Recommended Reading

Books about the Washington coastal zone

Some of the books on this recommended reading list are still in print. Many are not, but you should be able to find them at your public library or in a used book store.

Cultural History

The Northwest Coast. Or, Three Years’ Residence in Washington Territory. James G. Swan. Harper & Bros., 1857. Reprinted, University of Washington Press, Seattle. 1969.

“In 1849 James Swan turned his back on his wife and two children, a prosperous ship-fitting business, and the polite and predictable world of commerce in Boston and fled to the newly opened gold fields in California. Soon sick of the bonanza society, he emigrated to a shallow harbor called Shoalwater Bay (now Willapa Bay).” Swan’s book recounts his life and travels in southwest Washington, and paints some fine word-pictures of mid-19th century Willapa Bay.

Geology and Geologic Processes

Living With the Shore of Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia. Thomas A. Terich. Duke University Press, Durham. 1987.

The Pacific Northwest Coast: Living With the Shores of Oregon and Washington. Paul D. Komar. Duke University Press, Durham. 1997.

Hood Canal

Hood Canal water quality and fisheries resources have been deteriorating since at least the 1960s. Periodically someone reports on the problem. The following reports and books provide a fairly comprehensive summary of the evolution of the problems.

Hood Canal: Priorities for Tomorrow. Marvin S. Yoshinaka and Nancy J. Ellifrit. US Fish and Wildlife Service, Portland. 1974.

US Geological Survey. 1973 - 1977. A series of map-based reports published in the USGS’s Miscellaneous Investigations Map series:

I-853A: Map showing spawning areas of anadromous fish in southern Hood Canal, Washington.

I-853B: Relative susceptibility of lakes to water-quality degradation in the southern Hood Canal area, Washington.

I-853C: Streamflow in the southern Hood Canal area, Washington, as related to land-use planning.

I-853D: Geologic conditions related to waste disposal planning in the southern Hood Canal area, Washington.

I-853E: Salt-water fishery resources and shoreline development in the southern Hood Canal area, Washington.

I-853F: Relative slope stability of the southern Hood Canal area, Washington.

I-853G: Public recreation resources and facilities in the southern Hood Canal area, Washington.

Hood Canal: Splendor at Risk. The Sun Newspaper, Bremerton. 1991.
Following up on a year of thorough, excellently written, in-depth reporting, The Sun compiled those articles into a book covering water resources, wetlands, logging, fishing, oysters, the Bangor naval base, recreation, land development, population growth, and a vision for the future.

Shellfish and Finfish: Resources at Risk in the Hood Canal Watershed. Hood Canal Technical Work Group for the Hood Canal Coordinating Council. 1995.

Natural History

Seashore Life of the Northern Pacific Coast: An Illustrated Guide to Northern California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Eugene N. Kozloff. University of Washington Press, Seattle. 1993.

“Seashore Life” first saw life in 1973 as Seashore Life of Puget Sound, the Strait of Georgia, and the San Juan Archipelago, and the current edition retains its Puget Sound roots.

A Guide to Marine Mammals of Greater Puget Sound. Richard Osborne, John Calambokidis, and Eleanor M. Dorsey. Island Publishers, Anacortes. 1988.

Puget Sound Books Series

During the early 1980s, Washington Sea Grant Program published a fine series on Puget Sound. The books are now out of print, but are worth seeking out in your library or a used book store.

The Water Link: A History of Puget Sound as a Resource. Daniel Jack Chasen. University of Washington Press, Seattle. 1981.

The Fertile Fjord: Plankton in Puget Sound. Richard M. Strickland. University of Washington Press, Seattle. 1983.

The Coast of Puget Sound: Its Processes and Development. John Downing. University of Washington Press, Seattle. 1983.
Excellent background reading for an understanding of how and why Puget Sound shorelines erode.

The Shape and Form of Puget Sound. Robert Burns. University of Washington Press, Seattle. 1985.

Salmon

These three books incidentally provide something of a cultural history of our Pacific Northwest salmon controversies. The original book prices approximate a history of our economic inflation.

Uncommon Controversy: Fishing Rights of the Muckleshoot, Puyallup, and Nisqually Indians. A report prepared for the American Friends Service Committee. University of Washington Press, Seattle. 1970. 232 pages. Original price: $2.50.
An unabashed advocacy book, Uncommon Controversy provides a window into the 1960s prehistory of modern management of our wild salmon resources.

Mountain in the Clouds: A Search for the Wild Salmon. Bruce Brown. Simon & Schuster, New York. 1982. 249 pages. Original price: $6.95.
Using the Olympia Peninsula of the 1970s as his backdrop, Brown mixes salmon natural history with cultural history in the style of an investigative reporter.

A Common Fate: Endangered Salmon and the People of the Pacific Northwest. Joseph Cone. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis. 1995. 344 pages. Original price: $16.95.
Cone, communications director of Oregon Sea Grant Program, traces the late 1980s and early 1990s efforts to restore and recover wild salmon through the actions of individuals, including environmentalists, scientists, politicians, and industry executives.