Island Press Staff Picks - The Death and Life of Monterey Bay
By Meghan Bartels / On September 21st, 2014
Battling for Bimini
By Kennedy Warne / On June 30th, 2011
Bimini has become a battleground between the forces of coastal development and mangrove protection. A huge resort development on the western side of the island has chomped through large swathes of mangroves and threatened marine habitats with a blanket of silt. I wanted to see the battle zone at first hand—and had an unexpected demonstration of how vigilant the protectors of mangroves have to be. . . Read more »
Travels with Mr. Burns
By Kennedy Warne / On June 23rd, 2011
Sometimes you can push hard on doors of opportunity and they remain steadfastly closed. That was my experience in Cuba, where for innumerable reasons the careful plans I had laid kept being upended by unseen events. But the compensations of travel in this fascinating country are great—not least encountering its pervasive political messaging system. . . Read more »
Bonefishing in Las Salinas
By Kennedy Warne / On June 16th, 2011
The Zapata wetland is one of the prime destinations for anglers who target the feisty, fast-swimming bonefish. My guide and I spent a morning cruising the shallows of an area called Las Salinas with an angler who knew where the best place for bonefish was: around the roots of mangroves. . . Read more »
Croc Hunting
By Kennedy Warne / On June 2nd, 2011
The vast Zapata swamp in on the southern coast of Cuba had long been on my wish list of mangrove sites, both because of its unique wildlife and also because of the basic intrigue of this country that has cocked a snoot at the Western world. My first quest was the Cuban crocodile. . . Read more »
Thoreau and the Value of Mangroves
By Kennedy Warne / On May 27th, 2011
I travelled to Massachusetts to talk to a mangrove expert about ecological economics, and took time out to pay respect to one of nature’s greatest freedom fighters, who showed us the way to transcend the soulless rhetoric of materialism. . . Read more »
Leave the Suntan Lotion
By Kennedy Warne / On May 24th, 2011
Sometimes the best way to move forward is to go sideways, and while exploring mangroves in Brazil I took time out to visit my son in Salvador de Bahia, and gained inspiration from an art exhibition and a Brazilian sport. . . Read more »
Pilgrim at Key West
By Kennedy Warne / On May 19th, 2011
Writers need heroes—or at least this one does, and while looking at mangroves in Florida I decided to make a pilgrimage to the home of one of American literature’s most famous sons: Papa Hemingway. I wasn’t disappointed. . . Read more »
Don't Have a Banana
By Kennedy Warne / On May 2nd, 2011
The Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge is one of the great mangrove preserves of the United States. In fact, here mangroves are spreading where they’re not wanted—into former freshwater swamplands that were drained for a grandiose housing project that failed to get off the ground. I travelled to the refuge with a Fish and Wildlife researcher who was gathering groundwater data that will help environmental managers make the right decisions about how to restore the unique ecology of the area.
Home Ground
By Kennedy Warne / On April 19th, 2011
While in Caravelas I met people whose lives are intertwined with mangroves. They live amongst them, make their livelihood from them and revere them. Here is what I wrote after meeting some of the fishers of Caravelas. . . Read more»