Discovering the Olympic Peninsula

I regret how many times I looked at The Final Forest sitting on the shelf and thought I could hold off on another book about trees. This book is decidedly about people and the evolving ideas about and conflicting attitudes towards humans' relationship to the natural world, and it knocked my boots off. To contextualize the context of the effect of efforts to protect old-growth forests on the exemplary community devoted to logging them, the town of Forks, Washington, William Dietrich allows gives voice to so many actual peoples' voices the seemingly polarized political debate becomes a patchwork of real human experience. An incredible document, this helped me understand the stakes and the contours of the changing pacific northwest, and the Olympic Peninsula in particular

This magisterial text gave me everything I wanted to know about the geology, ecology and natural history of the peninsula. But while there is a brief guide to visiting the park, this is not a guidebook. Organized into four broad but thorough sections (The Mountains, The Forest, The Coast, Humans and the Landscape), this is a comprehensive survey of the place. McNulty is a poet who has lived and worked here for many years, and his lyricism and personal perspective make this book distinctive. It reads as though it is written by someone who loves being in the outdoors, and these spaces in particular, who is gifted at bringing those experiences to the page. Here is a book that I would give to anyone who wanted to know why I am excited by this place.

Every geographically-unque region should be so lucky as to have someone like Murray Morgan to capture it forever in prose. The Last Wilderness is so evocative, hilarious, informative and I can't imagine it ever losing its place as the definitive introduction to the Olympic Peninsula. Researched with obvious care and undoubtedly benifits from conversations with old sourdoughs and lifers of all stripes from a place that he clearly loved. There are stories of the first peoples here and some forays into the natural wonders of this jungle of giant firs and cedars, glaciar-clad mountains towering straight up from the sea, and rivers teeming with salmon, but this is first and foremost an acount of the loggers and prospectos, the confidence men and utopian cultists, the wobblies and conservationists and all the other colorful characters that have peopled this wildest corner of the conttinental U.S.

This is one of the books I've gotten at Port Book and News in Port Angeles to help acquaint myself with the Olympic Peninsula and I read through it a second time to whet my appetite for the place before moving here. I loved its first sentence so much, I suggested ot to Madison Books for the "First Lines that Last" feature in their newsletter last year.

The nine Native tribes of Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula—the Hoh, Skokomish, Squaxin Island, Lower Elwha Klallam, Jamestown S’Klallam, Port Gamble S’Klallam, Quinault, Quileute, and Makah—share complex histories of trade, religion, warfare, and kinship, as well as reverence for the teaching of elders. However, each indigenous nation’s relationship to the Olympic Peninsula is unique. Native Peoples of the Olympic Peninsula: Who We Are traces the nine tribes’ common history and each tribe’s individual story. This second edition is updated to include new developments since the volume’s initial publication—especially the removal of the Elwha River dams—thus reflecting the ever-changing environment for the Native peoples of the Olympic Peninsula.

Nine essays, researched and written by members of the subject tribes, cover cultural history, contemporary affairs, heritage programs, and tourism information. Edited by anthropologist Jacilee Wray, who also provides the book’s introduction, this collection relates the Native peoples’ history in their own words and addresses each tribe’s current cultural and political issues, from the establishment of community centers to mass canoe journeys. The volume’s updated content expands its findings to new audiences. More than 70 photographs and other illustrations, many of which are new to this edition, give further insight into the unique legacy of these groups, moving beyond popular romanticized views of American Indians to portray their lived experiences.

Providing a foundation for outsiders to learn about the Olympic Peninsula tribes’ unique history with one another and their land, this volume demonstrates a cross-tribal commitment to education, adaptation, and cultural preservation. Furthering these goals, this updated edition offers fresh understanding of Native peoples often seen from an outside perspective only. (Publisher's Description)

In 2011, a Montana contractor removed the first pieces from two concrete dams on the Elwha River which cuts through the Olympic range. It was the beginning of the largest dam removal project ever undertaken in North America--one dam was 200 feet tall--and the start of an unprecedented attempt to restore an entire ecosystem. More than 70 miles of the Elwha and its tributaries course from the mountain headwaters to clamming beaches on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Through interviews, field work, archival and historical research, and photojournalism, The Seattle Times has explored and reported on the dam removal, the Elwha ecosystem, its industrialization, and now its renewal. Elwha: A River Reborn is based on these features. Richly illustrated with stunning photographs, as well as historic images, graphics, and a map, Elwha tells the interwoven stories of this region. (Publisher's Description)

• More than 700 color illustrations for easy identification
• Expanded with new sections on mushrooms, insects, and rock identification
• Handy color tabs for easy access, and quick reference index on back cover

Don't just call it a mushroom when it's a golden chanterelle; know your screech owl from your saw-whet owl; distinguish a monarch butterfly from a painted lady -- all with the help of this comprehensive guide to the common plants and animals of the Cascade and Olympic Mountains.

The species accounts have been updated with the latest taxonomic changes and, as before, include common name, scientific name, and description of important features, habitat, and geographic range. (Publisher's Description)

• Perennial favorite in a new, convenient field-guide size
• Concise natural history facts about more than 60 native species

No other guide duplicates Arno and Hammerly’s blend of expertise and visual artistry. Covering Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and north into Canada, they identify and illustrate more than 60 species of indigenous Northwestern trees by characteristic shape, size, needles or leaves, and cones or seeds. This essential guide:

• Provides an easy-to-use illustrated identification key based on the most reliable and non-technical features of each species
• Features the ecology and human history associated with all Northwest trees
• Includes 185 exceptionally accurate drawings as well as historical photos that bring these trees to life

(Publisher's Description)

Not far from Seattle skyscrapers live 150-year-old clams, more than 250 species of fish, and underwater kelp forests as complex as any terrestrial ecosystem. For millennia, vibrant Coast Salish communities have lived beside these waters dense with nutrient-rich foods, with cultures intertwined through exchanges across the waterways. Transformed by settlement and resource extraction, Puget Sound and its future health now depend on a better understanding of the region’s ecological complexities. Focusing on the area south of Port Townsend and between the Cascade and Olympic mountains, Williams uncovers human and natural histories in, on, and around the Sound. In conversations with archaeologists, biologists, and tribal authorities, Williams traces how generations of humans have interacted with such species as geoducks, salmon, orcas, rockfish, and herring. He sheds light on how warfare shaped development and how people have moved across this maritime highway, in canoes, the mosquito fleet, and today’s ferry system. The book also takes an unflinching look at how the Sound’s ecosystems have suffered from human behavior, including pollution, habitat destruction, and the effects of climate change. Witty, graceful, and deeply informed, Homewaters weaves history and science into a fascinating and hopeful narrative, one that will introduce newcomers to the astonishing life that inhabits the Sound and offers longtime residents new insight into and appreciation of the waters they call home. A Michael J. Repass Book (Publisher's Description)

After I finished The Last Wilderness, I returned to Alan at Port Book and News, who had recommended it to me for learning about the Peninsula, and asked him what should be next for learning about the area around Port Angeles. Without even a second of hesitation he walked to the shelf, plucked off a copy of Breaking Ground and put it into in my hands. I am so glad he pointed me to this amazing account of a gripping local story that helped to reframe my perspective on this specific part of the world.

In 2003, routine work at the site of the largest construction projects in the state of Washington turned up the first archeological evidence of what eventually was discovered to be the largest pre-European contact village site ever excavated. Stopping work on an enormous project was controversial, but it was the story of how the memory of the site had been ignored and erased which was the most profound revelation. This story encapsulates so much about European settlers' attitudes towards native peoples' cultures, and the hurt this has caused for generations. There are hopeful notes about changing attitudes, and it is certainly noteworthy that the project with so much money and so many interested parties and agencies was indeed stopped.

This is a closely-reported story, and certainly feels definitive. Mapes clearly interviewed a lot of people and the eyewitness accounts yield interesting results, such as an incredibly thorough depiction of a burning ceremony (where a feast table, clothing and other objects were burned for the ancestors). I learned so much from this book.