This spring, author, naturalist and educator David B. Williams published his latest book, Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of the Puget Sound.”
Our Science Director played a role in the scientific review of the book, which he called “a beautiful narrative that is not only entertaining but informative and will transform our understanding of the region.”
The book is an appealing way for newcomers and old timers alike to connect or reconnect with the place that they live. Williams speaks to many well-respected and knowledgeable individuals, digging into the archives and presenting first-hand accounts from the Puget Sound, the southernmost portion of the Salish Sea.
If you’re looking for some great summer reading that will further your sense of place in the Pacific Northwest and inspire you to care deeply for your home, check out Homewaters!
More about Homewaters:
Not far from Seattle skyscrapers live 150-year-old clams, more than 250 species of fish, and underwater kelp forests as complex as any terrestrial ecosystem. For millennia, vibrant Coast Salish communities have lived beside these waters dense with nutrient-rich foods, with cultures intertwined through exchanges across the waterways. Transformed by settlement and resource extraction, Puget Sound and its future health now depend on a better understanding of the region’s ecological complexities.
Focusing on the area south of Port Townsend and between the Cascade and Olympic mountains, Williams uncovers human and natural histories in, on, and around the Sound. In conversations with archaeologists, biologists, and tribal authorities, Williams traces how generations of humans have interacted with such species as geoducks, salmon, orcas, rockfish, and herring. He sheds light on how warfare shaped development and how people have moved across this maritime highway, in canoes, the mosquito fleet, and today’s ferry system. The book also takes an unflinching look at how the Sound’s ecosystems have suffered from human behavior, including pollution, habitat destruction, and the effects of climate change.
Witty, graceful, and deeply informed, Homewaters weaves history and science into a fascinating and hopeful narrative, one that will introduce newcomers to the astonishing life that inhabits the Sound and offers longtime residents new insight into and appreciation of the waters they call home.
You can find the book at your local independent bookstore or online at UW Press.