Salmon, Cedar, Rock & Rain - by Tim McNulty (Hardcover)

About the Book

A lyrical natural history of the Olympic Peninsula's intricate watersheds, forests, and coasts, as well as its cultural significance

Book Synopsis

"A visually mesmerizing and environmentally conscious profile of the Olympic Peninsula." -- Kirkus Reviews

Nautilus Book Silver Award Winner • Society of Environmental Journalists' Rachel Carson Environment Book Award • Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards Silver Medal • Pacific Northwest Book Awards finalist

• Contributors include Wendy Sampson, Loni Greninger, Gary Morishima, Maria Pascua, Jamie Valadez, Lynda V. Mapes, and others
• Includes 150 stunning full-color photographs of the region

In the Pacific Northwest, many of us delight in Olympic National Park, a unique and magical UNESCO natural World Heritage Site, located right in our own backyard. Yet the famed park is just the center of a much larger ecosystem, a wild circle of rivers that encompasses ancient old-growth forests, pristine coastal expanses, and jagged alpine peaks, all possessed of a rich biodiversity. For tens of thousands of years, humans have thrived and strived alongside this natural world.

In Salmon, Cedar, Rock & Rain, Tim McNulty explores the Olympic Peninsula's complex--and ongoing--story of development, conservation, restoration, and cultural heritage, while writers from the Lower Elwha Klallam, Jamestown S'Klallam, Port Gamble S'Klallam, Makah Tribe, and Quinault Indian Nation share some of their own history, stories, and perspectives.

Perhaps no other region in the Northwest offers a history of such depth, nor a future ripe with so much potential. Salmon, Cedar, Rock & Rain is a rich and vivid exploration of both Olympic National Park and its surrounding peninsula.

Review Quotes

This exquisitely produced, visually stunning account of Washington's Olympic Peninsula by nature writer Tim McNulty and co-authors borrows its format from decorative coffee-table books, but offers so much more. It's a deep exploration of a complex environment where humans have thrived for generations. . .Those who are familiar with the Pacific Northwest will see the region anew. Those who have not spent time in the region will find themselves yearning to explore it.-- "Society of Environmental Journalists"

Salmon, Cedar, Rock & Rain is pictures, prose, facts and love.--Diane Urbani De La Paz "Peninsula Daily News"

Salmon, Cedar, Rock & Rain: Washington's Olympic Peninsula by Tim McNulty, showcases the natural beauty and wonder of this diverse corner of our state as well as conservation efforts to maintain it.... This is a gorgeous book that anyone can benefit from and learn.--Rachel Fowler "Yakima Herald-Republic"

The storms of autumn are a signal for the return of salmon to spawn in rivers of the Olympic Peninsula, and they mark a season to examine and celebrate this furthest Northwest corner of the lower 48 states. The job is gloriously done in Salmon, Cedar, Rock & Rain: Washington's Olympic Peninsula.... With stunning photography, the book lays out life experiences of the Olympics, two-legged and four-legged creatures as well as creatures of the sea.--Joel Connelly "Post Alley"

This book seems to rise organically out of the natural roots of the Olympic Peninsula, and from the heart and soul of its people. Salmon, Cedar, Rock and Rain will become the definitive book on this unique place ‒ a world heritage site and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. I don't see how anything could surpass it.--Alan Turner "Port Book and News"

An invitation to explore a land of natural wonders, but it is also a cautionary tale about a precarious and precious ecosystem whose future integrity hangs in the balance.--Laurence Marschall "Natural History"

Highly recommended.-- "Midwest Book Review"

The chorus of Indigenous voices from different tribes that have inhabited and stewarded the lands of the Olympic Peninsula since time immemorial -- generously sharing their people's histories, stories and time-wizened perspectives -- add immeasurable value to the book's initiative. So too do the abundance of vivid, captivating photographs by John Gussman, Pat O'Hara, Gemina Garland-Lewis, Larry Workman, Art Wolfe and others. All these voices blend together to create a celebratory portrait of a diverse landscape we are lucky to have in our backyard.--Christian Martin "Cascadia Daily News"

A visually mesmerizing and environmentally conscious profile of the Olympic Peninsula.-- "Kirkus Reviews"

The hardcover book need not be read immediately from cover to cover, but savored in sections as time allows. The photography alone encourages time spent with it.... McNulty's narrative, and the supporting essays, open windows and perspectives into the peninsula's ecosystems.--Kurt Repanshek "National Parks Traveler"