What is it like to have a relationship with salmon? Intrigued that there is still a place in the world where the lives of people and salmon are linked, photographer and author Amy Gulick traveled throughout Alaska to explore the web of human relationships with these extraordinary fish. Commercial fishermen took her on as crew; Alaska Native families taught her the art of preserving both fish and culture; and sport fishing guides showed her how to cast her line as well as her mind. Amy will share stories and images from her book, The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind, and speak to salmon recovery in the Pacific Northwest based on the relationships and conservation efforts she witnessed in Alaska. Amy Gulick is a photographer and writer, whose work has appeared in Smithsonian, Audubon, National Wildlife, and Outdoor Photographer. She is the recipient of the Voice of the Wild Award from the Alaska Wilderness League, the Conservation Voices Award from Washington Wild, and the Daniel Housberg Wilderness Image Award from the Alaska Conservation Foundation. Her award-winning books include The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind and Salmon in the Trees: Life in Alaska’s Tongass Rain Forest. Registration is …
Beaver Ecology and Stream Restoration
University of Idaho/Rinker Rock Creek Ranch and Hailey Public Library will host two talks on how insights from beaver ecology inform stream restoration efforts on Friday, July 14 at 5:30 PM. “Two-Eyes Seeing” features Ed Galindo, CEO of North American Native Research and Education Foundation, Inc. Eric Winford, Associate Director of the UI Rangeland Center will examine “Slow Water for Modern Watersheds.” Held at Town Center West.
Musical Landscapes of the Intermountain West with Jared Farmer
Jared Farmer is the Walter H. Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. His temporal expertise is the long nineteenth century; his regional expertise is the North American West. His recent work has turned to global environmental history across the modern period. In August, he returns as The Community Library’s Writer-In-Residence at the historic Ernest and Mary Hemingway House. In October 2023, Farmer will be delivering the 28th annual Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture in Logan, Utah; his presentation will be called “Music & the Unspoken Truth.” This presentation for The Community Library is an adaptation of that lecture for the Wood River Valley community. Originally from Provo, Utah, Farmer earned his degrees from Utah State University, the University of Montana, and Stanford. His book “On Zion’s Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape” (Harvard, 2008) won the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians for the best-written non-fiction book on an American theme, a literary award that honors the “union of the historian and the artist.” His subsequent book, “Trees in Paradise: A California History” (Norton, 2013), won the Ray Allen Billington Prize from the Organization of American Historians for the best book on the …
Space and You with Dr. Lindsay DeMarchi
It was true when Carl Sagan said, “we are made of star-stuff,” but we contain far more—a universe, in fact! Come spend the evening with visiting Astronomer-in-Residence Dr. Lindsay DeMarchi. Relax as we unwind into dazzling mixtures of nebulae and galaxies, with commentary from history’s great poets and writers alike. We will reminisce with stars about the end of their lives, and how their cosmic legacy has been handed down to us on our humble Earth. Presented in partnership with the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve Astronomer-in-Residence Program. Dr. DeMarchi is a 2023 Astronomer in Residence with the CIDSP, supported by Boise State University with support from NASA. Registration is recommended to save a seat. This program will also be livestreamed and available to watch later. Dr. Lindsay DeMarchi is an interdisciplinary space environmentalist and stellar mortician, proudly engaging the public on all matters dark and wondrous. She is the Astronomer-in-Residence at the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve and author of numerous scientific articles to bring awareness to outer-space sustainability and light pollution. She is most passionate about empowering the cultural and personal connections each individual has to the night sky and their role in environmental stewardship.
Hemingway’s Sun Valley & “In Our Time”
During this three-part, seminar-style class, we will embrace the day as Ernest Hemingway did when he was in the Wood River Valley in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Join Sun Valley Community School English teacher Phil Huss and local author of Hemingway’s Sun Valley in a course that combines seminar discussions on Hemingway’s radical, innovative short story collection In Our Time and excursions to canoe Silver Creek and visit local Hemingway sites to learn about the local stories that connect Hemingway to the Wood River Valley and his fiction. Writing opportunities involve imitation of a Hemingway short story in microfiction that connects a local story and a Hemingway character, and nonfiction personal essays that manifest a principle of the Hemingway Code. No prior knowledge of Hemingway’s life or texts needed. Just a curious mind. Space is limited for this three-part class series and registration is reserved for participants who can attend all three sessions on August 3, 10 and 17. Visit www.comlib.org for times, more details, and to register.
Frank Church: “The Last Honest Man” with James Risen
“The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys—and One Senator’s Fight to Save Democracy” is a new book out in 2023 from journalist James Risen centering on Frank Church, a senator from Idaho from 1957-1980. Church of Idaho was an unlikely hero. He led congressional opposition to the Vietnam War and had become a scathing, radical critic of what he saw as American imperialism around the world. But he was still politically ambitious, privately yearning for acceptance from the foreign policy establishment that he hated and eager to run for president. Despite his flaws, Church would show historic strength in his greatest moment, when in the wake of Watergate he was suddenly tasked with investigating abuses of power in the intelligence community. The dark truths that Church exposed—from assassination plots by the CIA, to links between the Kennedy dynasty and the mafia, to the surveillance of civil rights activists by the NSA and FBI—would shake the nation to its core, and forever change the way that Americans thought about not only their government but also their ability to hold it accountable. Drawing upon hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of recently declassified documents, and reams …
Rivers Revealed—Uncovering the Hidden Pathways of Flowing Water with Lidar with Dan Coe
Lidar (light detection and ranging) is a technology that uses laser light pulses to create intricate three-dimensional models of the earth’s surface. These models can be used to create stunningly detailed images of rivers and floodplains. These depictions often reveal previously unseen channels where rivers have flowed in the past and invite viewers to visually meander along these pathways through both space and time. When visitors enter The Community Library’s Wood River Museum of History and Culture, opening July 6, 2023 in Ketchum, they will be greeted with a lidar-derived representation of the Big Wood River, created by Coe. During this program, Coe will discuss the making of this image and will show several other lidar river images from the Pacific Northwest and around the world. Daniel Coe has been making maps and visualizing spatial data in the Pacific Northwest for the past two decades. He lives in Olympia, Washington, where his work explores the geomorphic history and natural hazards of the region. Daniel’s award-winning cartographic designs have been featured in National Geographic, High Country News, and the Atlas of Design, among others. When not making maps, he is usually out exploring the forests and waters of Washington with his …
Hiking the Idaho Centennial Trail: A Diverse Perspective
The Idaho Centennial Trail is a nearly 1,000-mile-long trail spanning the length of Idaho, extending from the Idaho-Nevada border to the Canadian border, encompassing all the variety that the state has to offer. It was recognized as the state trail in 1990, when Idaho was celebrating its 100-year benchmark after becoming a state. The ICT travels through some of the most rugged and remote country in the Lower 48, including three designated wilderness areas, one proposed wilderness area, and several roadless areas. As long trails go, it’s regarded as one of the most difficult in the nation. Come hear from four Idahoans—John Lloyd, Lisa and Jeremy Johnson, and Dan Noakes—who have hiked the trail in its entirety! This panel, facilitated by the Selway Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation, will give attendees an inside perspective on hiking the trail from both thru-hikers and a section-hiker. You’re sure to leave inspired for your next adventure! In partnership with the Selway Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation. This program will be livestreamed and recorded for later viewing.
HPL Launches Lotería Night!
Hailey Public Library and Neighbors Helping Neighbors are launching Lotería Night, a new monthly, bilingual community night, held on the 4th Thursday of each month from 6:00-8:00 PM starting May 25. Lotería is a traditional game of chance, sometimes referred to as Mexican bingo, and played with a deck of 54 colorful cards. The free, family friendly event will be held at Town Center West and feature door prizes and aperitivos.
“A Force for Nature: Nancy Russell’s Fight to Save the Columbia Gorge”
The eighty-five–mile-long Columbia Gorge forms part of the border between Oregon and Washington and is one of the nation’s most historic and scenic landscapes. Many of the region’s cultural divisions boil over here—urban versus rural, west of the mountains versus east—as well as clashes over private property rights, management of public lands, and tribal treaty rights. In the early 1980s, as a new interstate bridge linked Portland to rural counties in Washington, the Gorge’s renowned vistas were on the brink of destruction. Nancy Russell, forty-eight years old and with no experience in advocacy, fundraising, or politics, built a grassroots movement that overcame seventy years of failed efforts and bitter opposition from both Oregon and Washington governors, five of the six Gorge counties, Gorge residents, and the Reagan administration. While building her campaign, Russell stopped subdivisions, factories, and government neglect through litigation brought by her organization, Friends of the Columbia Gorge, and last-second land purchases by the Trust for Public Land. Initially ignored, then demonized, Russell had her tires slashed and her life threatened. The Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act barely passed—on the last day of the congressional session in 1986—and was signed by a reluctant President Reagan. Russell …