A Temporary Refuge: Fourteen Seasons with Wild Summer Steelhead

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

A seasonal almanac, and the story of Spencer's time at the pool, accompanied by his dog Sis. Along with initial chapters about Sis and the life cycle of the wild summer steelhead, each of the eight months that wild summer steelhead use the pool constitutes a chapter. He has gleaned like a thimbleberry patch his natural history notes for the past fourteen seasons for information on the local environment, steelhead and other Pacific salmon that use the pool, vegetation, birds, mammals, insects, reptiles and amphibians, seasonal changes, and interesting events and stories. Spencer is a modern day Thoreau, and the steelhead pool is his Walden Pond.

Reviews

This is strong nature writingdescriptive and thorough, and helped by Spencers obvious devotion to his task. Foreword Reviews (STARRED REVIEW)
One of the best outdoor books of the summer. Adventure Journal
A Temporary Refuge succeeds on multiple levels. It effectively documents regional wildlife and the perilous annual migration of the wild fish. It puts the interaction between man and nature into important context, and shows why the wild population is so important, even as hatcheries breed more and more salmon. And its also a meaningful memoir about a man and his dog who were devoted to helping protect part of our shared natural heritage, year after year. Foreword Reviews (STARRED REVIEW)
Spencer is a keen observer of everything around him: plants, weather, trees, birds, lizards, even the few people that visit him and his dog Sis on their little fish perch. Its a beautiful tour of his little slice of Oregon and an inspiration to simply find a quiet, pretty place to sit and watch. Adventure Journal
[A Temporary Refuge] is proof that personal observation, practiced with dedication and openness to wonder, can produce extraordinary insights. MidCurrent http://midcurrent.com/books/book-excerpt-a-temporary-refuge/

Author Bio

Lee Spencer was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1950 and was raised in Minnesota. After being awarded a Masters in Anthropology in 1978 by the University of Oregon, he worked as a field archeologist for more than twenty years, mostly in the desert west and often excavating dry rock shelters. He has cast flies for steelhead on his river of choice, the North Umpqua, for the last thirty-five years and, in 1999, with his good dog, Sis, he began volunteering with The North Umpqua Foundation at Big Bend Pool.