A Different Way of Seeing - The Tidewater Reach

Poem by Robert Michael Pyle • Photograph by Judy VanderMaten • Field Notes by Hal Calbom

‘Colors of holly leaf and berry borrowed from solstices in Druid days...’

Christmas on the Columbia

Anyone who doesn’t know the river might think it’s lit up for the holidays year round, all those red and green directional buoys flashing “go here, not there,” up and down the reach. Colors of holly leaf and berry borrowed from solstices in Druid days, representing Yuletide in these forgetful times. But sometime after Thanksgiving (that other pagan holdover) other brilliants appear — red and green, yes, but also blue and gold and white — all along the river’s shores. Line doorways and window frames, parade through marinas and backwaters on festive boats, their lit-up lines reflecting shapes of Christmas trees.

Elk and deer are brought home from the hunt, turkeys from Freddies’s for feasts ashore or adrift. Children visit Santas at Grange Hall and mall. Carols lap at pilings, old chestnuts sung in voices muted by waves and rain.

Such are the midwinter rites and revels on the river, where a long wet night will take whatever it can get to hold back the dark — even if it’s only “go here, not there,” blinking red and green, all up and down the reach.

NETS AND FLOATS

Commercial and sports fisheries on the Columbia River have been in decline since the late 1800s. Canneries established in the 1860s rapidly depleted the supply of fish, and in the early 1900s laws were passed to try to preserve the fishery. The Columbia River dams, beginning with Bonneville Dam in 1938, hastened the decline of anadromous fish, such as salmon — which are spawned in fresh water, live their lives in saltwater, then return to fresh water to spawn and die.

“These are images and words captured in hopes of furnishing for you a new kind of aesthetic, imaginative, and yes, even factual guide to our oh-so-luckily shared home: the Tidewater Reach.”

— Robert Michael Pyle

Field Guide Robert Michael Pyle is a celebrated naturalist, writer, and environmentalist. From his home in the Willapa Hills of Southwest Washington, he has chronicled the days, to the Lower Columbia River in Poems and Pictures seasons, and science of the Pacific Northwest and the habitats and migrations of the butterflies — to national and international acclaim. The Tidewater Reach pairs poems and pictures, complementing his verses with the photographs of collaborator Judy VanderMaten to evoke “a different way of seeing.” The Tidewater Reach extends our idea of what a Field Guide might be and the language we use to characterize and illuminate the natural world.

“I love Bob Pyle’s interweaving of human and natural history, from pioneers to river pubs, ospreys to salmon smolts. His poet’s eye gives attentive and richly layered witness to all the life that’s flourished along these banks.”

— HOLLY J. HUGHES, poet, author of Hold Fast RobeRt Michael Pyle Judy VandeRMaten “There are many photographers of the Lower Columbia whose works I respect. Judy VanderMaten’s photographs I envy.”

— DAVID LEE MYERS, author/photographer of Wings in the Light: Wild Butterflies in North America

Robert Michael Pyle and Judy VanderMaten

columbia river reader press

Cover photograph “Moon Blues” By Judy VanderMaten Woodcut art by Debby Neely www.crreader.com/crrpress

ISBN 978-1-7346725-5-8 $35.00 PYLE • VANDERMATEN

CRR

PRESS RobeRt Michael Pyle Judy VandeRMaten

The Tidewater

Reach

Field Guide to the Lower Columbia River in Poems and Pictures

COLLECTORS EDITION On this page we excerpt poems, pictures and field notes from our own “Field Guide to the Lower Columbia River in Poems and Pictures,” The Tidewater Reach, by Gray’s River resident and renowned naturalist Robert Michael Pyle, and Cathlamet photographer Judy VanderMaten. The two dreamed for years of a collaborative project, finally realized when Columbia River Reader Press published color and black and white editions of The Tidewater Reach in 2020, and a third, hybrid edition in 2021, all presenting “a different way of seeing” our beloved Columbia River. For information on ordering, as well as our partner bookshops and galleries, see pages 2 and 43.