This is a very concise and helpful book for the beginning gardener.

This book is an interesting collection of papers on what the book title calls "environmental history", but what might be better characterized as human-environment interactions, human-ecology, or human-landuse, since that is what most of the essays focus upon. This is a good book for anyone interested in the history of landuse and environmental change in the Northwest.

The readings are aimed at a scholarly audience, so the tempo, tone, and diction are more like "academic" writing and less like "popular" writing. In other words: this book is not always a fast and easy read (this is why I didn't give it 5 stars). Another small criticism: due to the format of the endnotes, I sometimes found it difficult to track down the original references mentioned in the text.

All in all -- important information and a useful book, definitely of regional interest.

A book I found hard to put down once started. Interesting historical information as well as a good true story. In this day and age of high tech, three ordinary men make an extra-ordinary trip through one of the most hostile marine environments anywhere. They did it in a boat one of them built in his back yard and proved you don't have to be a millionaire to have high adventure.

They did it without any icebreaker support.

The story gives the reader some very good historical information that even non-boaters will find useful and not generally available.

The techniques used by these three who lived together in such a tiny space for five months without so much as even an argument are amazing.

Overall a jolly good read.

This is a real treasure of information. We managed to use it all. The recommended accomodation section we used in Seattle, a vineyard tour in Beaverton, Oregon, to booking a Tee time in Redmond. The Recommended Dining section although limited we used twice. Our compliments.

After visiting many of the wineries described within the book I found the content to be very much in line with my observations. Not an exact match (we agreed on about 3/4ths of them), though differences could be explained by palate.

Even though it is difficult to remain current, I think the authors did a very good job. The only item I found lacking is a general guide to vintages, ala the tearout from some wine magazines. For example, which wines are generally best for a particular year and when it is expected to reach its peak. One specifically for the regions in the book would be helpful.

All in all, though -- good job!

Until the Burlington Northern merger in 1971, the Northwest's Own Railway served the route Spokane-Tri Cities-Portland. This story of the Spokane, Portland and Seattle is filled with trivia only a true rail buff could love. It also has some excellent -- and rare -- photos of construction and operations. The unique relationship among the 'Hill Roads' (parents Northern Pacific and Great Northern and offspring SP&S) is explored in detail and with unusual frankness and clarity.
The tracks are gone now between Spokane and Tri-Cities, but the SP&S route on the north bank of the Columbia is still the mainline for BNSF and AMTRAK between Portland-Vancouver and Tri-Cities.
Recently learning that Volume II to this work is available, I can't wait to read it. This volume will cover the subsidiaries and affiliates of SP&S, including Oregon Electric, Oregon Trunk, United Railways of Oregon and others.

Living in Brazil, I can't remember exactly how I happened to find this book. The important aspect is that I found it, I read it and even some years later I still carry some passages in my mind, so I have to regard this book as a good one.

It is a kind of autobiographical narrative of the youth of Mr. William O. Douglas, who later in life became a Supreme Court Judge in America.

An interesting aspect, is that later I learned that as a Judge, Mr. Douglas would very often give shelter to the 5th. Amendment in his sentences, and by reading the book, we can sort of understand how his personality and his passion for freedom was formed many years before.

It is a first person narrative of his early years as a child and later as young man, and we can clearly understand his respect for wildlife and independence in a human's being life.

Recalling his early expeditions as a boy in nearby mountains, Mr. Douglas describes us the forests, rivers and rainbow-trouts of his youth. At a certain time I started to think there was too much information about trout-fishing, but we should always forgive and understand a man when he decides to tell us about his childhood. :)

This book is not about the Supreme Court Judge, but on the contrary, it is about the poor boy who grew under the mountains and borrowed some of their magnificent dignity from them.

I hope to read some of Mr. Douglas' Law writings one day, so I can finally understand the whole man and close this chapter. But this will still take some years, and until then, all I can say is that I have nice memories from this book. By the way, a pretty hard to find book.

Too much has been made of Lewis & Clark. The real exploration of America's West Coast and the real contribution to American culture was that of a select group of Boston traders who departed poor their New England homes, turned round the Cape, and up to the Pacific Northwest, there trading iron and wool for otter skins, the most dense and precious of all mammal pelts and one of two items alone that the Chinese would deign to purchase from Americans.

Gibson tells the stories of these men, the men who established profitable trade for America, who brought hard currency into a broken economy, who set the stage for the American heritage of exploration cum capitalism that we see today in Silicon Valley.

I don't believe it is a coincidence that the shares held by the investors (half), captain (tenth), supercargo (seven percent), and crew (33 percent, total) mirrors that of technology companies today.

It is a great book. Anyone involved in the industry should read this book.

I am a high school social studies teacher, and I use this book in my Washington State History class. It is a great resource for the students, and they also like the stories in the book. If you are interested in the shady side of the PNW, then this book is good for you.