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The Birds of Former Rice Plantations
Recognizing the ecological legacy of enslaved people.
© Ari Daniel
Ornithologist Drew Lanham visits a wetland that was once a rice plantation built and farmed by enslaved Black people. After the Civil War, many birds continued to rely on these wetlands. Now, biologists manage water levels in the former rice fields to support shorebirds, ducks, and rare species such as the Black Rail.
Hear more about the environmental legacy of the people who created these rice plantations on the Threatened podcast.
Birdnote®
The Birds of Former Rice Plantations
Adapted by Conor Gearin from the Threatened podcast episode by Ari Daniel
This is BirdNote.
Drew Lanham: We’ve got what look like Rough-winged Swallows, likely.
[Red-winged Blackbird song, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/329796431]
There’s a Red-winged Blackbird.
On the banks of South Carolina’s Combahee River, ornithologist Drew Lanham looks across a wetland that was once a rice plantation built and farmed by enslaved people. Today, this transformed landscape attracts a unique set of birds.
Drew Lanham: All the birds that we’re hearing are probably birds that enslaved people would have heard. So imagine being out there, in what we call pluff mud, this marsh mud that wants to suck you down into it, and having to work in the mosquitoes, the biting flies, cottonmouth snakes, alligators, for no pay, day after day. Those enslaved Black people, each one whose life mattered.
After the Civil War, many birds continued to rely on these wetlands. Now, biologists manage the water levels in the former rice fields to support migratory shorebirds, ducks, and rare species such as the Black Rail.
Drew Lanham: Many don’t know, but it’s important to not forget, to not bury that history under the pluff or let it be drowned out by the water, but to amplify it. Those Black hands that created so much are still working.
You can hear more about the environmental legacy of the people who created these rice plantations on the Threatened podcast. Listen in your podcast app or at BirdNote.org. I’m Ari Daniel.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Production Manager: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Digital Producer: Conor Gearin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Red-winged Blackbird ML 329796431 recorded by B. Carnes.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© September 2021 BirdNote Narrator: Ari Daniel
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