UBC Press Levelling the Lake: Transboundary Resource Management in the Lake of the Woods Watershed (Nature | History | Society)

Levelling the Lake explores a century and a half of social, economic, and legal arrangements through which the resources and environment of the Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake watershed have been both harnessed and harmed. Jamie Benidickson traces the environmental consequences of resource extraction and recreation as well as their impacts on local residents, including Indigenous communities, which encouraged new legal and institutional responses. Assessing the transition from primary resource extraction toward sustainable development, Levelling the Lake also shows how inter-jurisdictional and transboundary issues continue to play a significant role in many parts of the region. Review Benidickson shows how the many controversies and challenges―from the early negotiations around leveling the lake, to the Winnipeg water problems, the search for answers to the mercury crisis, and the need for a bridge and road to address the living conditions of the Shoal Lake band, illustrate how essential and necessary multi-agency solutions have been for the problems of the Lake of the Woods basin. -- Francis M. Carroll, St. John’s College, University of Manitoba ― Prairie History Benidickson shows how the many controversies and challenges―from the early negotiations around leveling the lake, to the Winnipeg water problems, the search for answers to the mercury crisis, and the need for a bridge and road to address the living conditions of the Shoal Lake band―illustrate how essential and necessary multi-agency solutions have been for the problems of the Lake of the Woods basin. -- Francis M. Carroll, St. John’s College, University of Manitoba ― Prairie History Jamie Benidickson injects subtle ironic humour throughout [ Levelling the Lake], but readers not interested in water or history may find it a long, hard haul … but ultimately this is a rewarding read, perhaps best appreciated as an unfolding story … while subdued in tone, Levelling the Lake offers a valuable analysis on how ecosystems and relations between people can decline from one generation to the next … the book quietly and forcibly puts into relief how long-term economic and social security can be assured only through mutual trust among peoples, along with the proper maintenance and re- establishment of ecological balance. -- Robert Sandford ― Literary Review of Canada Benidickson is to be congratulated for both the depth and quality of his research. His understanding of the complex legal and constitutional frameworks which have been imposed upon this region from the 1860s to the present is outstanding. [...] This is an important work – and a pioneering one at that. -- Jim Mochoruk ― NiCHE Review Benidickson's environmental-legal history of the Lake of the Woods area considers the tensions between the geographical integrity of the river basin and various geopolitical entities that have sought to assert their will over parts of it. This book is a rare example of regional history that effectively situates the local within the administrative scales and networks of power bearing on it. Author: Shannon Stunden Bower, Department of History and Classics, University of Alberta Book Description It’s one thing to live in a watershed. We all do. It’s another to manage one, as Levelling the Lake compellingly demonstrates. From the Author Jamie Benidickson teaches environmental law at the University of Ottawa where he is a member of the Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability. His publications include Idleness, Water, and a Canoe: Reflections of Paddling for Pleasure; The Culture of Flushing: A Social and Legal History of Sewage; and, with Bruce Hodgins, The Temagami Experience: Recreation, Resources, and Aboriginal Rights in the Northern Ontario Wilderness. About the Author Jamie Benidickson teaches environmental law at the University of Ottawa where he is a member of the Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability. His p