Totem Salmon CL

Although this is his first book, House displays a talent for lyrical writing combined with an ability to present information clearly. In the early 1980s, House became involved with several residents who were concerned with preserving the King Salmon, a fish native to the Mattole River, which runs through the westernmost watershed in California. He explains how the salmon have just one chance at reproduction. The female salmon swims upstream and builds her nest for depositing eggs, which are then fertilized after the male releases his sperm. This natural process has been thwarted over decades by an unregulated logging industry, whose companies built roads that contributed to the landslides that destroyed the equilibrium of the watershed, pouring rock, soil and debris into the river. House, a former commercial fisherman, and other activists began by building weirs that trapped the salmon. After House realized that their dedicated group could not, singlehandedly, save the salmon or the river, he built a coalition of residents committed to restoring the damaged river and its banks. House details how longtime community residents and more recent arrivals learned to compromise around a common goal. His inspired and well-written account of environmental activism is a terrific introduction to an ethic he calls ""bioregionalism."" (May)