{"id":17257,"date":"2025-12-19T12:44:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T20:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/?post_type=book&p=17257"},"modified":"2025-12-19T13:01:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T21:01:57","slug":"wild-in-seattle-stories-at-the-crossroads-of-people-and-nature","status":"publish","type":"book","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/book\/wild-in-seattle-stories-at-the-crossroads-of-people-and-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild in Seattle: Stories at the Crossroads of People and Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMorning walk with binoculars\u201d is what I call my weekly trek from the Elisabeth C. Miller Library across the Union Bay Natural Area to the bus. I look for birds along the way. That pattern echoes the suggestion of David B. Williams\u2019s book to spend some time noticing nature while walking in Seattle.<\/p>\n

\"\"Wild in Seattle<\/em> is a collection of the Street Smart Naturalist newsletters Williams writes weekly, each two or three pages long. Its three sections \u2013 \u201cGeology,\u201d \u201cFauna,\u201d and \u201cFlora and Habitat\u201d \u2013 lay out various discoveries Williams has made patrolling the city on foot. He emphasizes that one need not be a professional scientist to enjoy these encounters.<\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Giddiness of Time\u201d he writes about the rock used to build the Exchange Building at Second\u00a0Avenue and Marion Street. It is Morton Gneiss, which formed 3,524,000,000 years ago, the oldest rock most of us will ever see. He combines that information with description of the rock\u2019s appearance: \u201c[It] resembles what would happen if you took a series of photos while stirring together cans of pink and black paint.\u201d The entry is typical of the content of most entries, description plus a little background information.<\/p>\n

In \u201cTails of the City: Cattails,\u201d Williams cites the cattails\u2019 many uses by Indigenous people: stalks for weaving material and down for pillows, mattresses, and even for burial rituals. He lists several of the wetlands cattails call home that have been lost to development but names as a bright spot the restored wetland at the Center for Urban Horticulture I cross every week. It\u2019s a great spot for birds.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Priscilla Grundy<\/p>\n

Excerpted from\u00a0The Leaflet<\/em>, Volume 13, Issue 1, January 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMorning walk with binoculars\u201d is what I call my weekly trek from the Elisabeth C. Miller Library across the Union Bay Natural Area to the bus. I look for birds along the way. That pattern echoes the suggestion of David B. Williams\u2019s book to spend some time noticing nature while walking in Seattle. Wild in Seattle is a collection of the Street Smart Naturalist newsletters Williams writes weekly, each two or three pages long. Its three sections \u2013 \u201cGeology,\u201d \u201cFauna,\u201d…<\/p>\n

Continue reading Wild in Seattle: Stories at the Crossroads of People and Nature<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[],"class_list":["post-17257","book","type-book","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book\/17257"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/book"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=17257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}