"Mysterious fish, giant alligator snapping turtles, spectral dancers in the early morning fog: historian Thad Sitton has combined with photographer Carolyn Brown to reveal one of the great jewels of Texas, Caddo Lake. Intertwining Sitton's insightful knowledge of all things East Texas with Brown's beautiful photographs we learn that Caddo is the only internationally recognized Ramsar wetland in Texas. Hundreds of birds, fifty plus mammals, frogs and snakes: there is no other place like it, and yet by the end of reviewing this book I was deeply sad. Caddo is nothing like it once was. Dallas is siphoning off the river which the Lake needs to flourish, and Giant Salvinia, an escaped aquarium plant, is threatening to cover this important bastion for wildlife in a green mat of death. Without the cleansing of natural floods, Caddo is choking on invasive plants, sediment, fertilizers and human waste. I am especially thankful though for Sitton's knowledge and Brown's photographs of birds, for one day in the future, if Texas politicians fail to protect the only natural lake in the state, at least we will have this book."--Charles Kruvand, photographer, The Living Waters of Texas.