I'm still not at all sure just how I would classify the book, which is divided into three sections, the first being fens, the second bogs, and the third swamps. (Since these three types of what Proulx terms “peatlands” comprise the title of the book, this division is not at all surprising.) Each section includes a bit of scientific information intended to help the reader distinguish just what comprises a fen or a bog or a swamp and how each differs from the other two. Dabs of history relative to the topic of each section are mentioned as well as the author's own experiences with each of these types of wetlands. Proulx, mainly known for writing fiction and guides to smallholdings, has become a champion of fens, bogs and swamps, the mulchy sinking places she loves and which are both a victim of and solution to humanity’s catastrophic exploitation of the earth’s ecosystems. A lifelong acolyte of the natural world, Annie Proulx brings her witness and research to the subject of wetlands and the vitally important role they play in preserving the environment—by storing the carbon emissions that accelerate climate change. Fens, bogs, swamps, and marine estuaries are crucial to the earth’s survival, and in four illuminating parts, Proulx documents their systemic destruction in pursuit of profit. In the book, Proulx reveals the extensive harm that civilization has inflicted upon wetlands, but also highlights those who are taking action to mitigate the damage. While pragmatic about the severity of the situation, as she explained to Esquire, Proulx also finds reasons for hope and even joy in the wide-ranging efforts to adapt in the face of an increasingly inhospitable climate. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

ESQ: You mention the conclusions drawn by researchers that were later found to be inaccurate (in regard to bog drownings as punishment for homosexuality, for example). Are there any commonly accepted climate change conclusions that you think are erroneous? This information is important to fully understanding the scale and cost of wetland losses we've inflicted on the planet. Author Proulx (whose use of "yclept" in this book I note here with a big smile, as it's a favorite underused word of mine) is an experienced campaigner when it comes to putting English through its paces to evoke a sense of place and a perception of mood: Proulx’s substantial talents and experience and her modest stated goals should make for a freewheeling and compelling narrative … but unfortunately it is more freewheeling than compelling. The ‘personal essay’ basic research results in a digressive rather than propulsive collection of explanations, references, and anecdotes, and the book does not achieve its potential. In the section on fens for example, Proulx mines her research and reading to demonstrate the long connection between people and fen, but the references are overused. The effect is similar to a researcher trying to strengthen a paper by the volume rather than quality of citations. The effect is dilutive.

Doormat Navigation

From all the wetland revivals, a new questioning attitude toward natural catastrophes seems to be emerging that asks: in the long run, can flooding be looked at as nature’s restoration of habitats and environments? To date, we have only looked at what damage is done to human activities and uses, but flooding does more than destroy houses and roads. We need to learn how the greater wild system works and cooperate with it as much as we can. How much did the 2020 pandemic “anthropause,” when the world and oceans were quieter with less human bustle, affect the natural world?

Recently, I have been about the positive environmental impacts of wetlands. They are home to so much flora and fauna. They are helpful in this time of climate change as they sequester carbon. Peatland receiving water exclusively from precipitation and not influenced by ground water; sphagnum-dominated vegetation. Perhaps the most moving section of Fen, Bog & Swamp is the portrait of the English Fens, largely destroyed from the 16th century onwards. Proulx conjures up the lost landscape, teeming as it was with eels and sturgeon, beavers and water voles, ospreys and cranes and populated by an unmourned fen people who “poled through curtains of rain, gazed at the layered horizon, at curling waves that pummelled the land edge in storms”. But for all her sadness at the destruction of our wetlands and what she calls “the awfulness of the present”, perhaps what’s most interesting about the book is her refusal to engage in the usual left versus rightpolitical debate. The book takes aim at the modern notion of ‘progress’ and ‘the hubristic idea that “now”, the time in which we live, is superior to all previous times' But people whose ancestors have "conquered" swamps tend to have internalized "a deep and abiding loathing of wetlands." That's what's showing up in Michener's mid-twentieth-century book, too. We all tend to have some of that attitude ingrained.I followed William J. Mitsch and James G. Gosselink, Wetlands, 2015, 5th ed. (Wiley), for definitions and explanations of wetland processes. 1. Discursive Thoughts on Wetlands I think the key thing in this book is how much of her "arguments" and understanding of these issues and history are her emotional responses rather than the events themselves. I think that Proulx's inclusion of so many varying treatments of her subject—a little science, personal observations and even imagination, lament over environmental destruction by ill-advise wetland management—left me feeling that the book is weak in unity and focus. However, the book also has several strengths that recommend it to readers: