A Way to Garden with Margaret Roach – June 11 – Scott Freeman on Saving Tarboo Creek

Since I have lived full-time in a rural place the last decade, I find that probably not coincidentally, my reading list tends increasingly toward tales of the natural world. The new book “Saving Tarboo Creek: One Family’s Quest to Heal the Land,” made it to the top of the pile recently and I want to tell you about it, and introduce its author, biologist Scott Freeman.

Scott is Principal Lecturer in Biology at the University of Washington and author of various biology textbooks. His latest book is at once a tale of his family’s 17-acre project that involved salmon and reforestation, and tackling invasive species and more, but it’s also about how each of us can engage in a role of stewardship with the earth, and about how to live a more present and engaged life as a citizen of the planet. It’s a tale of ecological restoration, which Scott says “is really just gardening with native plants on a big scale.” But how do you know what to plant in a world of changing climates?