Fen drainage depleted the wildlife that once fed local inhabitants

Evidence

Before the centuries of drainage, the fens were well stocked with fish and fowl that afforded food for the people who made their home in the region. As the drainage projects proceeded, the abundant wildlife sharply decreased, and birds became elusive. By the end of the seventeenth century it became necessary to trick them by decoys in netted channels, whereas once they had simply been driven into nets by fowlers and their assistants. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 294

Categorization

• XREF: Wildlife decline under drainage mirrors the depleted-commons logic of chapter 18 and modern biodiversity-loss narratives from the eco-justice strand. — connects to: Drained marshland carries its whole lost community to extinction unnoted — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 573; Fen drainage transformed both ecology and inhabitants’ livelihoods through struggle — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 293; Agricultural marsh draining caused 90 percent loss of U.S. wetlands — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 833 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Fen drainage transformed both ecology and inhabitants’ livelihoods through struggle #expands (0.85) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 293
• Agricultural marsh draining caused 90 percent loss of U.S. wetlands #exemplifies (0.80) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 833
• Erosion and drainage threaten plover habitat, foreshadowing human harm from the same #expands (0.80) — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 136