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Adam's Bridge
Adam's Bridge or Rama's Bridge , chain of shoals, c.18 mi (30 km) long, SW Palk Strait , between India and island nation of Sri Lanka. At high tide it is covered by c.4 ft (1.2 m) of water, forcing oceangoing vessels to travel around Sri Lanka instead of through the Palk Strait. According to Hi...
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Lake Eyre
Lake Eyre shallow salt lake, 3,430 sq mi (8,884 sq km), central South Australia state, Australia; largest lake in Australia. The lake, 39 ft (12 m) below sea level, is the continent's lowest point. Located in the arid interior of Australia, the lake is frequently dry. During the winter rainy season...
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Jesse Louis Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson 1941-, African-American political leader, clergyman, and civil-rights activist, b. Greenville, S.C. Raised in poverty, he attended the Chicago Theological Seminary (1963-65) and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1968. Active in the civil-rights movement, he became a close ass...
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Mojave Desert
Mojave Desert c.15,000 sq mi (38,850 sq km), region of low, barren mountains and flat valleys, 2,000 to 5,000 ft (610-1,524 m) high, S Calif.; part of the Great Basin of the United States. It is bordered on the N and W by the Sierra Nevada and the Tehachapi, San Gabriel, and San Bernardino mts. and...
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swamp
swamp shallow body of water in a low-lying, poorly drained depression, usually containing abundant plant growth dominated by trees, such as cypress, and high shrubs. Swamps develop in moist climates, generally in such places as low-lying coastal plains, floodplains of rivers, and old lake basins or...
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wetlands
wetlands low-lying ecosystem where the water table is always at or near the surface. It is divided into estuarine and freshwater systems, which may be further subdivided by soil type and plant life into bogs , swamps , and marshes. Because wetlands have poor drainage, the area is characterized ...
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reclamation of land
reclamation of land practice of converting land deemed unproductive into arable land by such methods as irrigation , drainage , flood control, altering the texture and mineral and organic content of soil (see fertilizer ), and checking erosion . In the United States, all these methods have been...
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forestry
forestry the management of forest lands for wood , water, wildlife, forage, and recreation. Because the major economic importance of the forest lies in wood and wood products, forestry has been chiefly concerned with timber management, especially reforestation, maintenance of the extant forest sta...
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environmentalism
environmentalism movement to protect the quality and continuity of life through conservation of natural resources , prevention of pollution , and control of land use . The philosophical foundations for environmentalism in the United States were established by Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerso...
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land use
land use exploitation of land for agricultural, industrial, residential, recreational, or other purposes. Because the United States historically has a laissez-faire attitude toward land use, the land has been exploited at will for economic gain. Only in recent decades have Americans realized that l...
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