A River Runs Through it: The Brandywine as a Flourishing Flora and Fauna Factory

Abstract

The Brandywine River, or Wawaset as known by the Lenape and Brannvin by the Swedes, is historically and internationally known for its ecological unique tidal and freshwater habitat for plant and animal species that is a flourishing flora and fauna factory. This talk will cover the centuries and even millennia long history of the Brandywine Valley beginning with the aboriginal people who cultivated, hunted, and fished here over 30 centuries ago to the Vikings, Swedes, Dutch, and English colonization with European settlement in the 17th century and through the American Revolution to the Industrial Revolution and to its modern history as the largest water supply in Delaware, worldwide significance for the Brandywine style of art, and the reemergence of the American shad, America’s founding fish.

Our agenda is organized as follows: - History of the Brandywine River, 12,000 AD – present - Flora and Fauna of the Brandywine - Seine for spawning American shad, herring, and striped bass - Parting Remarks