Singing grass, burning sage

Fülszöveg

DISCOVERING WASHINGTON'S SHRUB-STEPPE
Singing Grass, Burning Sage is a celebration in photos and text of eastern Washington's arid lands—a region that encompasses the heart of the Columbia River Basin, and supports a shrub-steppe environment dominated by sagebrush and bunchgrass. Formed by massive basalt flows that pulsed across the Basin, sculpted by ceaseless winds, and scoured by the cataclysmic Lake Missoula floods at the climax of our most recent Ice Age, this landscape offers some of the most spectacular geologic vistas in the world. The vast spaces of this wide domain are full of wonder and surprise, as that raw rock provides the setting for a dramatic interplay of human and natural history.
Of the lO.S million acres of continuous shrub-steppe habitat present in eastern Washington in the early 1800s, almost two-thirds has disappeared entirely, and much of the rest has been irrevocably changed. In the process, we have lost much of the continuous mosaic of diverse... Tovább

Fülszöveg

DISCOVERING WASHINGTON'S SHRUB-STEPPE
Singing Grass, Burning Sage is a celebration in photos and text of eastern Washington's arid lands—a region that encompasses the heart of the Columbia River Basin, and supports a shrub-steppe environment dominated by sagebrush and bunchgrass. Formed by massive basalt flows that pulsed across the Basin, sculpted by ceaseless winds, and scoured by the cataclysmic Lake Missoula floods at the climax of our most recent Ice Age, this landscape offers some of the most spectacular geologic vistas in the world. The vast spaces of this wide domain are full of wonder and surprise, as that raw rock provides the setting for a dramatic interplay of human and natural history.
Of the lO.S million acres of continuous shrub-steppe habitat present in eastern Washington in the early 1800s, almost two-thirds has disappeared entirely, and much of the rest has been irrevocably changed. In the process, we have lost much of the continuous mosaic of diverse habitats. Many species of plants and animals have been reduced to populations both tiny and fragmented. Those sections of the shrub-steppe that remain viable—pieces that still breathe with a sense of cohesive life— face an uncertain future. It is time to appreciate how valuable these remnants of the original sagebrush country really are.
This book aims to explore the many faces of the shrub-steppe that remain visible: to probe its hidden niches, and the specialized plants and creatures that inhabit them, to examine how native tribes lived, and to ponder the recollections of early white visitors. It is a chance to look at the way civihzation has played across the Columbia Basin, and the way decisions of the past and present will affect its future. It is an examination of a landscape, full of power and depth, whose resiliency is being put to the test.
.A-fter growing up in North Carolina, author Jack Nisbet moved west to attend college and settled in Stevens County, Washington, in 1971 .There he pursued a lifelong interest in natural history by exploring the region between the Cascades and the Rockies and portraying it in a local newspaper column. His 1994 book Sources of the River, which traced fur agent David Thompson's travels in western North America, was awarded a Washington Governor's Writers Award and the Murray Morgan History Prize. Purple Flat Top, a collection of his short stories set in the intermountain west, appeared in 1996. Nisbet currently lives in Spokane with his wife and two children.
Singing Grass, Burning Sage is published by The Nature Conservancy of Washington in cooperation with Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company, and aided by grants from Fluor Daniel Hanford, Inc., Lockheed Martin Hanford Corporation, Numatec Hanford Corporation, Waste Management Federal Services of Hanford, BW Hanford Company, Duke Engineering Services Hanford, Inc., and Battelle.
Formed in 19S 1 ,The Nature Conservancy is a private, non-profit organization committed to preserving natural communities that support the diversity of life on earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. Using a cooperative science-based approach, the Conservancy has protected more than 10 million acres of habitat in the United States and Canada, and, along with partner organizations, another SS million acres throughout the world. Within the state of Washington, the Conservancy owns and manages thirty-six preserves and has helped to protect nearly 140,000 acres of natural habitat.
Cover design: Elizabeth Watson
Cover photos: Keith Lazelle (Front: Saddle Mountain sagebrush. CameO: Horned lark. Front Flap: Lupine on Rattlesnake Mountains, Arid Lands Ecology Reserve.)
Graphic Arts Center Publishing
An imprint of Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company Vissza