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2023-2024 Common Read - Braiding Sweetgrass: Burning Cascade Head

“Take only what you need and let the rest go by and the fish will last forever.” p. 243

Cascade Head

Image courtesy of The Nature Conservancy

Looking south from Cascade Head, OR

USFWS - Pacific Region, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Loose dentalium shells

Image courtesy of Wikimedia

Dark blue wool dress - dentalium shell decoration

Image courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

Chinook Salmon

Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. EPA.gov

Eastern skunk cabbage

Williamwaterway, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The end of the Kwantlen First Nation salmon ceremony

Rjjago, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Fish on a drying rack

Western Arctic National Parklands, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Sitka Spruce

Image courtesy of Wikimedia

Keywords

Beacon: a lighthouse or other signal for guidance (MW)

Brackish: somewhat salty (MW)

Calibrate: to adjust precisely for a particular function (MW)

Conduits:  a means of transmitting or distributing (MW)

Conflagration: fire (MW)

Covetous: marked by inordinate desire for wealth or possessions or for another's possessions (MW)

Dichotomy: a division into two especially mutually exclusive or contradictory groups or entities (MW)

Encroach: to advance beyond the usual or proper limits (MW)

Estuary: a water passage where the tide meets a river current (MW)

Frenetic: marked by fast and energetic, disordered, or anxiety-driven activity (MW)

Isotope: one of two or more forms of a chemical element that have the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons in their atoms. They have different physical properties (= characteristics) but the same chemical ones. (OL)

Natal: of, relating to, or present at birth (MW)

Redd: the spawning ground or nest of various fishes (MW)

Salinity: the amount of salt contained in something (OLD)

Smolt: a young salmon or sea trout about two years old that is at the stage of development when it assumes the silvery color of the adult and is ready to migrate to the sea (MW)

Vertiginous: causing or tending to cause dizziness (MW)

Weir: a fence or enclosure set in a waterway for taking fish (MW)

Additional Resources

Contact

James A. Cannavino Library

3399 North Road
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
(845) 575-3106

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