Natural Lives, Modern Times: People and Places of the Delaware River

The East and West branches of the Delaware River rise in shallow mountain streams and flow across the Catskills, meeting at Hancock, N.Y. Its main stretch, bordering New Jersey and Pennsylvania, is the longest undammed river on the East Coast; for 75 miles, between Hancock and Port Jervis, N.Y., it is a ``wild and scenic river,'' popular with canoeists. Deftly interweaving strands of social, industrial and natural history, Stutz, features editor at Audubon magazine, takes us on a 350-mile journey northward from the river's mouth in Delaware. He covers an area rich in history, once rich in natural resources--oysters, shad, turtles, timber, mammals--and, in mid-19th century, a major manufacturing center. Old-timersokay with lifetime also in sentence?/don't need it actually.gs along the river talk about changes; scientists detail the decline of wildlife. Charting the rise of industry and pollution as he moves toward Philadelphia and Trenton, N.J., the author looks also at the rush for development in the Poconos. The journey ends at Eel Weir Hollow on the East Branch just north of Hancock. Evoking the past as he contemplates the present, Stutz is an eloquent advocate for the river and the region's preservation. (May)