Product Description

"Dietrich's measures, thoughtful book views the Columbia through a successoin of different lenses--as a bountiful fishery for the Indians, as a snag-ridden and nearly impassable highway for the early white explorers, as a hugely powerful manufacturer of hydroelectricity, as a source of irrigation for farmers, as the town drain for the mining and nuclear weapons industries. His Columbia is really a woven braid of the many rivers of the fisherman, the farmer, the engineer, the towboat operator, the explorer, the industrialist." -Jonathan Raban, author of Old Glory

"A wonderful, disturbing and though-provoking history of the Columbia River, Northwest Passage is a remarkable book, first of all in its scope and complexity. Here is a fine blend of natural history, of human history, and of political history." -Washington Post Book World

"An engaging case study of a whole bundle of environmental and social issues (pollution, hydropower politics, Indian rights, resource economics) that should matter to people all over the country." -New York Times Book Review

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1251484 in Books
• Published on: 1996-01-01
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.40 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Washington's mighty Columbia River has been transformed in 60 years from an unruly river into a series of placid pools; it is the most heavily dammed river in the world, and the greatest producer of hydroelectricity. Dietrich (The Final Forest), Pulitzer prize-winning science reporter for the Seattle Times, looks at the Columbia as a whole?its history, geology, biology, hydrology, economics, contemporary politics and management. The report is disturbing and compelling. Wild salmon stocks have nearly disappeared; there are competing demands on the river for power, irrigation and fish. Dietrich charges that no single agency is in charge of measuring pollution or maintaining the health of the river. Conceding that dams are of undeniable benefit, producing energy, food, navigation and flood control, he notes that few would pass environmental and economic review today. This comprehensive survey of the Columbia ecosystem points out the social and environmental costs of engineering marvels. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Dietrich, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Seattle Times and author of The Final Forest (LJ 5/1/92), here covers a wealth of information and personal histories. Once supporting the greatest chinook salmon and steelhead trout runs in the world and one of the most complex native cultures on the continent, the Columbia has been transformed into a series of computer-controlled reservoirs virtually devoid of fish, designed to maximize hydroelectric production. While Dietrich has done a good job of examining the history, current conditions, and problems confronting the river from a variety of viewpoints, the organization of his text seems erratic at times. A well-researched chronology of the river is included. Recommended for all regional, as well as subject and history collections, in secondary school libraries and above.
Tim Markus, Evergreen State Coll. Lib., Olympia, Wash.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ingram
Part history, part sociology, part travelogue, and part journalistic account of a contemporary crisis, this sweeping portrait of the powerful, beautiful Columbia River explores how people changed the river and were in turn changed by it. 3 maps; index.