At Sea with the Marine Birds of the Raincoastby Caroline Fox Victoria: Rocky Mountain books, 2016$25.00 / 9781771601627 Reviewed by Sean MacPherson First published April 28, 2017 * In At Sea with the Marine Birds of the Raincoast, conservation biologist Caroline Fox crosses thousands of kilometres of open ocean to chart the distribution and long-distance…
Read more #126 Marine birds
A River Captured: The Columbia River Treaty and Catastrophic Changeby Eileen Delehanty Pearkes Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2016$20 / 9781771601788 Reviewed by John Gellard First published April 20, 2017 * Previously, in her Harnessing The Power: Voices from Two Rivers of the Peace and Columbia (Douglas & McIntyre, 2012), Meg Stanley assessed the land and…
Read more #122 River-as-machine vs ecosytem
Ecology of Salmonids in Estuaries Around the World: Adaptations, Habitats, and Conservation by Colin D. Levings Vancouver: UBC Press, 2016 $75.00 / 9780774831734 Reviewed by Bert Ionson First Published April 4, 2017 * Colin Levings’ encyclopedic treatment of how sea going salmon, trout and char make their transition from fresh to salt water (and the…
Read more #113 Why we need estuaries
If we are not collectively mindful, Joni Mitchell will have no more rivers to skate away on. It’ll mostly be Canoes Only on the Rideau Canal. Ice hockey could be declared an Endangered Sport. The only ski resorts will be atop of the Alps; Whistler will be for golf. With a catastrophically narcissistic president in…
Read more #102 Hockey is an endangered sport
British Columbia’s Cariboo Chilcotin Coast: A Photographer’s Journey by Chris Harris 108 Mile Ranch: Chris Harris and Country Light Publishing, 2016 $39.95 / 9780986581847 Reviewed by Trevor Marc Hughes First published Feb. 24, 2017 * First photographer Ian McAllister helped identify and preserve The Great Bear Rainforest. Now photographer Chris Harris sees the Chilcotin Ark…
Read more #94 Empire of the Cariboo Chilcotin
Sun Dogs and Yellowcake: Gunnar Mines — A Canadian Story by Patricia Sandberg Surrey: Crackingstone Press, 2016 $24.99 / 9780995202306 Reviewed by Ormsby Review staff First published Feb. 18, 2017 * Sun Dogs and Yellowcake chronicles the short existence of Gunnar Mines, Saskatchewan, between 1952 and the closing of the mine in 1963. Patricia Sandberg…
Read more #90 Yellowcake & mass destruction
Inge Bolin Thirst in the Andes: Climate Change and Solutions for Survival First published Feb. 14, 2017 * Inge Bolin’s first novel, When Condors Call (Nanaimo: Chaska Publications, 2010) follows a young physician from the Peruvian Andes in search of a cure for Leishmaniasis, a disfiguring disease. Her 2016 stay in Peru enabled her to…
Read more #87 Peruvian sojourn
The Peace in Peril: The Real Cost of the Site C Damby Christopher Pollon (text) and Ben Nelms (photos) Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2016$24.95 / 9781550177800 Reviewed by John Gellard First published Feb. 11, 2017 * The 100 kilometres of the Peace River Valley between Hudson’s Hope and Fort St John has rich alluvial soil. Blessed…
Read more #85 Flooding a Garden of Eden
J. Fenwick Lansdowne by Tristram Lansdowne (editor) Portland, OR: Pomegranate Communications, 2014 US $65.00 / 9780764966705 Reviewed by Briony Penn First published Feb. 7, 2017 * A fixture of Victoria’s artistic, cultural, and natural communities for five decades, James Fenwick Lansdowne (1937-2008) is now the subject of a book edited by his son Tristram, featuring…
Read more #81 Portraits of Fenwick Lansdowne
Crossing Home Ground: A Grassland Odyssey through Southern Interior British Columbia by David Pitt-Brooke Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2016 $32.95 / 9781550177749 Reviewed by Harold Rhenisch First published Jan. 25, 2017 * David Pitt-Brooke — naturalist, veterinarian, and writer — walked a thousand kilometres through the grasslands of the southern interior of British Columbia, from…
Read more #79 Emptying the grasslands
Ootsa Lake Odyssey: George and Else Seel — A Pioneer Life on the Headwaters of the Nechako Watershed by Jay Sherwood Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2016 $24.95 / 9781987915211 Reviewed by Sage Birchwater First published Jan. 18, 2017 * Ootsa Lake Odyssey follows the lives of George and Else Seel, who worked in the Nechako…
Read more #75 Nechako before the flood
Crocodiles and Iceby Jon Turk Fernie: Oolichan Books, 2016$23.95 / 9780889823235 Reviewed by Jeremy Twigg First published Jan. 12, 2017 * If you’ve ever wondered how to survive a crocodile attack, Jon Turk’s Crocodiles and Ice (Oolichan $23.95) is for you. As described in the recounting of his solo kayak trip in the Solomon Islands, the…
Read more #71 Around the world with Jon Turk
The Sustainability Dilemma: Essays on British Columbia Forest and Environmental History by Robert Griffin and Richard A. Rajala Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum Press, 2016 $34.95 / 9780772669742 Reviewed by Graeme Wynn First published Dec. 28, 2016 * In The Sustainability Dilemma, Robert Griffin and Richard Rajala explore contested issues, policies, and campaigns concerning the…
Read more #69 BC forestry politics and policy
ESSAY: From Jalna to timber baron: reflections on the life of H.R. MacMillan by Ron Dart First published Dec. 16, 2016 * For good or ill, Harvey Reginald (H.R.) MacMillan (1885-1976) is a name synonymous with the forestry business in British Columbia. Those with a flagging or limited memory will have some minimal sense of…
Read more #64 From Jalna to timber baron
The Bold and Cold: A History of 25 Classic Climbs in the Canadian Rockies by Brandon Pullan Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2016 $45.00 / 9781771601153 Reviewed by Rod Szasz First published Dec. 4, 2016 * In The Bold and Cold, Brandon Pullan tells the story of the classic climbs in the Canadian Rockies in the…
Read more #58 Off the danger scale
Casting Back: Sixty Years of Fishing and Writing by Peter McMullan Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2016 $25.00 / 9781771601740 Reviewed by Ian J.M. Kennedy First published Nov. 29, 2016 * In Casting Back: Sixty Years of Fishing and Writing, Peter McMullan, the former editor of the Nanaimo Free Press, conveys his passion for fly-fishing in his…
Read more #52 A fishing journalist looks on
Paid Price: The Fight for First Nations Survival By Bev Sellars Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2016 $19.95 9780889229723 Reviewed by Eldon Yellowhorn First published November 7, 2016 * Editor’s note: as happens occasionally at The Ormsby Review, a happy mixup occurs and we end up with two reviews of the same book. For our second review of…
Read more #38 Fact, myth, and powerpoint
Tod Inlet: A Healing Place by Gwen Curry Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2015 $25.00 / 9781771600767 Reviewed by Peter Grant First published November 4, 2016 * Shortlisted for the 2016 Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize, Gwen Curry’s first book, Tod Inlet: A Healing Place, joins a burgeoning, British Columbian literature of place—once more an environmental vision…
Read more #36 Eelgrass, cement, serenity
Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Our Children from an Oversanitized World by B. Brett Finlay and Marie-Claire Arrieta (Greystone) $19.95 Reviewed by Mark Forsythe First published October 17, 2016 Our kids need dirt and face licks from the family dog. We live in an obsessively clean world with antibiotic soaps, cleansers, antibiotic drugs and body…
Read more #27 Let them eat dirt
The Killer Whale Who Changed the World by Mark Leiren-Young Vancouver: Greystone Books with the David Suzuki Institute, 2016 $29.95 / 9781771641937 Reviewed by Daniel Francis First published Oct. 17, 2016 * My most memorable encounter with a killer whale occurred in 1987. Newly returned home after sixteen years living in eastern Canada, I thought…
Read more #26 A whale named Moby Doll