.

In this case study, college professor Wensink embarks on a journey to learn how a Lake Erie algae bloom came to be—in 2014, it infamously poisoned the drinking water of Toledo, Ohio. The author is unabashedly curious, his tone is breezy, and he doles out pop culture references and factual information in equal parts. Readers can be assured they won’t be bogged down by overly detailed timelines or scholarly analysis, and yet, they will learn plenty about the complex causes and multipronged solutions related to harmful algal blooms. Northwest Ohio used to be home to the Great Black Swamp, an ecosystem the size of Connecticut with seemingly bottomless mud holes, dense, dark forests, and insufferable populations of insects. During westward expansion, settlers endeavored to conquer the swamp by draining water and clear-cutting the dense forest. These actions often relied on human ingenuity, such as an automated ditch-digging machine invented in 1893. Today’s Ohioans face an out-of-balance ecosystem—an unintended consequence of such progress. Previous generations turned uninhabitable land into farmland, thereby providing farmers a chance to achieve a middle-class lifestyle. But now, many see that the swamp’s conversion was a recipe for ecological disaster. The author weaves in bits of memoir, writing that he had no knowledge of the swamp even though he grew up nearby. He also details his present-day divorce; he doesn’t make a direct parallel between his divorce and the 2014 algal bloom, but it’s an undercurrent: “Often, it’s at these breaking points that we find the clarity or strength to try something new.” And thus, the story wends its way to interventions in Ohio and beyond, such as dam removal, wetlands restoration, and farm management. Each strategy helps a little bit, the author notes, and together, they can add up to make a difference.

A surprisingly entertaining read about an environmental disaster.