Curtis J. Badger's award winning book Salt Tide - Cycles and Currents of Life Along the Coast has become a classic when it comes to exploring thenaturl history of barrier islands and seaside salt marshes. In it, Badger called the chain of islands that lies along the Virginia Coast the last of the coastal wilderness, a ladscape as wild and unspoiled as the mountains of the West or the tundra of Alaska.

in Wilderness Regained - the Story of the Virginia Barrier Islands, Badger turns his attention to the human presence on the islands. Although wild and remote today, the islands played a colorful and vibrant role in the history of the Eastern Shore and coastal Virginia for mroe than three centuries. Wildreness Regained tells the story of the many ways in which human lives touchd the islands , and how, ultimately, the islands became protected as one of America's unique costal preserves.