An environmental history of the Nashua River, from its discovery by Indians through the polluting years of the Industrial Revolution to the ambitious clean-up that revitalized it.

A turtle carved in rock on a bluff over the Hudson River by Indians long ago watches with sadness the changes man brings over the years.

Over the centuries as people settle near the marsh by the sea, herons and other animals are displaced.

Text and maps focus on areas of the world in which human activity is destroying the natural balance.