Ground-Truthing: Research Through Hiking, Exploration, and Adventure

October 29th, 2015 , Posted by Anonymous (not verified)

Today we welcome Jessica McDonald and
Lorraine Anderson, joining them for their interview discussing what it was like
working with their contributers and doing hands-on outdoor research for Wild in the Willamette. This is the
second post about the newly published book.   If
you missed Jessica's background story for the book in the first post, you can
find it here. 
 



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Interview by Jessica
McDonald with Wild in the Willamette editor Lorraine Anderson:

 

(JM)
Lorraine sits across from me outdoors at the downtown Beanery. It’s the
tail-end of the summer, and the air hints at the prospect of rain after the
arid summer. With the Beanery only steps from the Greenbelt Land Trust office,
we are accustomed to the mix of retired professors, philosophers, farmers, and
grad students that frequent the coffee shop – that eclectic mix that represents
Corvallis so well. At the outdoor metal table Lorraine (with an ever-present
book by her side) and I reminisce over the last three years that have brought
us to where we are with the Wild in the Willamette project.

 

“It
seems like just yesterday when I first met you. For months our steering
committee of five had been running our wheels at making contacts with writers
in watersheds, assigning hikes, outlining funding proposals, and pitching the
project to OSU Press. I think we pretty quickly realized that we were in over
our heads as volunteers. In order for this book to be successful we knew we
needed an editor to guide the ship, and from the first time we sat down with
you in May, 2012, it felt like a burden was being lifted!”

 

(LA) “I
remember Charles Goodrich contacting me, saying that a group was ‘dreaming of a
book’, and would I be interested in being involved. I said ‘Heck yes!’”

 

(JM)
“This is a pretty unique book. One, because of the steering committee
involvement, and the other because of the nature of a trail guidebook mixed
with prose. This must have been fairly different than most of your other
projects.”

 

(LA) “It was
a great joy working with a group who were creating something of value. It never
ceases to amaze me what a small group of people with a vision can do.

 

When I first
started on this project I reached out to MJ Cody in Portland, who had worked on
Wild in the City. I learned from MJ that one of the hardest puzzles to solve
with the book was figuring out how to delineate the workload and how long
something like this would take. How do I budget my time when there are dozens
of sites, authors, maps, artwork? With all of these disparate voices, I really
wanted the book to have one overarching voice, created through the editorial
process.

 

One of the
benefits of the steering committee was that thought had already been put into a
template for different site descriptions. Trish Daniels (steering committee)
really made the initial work easier, because she had created a template of the
Pudding Creek watershed sites before I ever came on board with the project.
It’s so helpful to have a rough template to refine, rather than starting from
scratch, and Trish was a pioneer in creating those first steps of the actual
book. Luckily, we also had Wild in the City as a starting point to consider.”

 

(JM)
“It seemed like every meeting we had over the next few years you reported on a
new trail that you had hiked as research for the book. That must have been an
interesting side-project, actually getting on-the-ground and walking these
routes.”

 

(LA) “When I
started this project I pretty much knew that the next three years or so were
really going to take me into the outdoors. I’ve been a hiker all of my life, so
it was a natural thing to spend time doing, but this book has really enabled me
to visit places I otherwise might never have known about.

 

One of the
first things I did was on-the-ground research, which helped us to settle on
what sites we were going to include, before then reaching out to writers and
volunteers to help us write up each location. What a blast that ground-truthing
was! Over three years I’ve gone to nearly every site in the book (Abby took on
the task of checking out those outings I didn’t have time to do), and it’s
really opened my eyes to the diversity of the mid-Willamette. The breadth of
places within a two-hour radius of Corvallis is truly impressive.

 

Also,
because we took a watershed approach to the book, I learned so much about the
differences between the Coast and the Cascade sides of the valley. They really
are so very different, and it provided me with an education in place that I
might never have known otherwise. Another profound aspect of this book was
discovering how much salmon is a constant thread running throughout . . . 
how we have made our rivers nearly inhospitable to salmon over the last two
hundred years, and also how that is being righted through restoration now.”

 

(JM)
“Well, I’ve got to ask … any favorite, or for that matter least favorite hikes
that you’ve discovered?” I watch as Lorraine smiles coyly.

 

(LA) “My
favorite hiking trail in the book? I almost don’t want to give it away! What I
will say is that I’m a swimming-hole connoisseur, and through this book I’ve
found my new favorite swimming spot. Now … readers of this blog will just have
to read the book to figure out the site I’m talking about!

 

Some of my
most memorable hikes include Shelter Creek Falls – memorable for its 17 miles
of gravel logging roads, creating a daunting drive. This book also provides
some of the first guidebook direction to Crabtree Valley, an almost mythic
place and so worth the long drive to see the 800-year-old trees.

 

One of the
sites that didn’t make the book was Tumble Creek. A volunteer wrote a great
description of it, but when I went out to find the trailhead, I said “Nope!” I
recall driving a logging road barely hanging onto the side of a cliff in my
Dodge Neon. When I reached a washout that had been patched with gravel, I
declined to go any further.

 

(JM)
“As I read through the book, I am amazed at how many people were involved. From
the people who wrote up hike descriptions, to professional writers, artists, a
cartographer, funders – it is truly impressive how many voices went into this
book.”

 

(LA) “The
volunteer writers were absolutely amazing. This book has created a network of people
who care deeply about this place. Another incredible thing is that the vast
majority came through, and on time! It’s actually one of the things I would
change in the future – I’d have staggered due dates for writers on a project
like this. While it was fantastic that writers met the deadline, it was a bit
overwhelming to get a deluge of writing on one day!

 

This project
was also a fun excuse to contact some of the professional writers that I didn’t
already have relationships with. People like Laura McMasters or Henry Hughes –
this provided a great opportunity to meet them. We are really fortunate to have
so many writers within the Willamette Valley, and Wild in the Willamette brings
so many of them together into one place for everyone to enjoy. The quality of
writing in this book is really impressive.

 

And let’s
not forget Monica Drost, map maker extraordinaire! We were so fortunate to work
with Monica on the maps. Talk about coincidences … as the story goes, Monica
first learned of the book project while in yoga class from overhearing two
steering committee members talking. She then answered a call for writers to
help write up a paddle trip. Unlike most of the other writers, when Monica
handed in her write-up, she also submitted a map. “Aha!” I thought. I emailed
asking her if she ‘knew anyone at OSU who could draw maps’ and explaining our
need to contract out the maps for the book. Well, I had my fingers crossed that
she would say ‘I know someone … me!’, and that’s exactly what happened.”

 

(JM)
When we first sat down for coffee and I started to talk about the book’s
initial impetus, Lorraine had stopped me, saying ‘What I really want to say is
that, after three years, I’ve come to a realization about what this book is all
about. Let’s start from the beginning, but it’s an important insight, and one
that I feel has really come to light over time
.’ Well, after an
hour of lattes and conversation, I was ready for the big reveal.

 

“So,
Lorraine – what is Wild in the Willamette about?”

 

(LA) Wild in the Willamette is
a snapshot of how one particular people relate to one particular place at one
particular time.
 

 

This book is
like a living artifact. Right now, in this age, this guidebook is how people
relate to place. We can read about a place like the South Santiam or
Jackson-Frazier Wetlands, and on weekends we can get into cars and go see these
beautiful places. Maybe in the future people will have a stronger or weaker
bond to the land. I tend to think it will be weaker, as future generations
become more and more wired to live indoors. In 100 years we might just look at
a large screen showing a waterfall, instead of feeling the need to see it
firsthand. But for now, we are a people who seek out these places. At this
point in time, this is our consciousness.

 

I also think
of the book as weaving together the creative responses of a bunch of people who
inhabit this one place. Wild in the Willamette is a deep map of our place on earth.

 

(JM)
“That makes perfect sense. This book is weaving together people by this one place,
and it is also weaving together all of these places that make of the mid-Valley
– from mountain tops to hidden nooks and crannies of Valleys and quiet rivers.
I look forward to the reader picking up Wild in the Willamette and taking one small trip to see a new
trail. It might be three miles or 30 from their front door, but each and every
step into nature brings a greater appreciation for this place we call home.”

 

And
with that, Lorraine and I stand, empty our coffee cups, and venture off to
plant winter gardens and pick the last of the pears and apples before the wind
and rain get the better of them. We will meet soon, for launch parties and
readings of Wild in the Willamette – those well-earned celebrations for a
beloved book years in the making.

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