TV REVIEW : ‘Conserving America’: A Rather Bogged Down, Haphazard View

It’s hard to fault the purpose behind “Conserving America: The Wetlands,” airing tonight on PBS. No ecosystem is more productive than marshes, yet these and other wetland areas have been treated with little respect during our nation’s history.

Until recently, swamp and marsh water was considered undesirous, something to be drained away if possible--that’s just one of the facts pointed out during this sporadically informative program, co-presented by the American Wildlife Federation and WQED/Pittsburg.

However, this first installment in a projected four-part PBS series (at 8 p.m. on Channel 28 and at 11 p.m. on Channel 50) states its case in such a haphazard, one-sided and bogged-down way that most of “The Wetlands” winds up being just so much marsh gas.

We keep hearing about the forces against which wetland conservations have struggled for years, but except for one brief comment from a Nebraska farmer, we never hear from these forces, or even get a good idea of what they are. And nothing else in the documentary gives a clear overview of the political, historical and geographic factors that have affected the situation.

“The Wetlands” starts off in Louisiana, where the meandering, giant Mississippi and misguided attempts to handle its flow have caused problems that threaten wildlife. However, this complicated morass has been far better (and more dramatically) explained in other television documentaries.

Then the program hops around to Nebraska, Alabama and Florida for further spotty looks at related concerns. A section on dredging in Mobile Bay is worse than just superficial--it’s deadly dull.

The program picks up somewhat in its last minutes, where it introduces Marjory Stoneman Douglas, a 97-year-old Florida Everglades author/conservationist who’s still trying to save the “River of Grass” she’s written about for several decades.

But there’s a scattered approach and lack of scope to this first episode of “Conserving America” that hopefully does not pervade the three other shows planned on American rivers, coastlines and wildlife.