Water

Here in Western Washington, perpetual cycles of moisture-laden weather systems move inland from offshore, gifting the Cascades Mountain Range with a bounty of snow and rain that sustains the flora, fauna, and people of the region throughout the year. These images trace water’s dynamic journey from the Evergreen State’s icy mountaintops as it descends through creeks, lakes, waterfalls, and rivers …

      I’m in serious bear country, camped on a small floating platform in the middle of a narrow saltwater channel where fishermen sometimes come to sort their nets. Of course, bears do swim, but I feel a bit safer not being on terra firma tonight. Prudence, my eighteen-foot-long purple sea kayak, sits beside my tent. Today, my forty-fifth day at …

In my year-long tenure as a Writing the Land poet, I penned several poems about Todd Creek, the Whatcom Land Trust (WLT) parcel I adopted. The Whatcom Conservation District is partnering with the WLT to restore 22.4 acres of riparian habitat along this beautiful creek in the South Fork Valley of the Nooksack River in Whatcom County. At the end …

  Bellingham  Before casting off, we met friends at the Cabin Tavern. It was dark and wet beyond the cold windowpane but warm and convivial around the table. Ordering at the bar, I told the bartender she wouldn’t see me for some time as I’d be sailing the Salish Sea. “Oh, that sounds great!” she said, likely picturing the summer …

The air buzzes with excitement as each smiling guest, aged five to 99, boards the vessel, united by a shared mission to encounter one of the Pacific Northwest’s most captivating maritime treasures: a football-sized seabird that spends most of its life in the vast Pacific Ocean: the Tufted Puffin. As we head south from the marina, a curious nine-year-old girl …

We hear the words “paddles ready…paddles set…and hit” from our steersperson, and the outrigger canoe starts its glide through the water, gaining speed with our paddle strokes. We round the breakwater and out into the open water of Fairhaven Harbor. All of us relish this feeling of getting on the water and moving together. It feels like freedom. On quiet …

The Skagit River sustains humans in many ways, from providing drinking water to irrigating crops and nurturing fisheries. Of course, the basin is also home to a profound richness of wildlife, including bears, salmon, bald eagles, otters, trout, voles, elk, swans, and the Pacific giant salamander. The river is a popular destination for recreation—camping, kayaking, rafting, fly-fishing, skinny-dipping—as well as …

These four poems originate from 20 years of canoe tripping on the Skagit River from Ross Lake to the Salish Sea. The Skagit is a river, a watershed, a cultural identity, a place of spirits, and a home. As a guest on native land, I acknowledge the people whose longhouses and seasonal camps bordered the river from the mountains to …

A humpback whale surfaced a hundred feet away, so close that whirlpools and waves rocked my paddleboard. For several days, I had hoped for a close encounter with a whale. While kneeling on my board and clutching its sides to keep from capsizing, I felt something I hadn’t expected: fear. The humpback surfaced and blew three times, lifted its flukes …

The Life Calendar on my wall is a tall stack of 1080 rows divided into groups of 12. Vertical columns divide the rows (months) into 31 boxes each, creating a giant grid representing every day/month/year of a life spanning 90 years. I highlighted in green all the boxes corresponding to my past. Days I’ve lived. A thin band of rows …