Restoring the Mesopotamian Marshes
4th Friday Lecture
February 26, 2010
ShareThis! Iraq’s Mesopotamian Marshes are struggling. Like California, the marshes face difficult problems surrounding water rights, diversions for agriculture and urban use, and many other challenges -- all of it compounded by drought. But there’s a fundamental difference between the two regions: while California’s Central Valley was a desert before it became a garden, Iraq’s Huwaizah and Hammar Marshes, widely considered the location of the Garden of Eden, are rapidly becoming desert.
Friday, February 26th, Dr. Michelle Stevens shared the experience of what it is like being a woman scientist traveling in Iraq, what she saw and what she hoped to bring home about Eurasia’s largest wetland ecosystem.
The marshes make up a wetland area located in Southern Iraq bordering Iran. A rare aquatic landscape in the desert, it 
provides habitat for important populations of wildlife, numerous endangered species, a wintering area of nearly 1 million birds and a home to the Ma’dan people – still living in harmony with the marshes. Up until recently, the marshes even provided 60% of the fish consumed throughout Iraq.
This vast and magical water world was turned into desert under the rule of Saddam Hussein. In total, 90% of the marshes were drained, equal to 2x the size of the everglades in Florida. In April 2009, Dr. Michelle Stevens was invited to be the Keynote speaker in a conference for over 400 Iraqi scientists - representing the brain trusts of the country – because of her background in ethnoecology and her work in conservation. Since then, she has returned numerous times.
Dr. Stevens explained that the Mesopotamian Marshes, literally meaning “between the rivers,” are in crises from botha human and ecosystem perspective due to lack of water. In spite of everything, the cities, art and people are flourishing and the will to restore the marshes is strong.
Dr. Stevens shared how the Mesopotamian Marshes are the most compelling, heart breaking and inspiring project she has ever worked on. From the people she met to the changes she personally saw the land go through, Dr. Stevens shared photographs and stories of her journey through the marshes and how she found an eerie resemblance of what is happening in Iraq to the political and environmental struggle in our own waterways here in California.
About the Speaker:
Besides eco-cultural restoration of the Mesopotamian Marshes of southern Iraq, Dr. Michelle Stevens' interests also cover the historic ecology of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, ethnoecology, the establishment of Peace Parks & Trans-boundary conservation areas and specializes in Native Flora.
She is a full-time Professor at California State University, Sacramento in the Environmental Studies Department.
For insight into her latest trip to Iraq, visit Dr. Steven's Blog:
Mesopotamian Marsh Restoration
Return to the Archives Main Page
Or visit another lecture in this series:
| Sep. 25, 2009 - | Salmon at the Heart of Nature |
| Oct. 23, 2009 - | Journey of Discovery: California |
| Jan. 22, 2010 - | Tending the Wild: Native Americans and the Land |
| Feb. 26, 2010 - | Mysteries and Magic of the Vernal Pool |
| Mar. 26, 2010 - | Marvelous, Mysterious Mars |
| Apr. 23, 2010 - | Restoring the Mesopotamian Marshes |
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