Leafing through North America's Wild (Pacific) Edge

I just received my own copy of The Wild Edge: Freedom to Roam the Pacific Coast, a gorgeous coffee-table book (that really is much more than a coffee-table book). The publisher Braided River calls it a photographic campaign for conservation, which is apt.

I was asked to contribute profiles of a dozen heroes of conservation for the book--a great experience. (I did most of the interviews by phone--for example, with a whale scientist in his office in Cabo San Lucas and, by satellite phone, with a Canadian activist in his boat off the coast of British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest). The lead essays by Bruce Barcott, Philippe Cousteau, Eric Scigliano and others are excellent, compellingly spelling out the need for coast-wide conservation and lyrically describing all the ways the ocean, shoreline, and continent's edge from Baja to the Arctic are inextricably interconnected.

I mean, how could it not be?

This book is not only a great consciousness-raiser but pleasure to read and peruse.

People interested in the Oregon Coast Trail, people who love the Oregon Coast, ought to check out The Wild Edge. The publishers have developed a beautiful website to support it, at thewildedge.org.

And if you're in the area, North Coast Land Conservancy is throwing a book-release party and celebration of coastal conservation at the Red Building in Astoria this Friday, Oct. 23.