Landscape and Environment

Tobacco barn on Brush Creek, Rockcastle County, Kentucky. Photo by Gary O’Dell.

“Wildlife, Past and Present.” In Clark’s Kentucky Almanac 2007 (Lexington, KY: Clark Group, 2007): 326-328. An brief essay discussing the wildlife of Kentucky from Ice Age megafauna to the common mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians of the present day, including a discussion of the reintroduction of certain species that were eliminated from the region during the settlement period. Intended for a general audience.

“Physical Regions.” In Clark’s Kentucky Almanac 2006 (Lexington, KY: Clark Group, 2006): 331-335. An essay describing the characteristics of the principal geomorphic regions of the state, written for a general audience. Included are the Eastern Kentucky mountain region, the Bluegrass, the Mississippian Plateau, the Western Kentucky Coal Field, and the Mississippi Embayment.

“Geology.” In Clark’s Kentucky Almanac 2006 (Lexington, KY: Clark Group, 2006), 321-328. This essay, written for a general audience, describes the evolution of Kentucky’s landscape over a period of more than a billion years, as the North American core – the Canadian Shield region – was enlarged by a succession of land mass collisions which erected great mountain ranges that were subsequently eroded away. These tectonic events deformed the crust to generate and enhance geologic structures oriented in a northeast-southwest direction, the central Cincinnati Arch flanked on either side by basins in which marine sediments accumulated to form bedrock exposed at the surface today. The concluding section discusses fault lines and earthquakes, including the New Madrid Fault Zone.

“Soils.” In Clark’s Kentucky Almanac 2006 (Lexington, KY: Clark Group, 2006): 348. This essay, written for a general audience, discusses the soil-forming processes and describes the common soil groups found in Kentucky.

“Kentucky’s Physical Regions and the Inner Bluegrass.”  In Lexington and Kentucky’s Inner Bluegrass Region, ed. R. Ulack, K.B. Raitz, and H.L. Hopper. Pathways in Geography No. 10. (Lexington: National Council for Geographic Education, 1994), 5-11. With J.F. Watkins. This essay focuses upon the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky, discussing the geologic shaping of the modern landscape and the characteristics of the physiographic subregions: the Inner Bluegrass, the transitional Eden Shale Hills, and the Outer Bluegrass. There is an extended discussion of regional climate and of the karst processes, features and associated environmental issues of the Inner Bluegrass.