Washington University Press Search Results Page

Menacing Environments

Ecohorror in Contemporary Nordic Cinema

By Benjamin Bigelow

Known for their progressive environmental policies and nature-loving citizens, Nordic countries also produce what may seem a counterintuitive film genre: ecohorror, where distinctions between humans and nature are blurred in unsettling ways. From slashers to...

Edible and Medicinal Flora of the West Coast

The Pacific Northwest and British Columbia

By Collin Varner

The coastal Pacific Northwest of North America is home to a multitude of edible and medicinal plant species, edible mushrooms, and marine plants—from Black Gooseberry to Western Tea-Berry, from Golden Chanterelle to Yellow Morel Mushroom,...

Bellwether Histories

Animals, Humans, and US Environments in Crisis

By Susan Nance, Jennifer Marks

A multispecies history of the globalized United States, Bellwether Histories reveals how animals have been ensnared in colonialism, capitalism, and environmental destruction as human decisions created and perpetuated untenable and unequal interspecies relationships. The collection's...

Heaven on the Half Shell

The Story of the Oyster in the Pacific Northwest

By David George Gordon, Samantha Larson, and MaryAnn Barron Wagner. Foreword by Kenneth K. Chew

Heaven on the Half Shell offers a thoroughly researched and richly illustrated history of the Pacific Northwest’s beloved bivalve, the oyster. Starting with the earliest evidence of sea gardens and clam beds from 11,500 years...

Inside the World of Climate Change Skeptics

By Kristin Haltinner. Dilshani Sarathchandra

As wildfires rip across the western United States and sea levels rise along coastal cities from Louisiana to Alaska, some people nevertheless reject the mainstream scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change. What leads people to...

Cherokee Earth Dwellers

Stories and Teachings of the Natural World

By Christopher B. Teuton and Hastings Shade. With Loretta Shade and Larry Shade. Illustrated by MaryBeth Timothy

Ayetli gadogv—to "stand in the middle"—is at the heart of a Cherokee perspective of the natural world. From this stance, Cherokee Earth Dwellers offers a rich understanding of nature grounded in Cherokee creature names, oral...

Between the Tides in Washington and Oregon

Exploring Beaches and Tidepools

By Ryan P. Kelly, Terrie Klinger, and John J. Meyer

A spectacular variety of life flourishes between the ebb and flow of high and low tide. Anemones talk to each other through chemical signaling, clingfish grip rocks and resist the surging tide, and bioluminescent dinoflagellates—single-celled...

Homewaters

A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound

By David B. Williams

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...

Invasive Flora of the West Coast

British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest

By Collin Varner

A compact, full-colour field guide to the growing number of invasive plant species spreading across coastal BC and the Pacific Northwest, highlighting their hazards and uses.

The spread of invasive plant species is a growing concern...

The Grizzly in the Driveway

The Return of Bears to a Crowded American West

By Rob Chaney

Four decades ago, the areas around Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks sheltered the last few hundred surviving grizzlies in the Lower 48 states. Protected by the Endangered Species Act, their population has surged to more...

After the Blast

The Ecological Recovery of Mount St. Helens

By Eric Wagner

A CHOICE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE

On May 18, 1980, people all over the world watched with awe and horror as Mount St. Helens erupted. Fifty-seven people were killed and hundreds of square miles of what had...

The Great Quake Debate

The Crusader, the Skeptic, and the Rise of Modern Seismology

By Susan Hough

In the first half of the twentieth century, when seismology was still in in its infancy, renowned geologist Bailey Willis faced off with fellow high-profile scientist Robert T. Hill in a debate with life-or-death consequences...

The Weather of the Pacific Northwest

By Cliff Mass

Powerful Pacific storms strike the region. Otherworldly lenticular clouds often cap Mount Rainier. Rain shadows create sunny skies while torrential rain falls a few miles away. The Pineapple Express brings tropical moisture and warmth during...

Hatched

Dispatches from the Backyard Chicken Movement

By Gina G. Warren

“Chickens are a lot more mainstream than veganism and a little bit like kombucha: super weird twenty years ago, now somewhat popular and made even more so by logos, brands, and hashtags.” So begins Gina...

Great Bear Wild

Dispatches from a Northern Rainforest

By Ian McAllister. Foreword by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

The fabled Great Bear Rainforest stretches up the rugged Pacific coast from northern Vancouver Island to southern Alaska. A longtime resident of the area, award-winning photographer and conservationist Ian McAllister takes us on a deeply...

Birds of the Pacific Northwest

A Photographic Guide

By Tom Aversa, Richard Cannings, and Hal Opperman

In this updated edition of their best-selling field guide, renowned bird experts Tom Aversa, Richard Cannings, and Hal Opperman illuminate the key identification traits, vocalizations, seasonal statuses, habitat preferences, and feeding behaviors of bird species...

Walking the High Desert

Encounters with Rural America along the Oregon Desert Trail

By Ellen Waterston

Former high desert rancher Ellen Waterston writes of a wild, essentially roadless, starkly beautiful part of the American West. Following the recently created 750-mile Oregon Desert Trail, she embarks on a creative and inquisitive exploration,...

The Snow Leopard and the Goat

Politics of Conservation in the Western Himalayas

By Shafqat Hussain. Foreword by K. Sivaramakrishnan

Following the downgrading of the snow leopard’s status from “endangered” to “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2017, debate has renewed about the actual number of snow leopards in the wild...

Pacific

An Ocean of Wonders

By Philip J. Hatfield

If you center a globe on Kiritimati (Christmas Island), all you see around it is a vast expanse of ocean. Islands of various sizes float in view while glimpses of continents encroach on the fringes,...

Witness Tree

Seasons of Change with a Century-Old Oak

By Lynda V. Mapes

Seasonal changes in nature are among the most readily observable clues to the biological effects of climate change. “It came to me,” writes acclaimed environment reporter Lynda Mapes, “You could tell the story of climate...