The Natural History Society Book Club will meet on Monday, April 23, 3:30-5:00 at the “Pink House” next to the Port Townsend Library.  We will discuss The Last Wild Edge by Susan Zwinger.

Naturalist and author Susan Zwinger travels the northwestern edge of North America, from the Arctic Circle to the Olympic rain forest.  She travels by pickup, by day hiking, by watercraft (sailboat, Zodiac, kayak), and backpacking.  Her near poetic writing describes aspects of unique wild landscapes, including tundra, glaciers, bogs, fjords.    She invites her readers “to slow down, to kneel down, to gaze long,” to examine the ecology of small organisms (lichens, liverworts, fungal mycelia) as well as  the big animals (bears, wolves, eagles) and plants (cedars, hemlocks). She observes the effects of clearcutting on ancient forests and other intrusions by human civilization into this remote edge.