“The Northwest Coastal Explorer”
Robert “Bob” Steelquist
Timber Press
ISBN 98-1-60469-631-8
paperback, $24.95
Available everywhere books are sold
In Sequim at Field Notes, Forage Gifts and Northwest Treasures, Over the Fence
Steelquist signs the book all-day Saturday, Nov. 12, at Wind Rose Cellars
Whether you’re a seasoned resident or a newcomer to the Pacific Northwest, Sequim author Robert “Bob” Steelquist hopes you’ll experience the coastline regardless of how many times you’ve been there.
Even though he’s spent his whole life exploring the Pacific Northwest, Steelquist is taking a new approach with his latest book “The Northwest Coastal Explorer.” It’s as if you’ve never been here before.
“I like to go to new places because it resharpens my eye,” Steelquist said. “The experience of being in a new place forces me to think differently.”
He recently visited Sequoia &Kings Canyon National Park in California for the first time and he wanted be in the presence of big trees and understand how things work there.
And that concept is his hook in “The Northwest Coastal Explorer,” his 13th and latest book. It covers the coastline from Vancouver Island to North California profiling accessible plants and animals and their connection to six environments — coastal forests, rocky shores and tide pools, sand beaches, nearshore, rivers and estuaries.
Steelquist said his trip to California led him to follow up on his questions.
“The experience really primed me to start adding factual information to the scaffolding of the experience,” he said.
In “Northwest Coastal Explorer,” Steelquist emphasizes experiencing the habitats first-hand through a conversational manner.
“I think the real magic happens in the natural world when we experience surprises or something clicks with us or we see some spectacle we didn’t expect to see,” he said. “Those are the experiences we talk about. That’s what we share on Facebook.”
Discovery
Steelquist says he’s led hundreds of nature trips for a variety of people and imagines himself with a group of eight-10 people as readers progress through his book.
“We’re taking a hike down the river, through the woods, to the beach, and looking at the tide pools,” he said.
“I try to capture some of that experience for the first time for someone who wants to know more about a banana slug or a sea anemone.”
Some of the information may feel well-known to locals, Steelquist said, but he finds a large influx of new people in the Northwest who “may not know how to participate in the Northwest lifestyle.”
But “The Northwest Coastal Explorer” isn’t written to the precision of a field guide or travel guide, despite a short section of traveling, Steelquist said. “It encourages people to go to any of the regions and spend three or four days,” he said.
His angle may seem basic but Steelquist said, “There’s a lot of uncertainty about how the environment is changing.”
“We’re not quite sure of the magnitude of the changes and it’s scary to a lot of people,” he said. “I wanted to familiarize people with things that are common that they can observe like when do the robins arrive or how many acorns dropped. I hope people can understand the cycles and patterns.”
Through “Explorer,” Steelquist said there’s a message about conservation, too.
“Polar bears and grizzly bears aren’t the only things in danger, but the things around us we see everyday are really part of this environment that’s undergoing changes,” he said.
“If folks become familiar with the common things, then they’ll know how this place ticks. The way we’re urbanizing things, we’re taking places and making them non-places … Here in Sequim, we all live in a unique place. (People) are attracted to some of its natural amenities and as they become more familiar, they become more protective of it.”
While many of the facts are common knowledge to Steelquist in “Northwest Coastal Explorer,” he strived to unlearn the technical details.
“I wanted to find the stories that link the common things to the rest of the ecosystem,” he said. “I really had to condense down what I wanted to say about something like river otters.”
Learning the natural history of the Pacific Northwest didn’t become an interest to Steelquist until he moved to the Olympic Peninsula in the 1970s, he said.
“As I explored the trails and the Olympic National Park, I began seeing things and asking things and looking things up,” he said.
His first book about the Olympic Peninsula was published in the mid-1980s but his taste of publishing came in an article about oak trees in Sequim.
“I found publication in an obscure newsletter and it just built from there,” he said.
“I was fortunate I broke into books fairly early on.”
Being an explorer was second nature to a younger Steelquist, too.
“I lived in an era of benign neglect of parental supervisors, which led to lots of time away from home in the woods and creeks and pond,” he said. “My parents didn’t seem to miss me or my brother when we’d vanish for a day.”
Steelquist continues to explore, he said, and plans to “keep throwing myself at the world as I can’t pick myself up anymore.”
Robert Steelquist shares introductory information to six ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest — coastal forests, rocky shores and tide pools, sand beaches, nearshore, rivers and estuaries. Photo by Robert Steelquist
Roosevelt elk are the largest member of the deer family in the Pacific Northwest. Photo by Robert Steelquist
Sea otters are the largest members of the weasel family in the Pacific Northwest and they depend on kelp forests as their habitat. Photo by Bob Steelquist
Author Robert “Bob” Steelquist recently released his 13th book “The Northwest Coastal Explorer” through Timber Press. Submitted photo
Author Robert Steelquist hosts a book signing of “The Northwest Coastal Explorer” for most of the day at Wind Rose Cellars on Nov. 12. Submitted photo
