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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 Pacifi 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 Pacifi c Northwest.
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 fi 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 fi nd the thing of which
he is only an infi 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 Pacifi c Northwest. 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 Offi 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 Pacifi c West,”
a collection of essays about his favorite
places in the region. I can honestly say
reading it for the fi rst time back in 1998
compelled me to buy a camper and explore
over half the places Douglas profi led in the
book, including the awesome Cape Alva
area in Olympic National Park on the North
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 Pacifi c Northwest
to do a little a digging, fi 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