Böcker av Ruth Kirk

Archaeology - along with Native American traditions and memories - holds a key to understanding early chapters of the human story in Washington. This book presents a sample of sites representing Washington's geographic regions and touches on historical archaeology, including excavations at fur-trade forts and the Whitman mission.

A traveler's guide to Washington state, focusing on historical sites. Sections on various regions describe local history, with entries on towns and sites offering information on festivals, museums, and historic districts. Contains b&w photos, and a chronology. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Port

Archaeology - along with Native American traditions and memories - holds a key to understanding early chapters of the human story in Washington. This book presents a sample of sites representing Washington's geographic regions and touches on historical archaeology, including excavations at fur-trade forts and the Whitman mission.

Explores the history of a symbol of the Pacific Northwest and the national park that preserves it. Interspersed between information on the mountain's geological and glacial origins, its current ecological health, and the century-old stewardship of the park, are first-person stories by Native people

The forest of the northwest coast of North America accounts for two thirds of the worldΓÇÖs temperate-zone rain forest, which is a fraction of the size of the more publicized tropical rain forest but is currently being lost at a comparable rate. Coming at a time of public concern and controversy regarding the future of the forest, this book provides a fresh examination of the natural dynamics that have produced the remarkably lush growth characterizing roughly two thousand miles of coast from Coos Bay, Oregon, to the gulf of Alaska--a stretch of greater north-south ecological sameness than exists anywhere else on earth. The rain forest valleys of WashingtonΓÇÖs Olympic Peninsula stand out as the showpiece of this region. Because the forestΓÇÖs productivity and sheer biomass per square mile are among the worldΓÇÖs greatest, it is recognized as a National Park, a World Biosphere Reserve, and a World Heritage Site.Pointing out that ecology and economics share the same root (oikos, meaning ΓÇ£homeΓÇ¥), this book evokes the forestΓÇÖs beauty and intricacy while summarizing scientific understanding of components and interactions. We learn that moldering logs produce their own moisture as a by-product of decay, and are virtual reservoirs as well as storehouses of nutrients--qualities that contribute to their role as the rain forestΓÇÖs famed nurse logs, which act as seedbeds for oncoming generations of spruce and hemlock. We also learn that fallen trees affect stream flow and crucially influence the well-being of aquatic organisms (including fish) and that, washed downriver, they modify both beach character and life in the ocean near river mouths.The unique ecological web of this ancient forest--which has existed for at least five thousand years--includes the peculiar above-ground rooting of maple trees, which actually feed from the mossy ΓÇ£upholsteryΓÇ¥ covering their trunks and branches; the role of elk as ΓÇ£landscape gardnersΓÇ¥ preventing the understory from becoming a thicket; and a newly discovered life community within the gravel zone of river bottoms and out under the forest floor.ΓÇ£Many of the spruce and hemlock trees we walk among today were alive when men like Sir Francis Bacon and Johannes Kepler first recognized the value of objective data over mystical portents,ΓÇ¥ write authors Ruth Kirk and Jerry Franklin. ΓÇ£They have been pushing their roots through the soil and wafting seeds into the air throughout the entire existence of science.ΓÇ¥This book will be welcomed by resident Northwesterners and travelers as well as by all who are interested in nature. Its prose is both broadly readable and scientifically sound. More than 100 color photographs catch the variety and grandeur of this magnificent forest.