Wohl, Ellen E.

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WOHL, Ellen E.

PERSONAL: Born 1962. Education: Arizona State University, B.S. (geology), 1984; University of Arizona, Ph.D. (geosciences), 1988.

ADDRESSES: Office—College of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1401. E-mail—ellenw@cnr.colostate.edu.

CAREER: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, assistant professor, 1989–96, associate professor, 1996–2000, professor of geology, 2000–.

MEMBER: Geological Society of America (fellow; second vice chair, Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology Division), American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America.

AWARDS, HONORS: Fulbright fellowship to Israel, 1991; Gladys W. Cole Memorial Award, Geological Society of America, 1995; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science fellowship, 1996; G. K. Gilbert Award for Excellence in Geomorphological Research, Association of American Geographers' Geomorphology Specialty Group, 2000; Water Center Award for Outstanding contributions to Interdisciplinary Water Education, Colorado State University, 2001.

WRITINGS:

Rain Forest into Desert: Adventures in Australia's Tropical North, University Press of Colorado (Niwot, CO), 1994.

(Editor, with Keith J. Tinkler) Rivers over Rock: Fluvial Processes in Bedrock Channels, American Geophysical Union (Washington, DC), 1998.

(Editor) Inland Flood Hazards: Human, Riparian, and Aquatic Communities, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 2000.

Mountain Rivers, American Geophysical Union (Washington, DC), 2000.

Virtual Rivers: Lessons from the Mountain Rivers of the Colorado Front Range, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2001.

Disconnected Rivers: Linking Rivers to Landscapes, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2004.

Contributor to journals, including Geomorphology, Journal of Geology, Ecological Applications, Water Resources Bulletin, and Geological Society of America Bulletin. Associate editor, Geomorphology, Geological Society of America Bulletin, and Water Research.

SIDELIGHTS: Ellen E. Wohl's books and articles on geography, geology, and water issues are useful to government officials, civil engineers, and students in fields such as hydrology, hydraulics, geography, and geology. She published a book on Australia's rain forest and edited another on fluvial processes in bedrock before editing her better-known Inland Flood Hazards: Human, Riparian, and Aquatic Communities. This book studies three major river basins: the Colorado in the United States and Mexico, the Tone in Japan, and the Ganges and Brahmaputra in Bangladesh. A general reference on flood hazards, the book covers such subjects as physical control of flooding, biological flood processes, and the effects of human actions on flooding. Hadrian F. Cook wrote in the Geographical Journal that Inland Flood Hazards is "well presented, well written and thoroughly referenced," and Quarterly Review of Biology contributor Brett Roper commented that "the breadth of this book makes it an ideal inclusion in many different libraries."

Wohl produced a monograph on mountain rivers before publishing her next book, Virtual Rivers: Lessons from the Mountain Rivers of the Colorado Front Range, which is accessibly written for both lay readers and professionals. In it she outlines in graphic detail, using illustrations and nontechnical language, how human actions have profoundly altered the form and function of river basins. Rivers become "virtual" when humans divert their courses, dam them, or otherwise change their natural flow. She concentrates on rivers in a particular area of Colorado, beginning with the effects of the Gold Rush in 1859 and ending in the 1990s.

William Wyckoff pointed out in the Geographical Review that Wohl is asking readers to "give western rivers the respect they deserve" by questioning how ecosystems have been damaged in the past by unwise human manipulation. In the Quarterly Review of Biology, Steven P. Canton noted that the author tends to sermonize and that she "may have tried to put too much information in a relatively short volume." Still, he adde, her book is "fascinating," and its message "should lead to many lively discussions."

Wohl has continued to pursue her interest in human interactions with river systems in Disconnected Rivers: Linking Rivers to Landscapes. In this volume, she discusses topics such as pollution by humans, commercial impacts on rivers, bureaucratic bungling, and attempts at rehabilitation of river systems.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Environment, June, 2002, Robert Harriss, review of Virtual Rivers: Lessons from the Mountain Rivers of the Colorado Front Range, p. 39.

Geographical Journal, March, 2003, Hadrian F. Cook, review of Inland Flood Hazards: Human, Riparian, and Aquatic Communities, p. 95.

Geographical Review, October, 2002, William Wyckoff, review of Virtual Rivers, p. 14.

Quarterly Review of Biology, September, 2001, Brett Roper, review of Inland Flood Hazards, p. 371; September, 2002, Steven P. Canton, review of Virtual Rivers, p. 353.