It’s about the restoration of wetlands, including the process of re-meandering a salmon spawn creek. Isn’t that a lovely concept? Beavers moving in complicated the process of re-forestation, but they were accommodated and of course made the ecology that much richer. ( )

Author Freeman not only provides the steps they took in the restoration of the Tarboo Creek habitat, he delves into the environmental, community and political cause and effect. The lovely black and white drawings throughout the book support the text. Extensive references cover difference aspects of the restoration. He provides an index. One shortcoming is the lack of footnotes for statistics used.

I received this book through a publisher giveaway. Although encouraged, I was under no obligation to write a review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. ( )

“Planting a tree is a way to apply hope. In restoration is the preservation of the world.”

“An ecosystem is a tapestry; climate change pulls at the threads.”

“In just the past thousand years, our increased population and ability to alter habitats around the globe has hit the earth like an asteroid.”

Tarboo Creek, in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, was once a thriving salmon run but over time, due to erosion, development and neglect, it became a damaged trickle. The Freeman family, authors of this book, decided to purchase a large plot of land that the Tarboo traversed and then to restore this creek to it's former glory, making it habitable for the spawning salmon. It was a huge under-taking but one filled with many rewards, for all involved.
The author packs a lot into these 200 pages and your level of interest in nature, biology and ecology, will determine what you will take out of this. It gets very detailed, (my eyes came close to glossing over a time or two) but I learned a whole lot about trees and tree restoration, the hardy lives of salmon and the impact of deforestation and climate change on our planet. I feel it is a timely and important read. ( )

A preachy book about families quest to restore a section of a creek to provide a salmon habitat. Their actions and deeds are honorable and I totally support the intent of what he and his family are doing and trying to inspire others to do. However, I sense an air of superiority over us (people without the will or means to do this) What really turned me off was the final chapter when he makes sweeping historical generalizations about the "Greatest Generation" and the "Baby Boomers" (I teach history at a junior college) and numerous other topics. He should stick to Ecology. The illustrations are generally worthless. ( )

Saving Tarboo Creek: One Family’s Quest to Heal the Land begins when the Freemans bought eighteen acres along Tarboo Creek with the intention of restoring it so that it once again will be home to salmon and a diverse and healthy forest. This book is a combination of memoir and exploration of restoring the land. Scott Freeman is a biology lecturer at the University of Washington, so he brings a scientist’s mind to this endeavor and that sensibility fills the book with the spirit of inquiry that made is engaging from beginning to end.

With that kind of inquiry, the process of choosing which trees to plant is not just finding out what used to grow there and replicating the past. The climate is changing, so it is important to choose trees that can thrive now and in the coming warmer and drier climate of the future. The biologist’s mind notes the growth of the forest, the success or failure of some species and notices the unseen, things like the soil and the fungi and how they work to help feed the trees.

The book is illustrated by Freeman’s wife who is also the granddaughter of Aldo Leopold, the author of A Sand County Almanac whom many consider the father of wildlife ecology. He developed the concept of the land ethic. The Freemans try to live that life in an ethical relationship between people and the land. It’s a family tradition.

I confess, the reason I entered the drawing for this book, is that I thought it would be a great book for a friend of mine who volunteers to plant trees. I thought it would be okay, but I had no idea how much I would enjoy it myself. Freeman’s writing style is excellent. He explains the science with clarity and an ear for the beauty of language.

Freeman notes the challenges of the future, population growth, mass extinction, climate change, but without hyperbole and with recognition that we can change if we choose. He notes the hypocrisy of asking developing countries to do as we say, not as we did and suggests that we stop seeing our problems in such binary terms. That perhaps we can do well economically and conserve the environment.

This book is beautifully written and I recommend it enthusiastically.

Saving Tarboo Creek will be published on January 3rd. I received an advance reading copy from the publisher through a Shelf Awareness drawing.

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2017/12/16/9781604697940/ ( )