4 // COASTWEEKEND.COM Books, gardening, hiking, hobbies, recreation, personalities, travel & more Dusting off Douglas Try an enlightening Pacifi c Northwest environmental read this summer By MATT LOVE I PHOTO BY MATT LOVE “My Wilderness: The Pacifi c West” is William O. Douglas’ 1960 collection of essays about his favorite places in the region. Imagine a current member of the U.S. Supreme Court propose that an old tree should have the right to sue to block a timber sale. Or spending practically every recess visiting wild places around the globe. Or taking the lead to preserve a roadless area in a national park and organizing a protest march to stop a highway through a green- belt near Washington D.C. Or writing: “the despoilers are inside, as well as outside, government. It will take aroused public opinion and effective political action to keep the 3aci¿ c West from being ruined by the various invasions of civilization.” Once, such a justice existed, and his name was William O. Douglas. He served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1939 to 1975 and easily earned the distinction as the greenest justice in American history. He also hailed from the 3aci¿ c 1orthwest. Better known for his controversial private life and liberal opinions from the bench, Douglas was also a passionate and eloquent nature writer who most conserva- tionists under the age of 45 probably have never read. He wrote 30 books, hundreds of articles, and about a dozen of Douglas’ books deal directly with his rich experienc- es in the outdoors. (Most are out of print, but I’ve seen many copies in used book stores and thrift shops, and libraries are full of his volumes.) In Sierra Magazine’s list of classic “en- vironmental literature” published in 2000, not one of Douglas’ nature books made the cut. That’s how far off the literary radar he is. Thoreau, Muir, Carson and Leopold were better writers, but I would argue Douglas is the best quote machine when it comes to inspiring others to ¿ ght to protect the natural world or just enjoy being in nature. Try this one: “To be whole and harmonious, man must also know the music of the beaches and the woods. He must ¿ nd the thing of which he is only an in¿ nitesimal part and nurture it and love it, if he is to live.” Douglas grew up in Eastern Washington where he contracted polio, survived and restored his health by hiking in the foothills near Yakima. It was there he developed a life-long love for the outdoors, particularly the 3aci¿ c 1orthwest. Over the course of his lifetime, he seemingly camped in every county in the region. He moved east to attend law school as a young man and began a meteoric rise that saw him become head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Supreme Court Justice, near running mate of FDR, passion- ate defender of civil liberties, and one of the unsung pioneers of the modern conserva- tion movement. As a nature writer, Douglas is perhaps best known for “Of Men and Mountains,” his classic 1950 account of growing up in the Columbia Plateau country, and “A Wilderness Bill of Rights,” a stunningly for- ward-thinking manifesto published in 1965. In “A Wilderness Bill of Rights,” Doug- las bashes dam construction (before some of the ones on the Snake River were built), draining wetlands, destructive grazing and mining policies on public land, poisoning predators, and the indiscriminate applica- tion of pesticides (years before Congress banned DDT). He also called for the cre- ation of an Of¿ ce of Conservation to over- see federal and state efforts to protect the environment. Can you imagine where we would be today if that had gone through? But my favorite Douglas nature book is 1960’s “My Wilderness: The Paci¿ c West,” a collection of essays about his favorite places in the region. I can honestly say reading it for the ¿ rst time back in 199 compelled me to buy a camper and explore over half the places Douglas pro¿ led in the book, including the awesome Cape Alva area in Olympic 1ational Park on the 1orth Coast of Washington. Summer is always a good time for leisurely or enlightening reading. I urge anyone with an interest in conservation and the wild places of the Paci¿ c 1orthwest to do a little a digging, ¿ nd some Douglas books, and marvel at a former Supreme Court Justice’s passion for nature. Matt Love is the author/editor of 14 books, including “A Nice Piece of Astoria” and “The Great Birthright.” His books are available at coastal bookstores or his website, nestuccaspitpress.com