On Thursday, February 29, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., North Coast Communities for Watershed Protection invites you to join us for our first Forest Poets event in the Lovell Taproom at Fort George Brewery and Public House, 1483 Duane St. in Astoria. The event will feature readings from several North Coast poets, including the award-winning Robert Michael Pyle, Jim Dott, Jennifer Nightingale, Reba Owen, Logan Garner, and Lauren Mallett. Their poetry selections will be inspired by, and celebrate, our
temperate rainforest ecosystem that has forests and bodies of water which serve as muse for many of us living in the area.
About the poets:
Robert Michael Pyle lives, writes, and studies natural history along Gray’s River in Washington’s heavily logged Willapa Hills. His 1986 book Wintergreen is widely considered a classic testament to the resilience of life in the land of logging. His 28 books of essay, poetry, and fiction often turn to the woods and waters for their subject. Pyle is the recipient of two National Outdoor Book Awards, the John Burroughs Medal, as well as a Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Conservation Biology.
Jim Dott lives and writes in east Astoria within the Skunk Hollow watershed which flows into the lower Columbia. His poetry is grounded in this place: its inhabitants, its rivers, its rain, its trees, and its forests.
Jennifer Nightingale is another Astoria-based poet and writer. She is renewed and inspired perpetually by the community of poets and storytellers in the Lower Columbia Pacific and by rivers, forests, and estuaries that need our care.
Poet, artist, and blues musician Reba Owen is a graduate of Oregon State University. She has published 3 books of poetry, including “Alchemy of Scallops.” Her subject is the out-of-door world. She sometimes uses nature themes to expose the foibles of humans and their activities.
Logan Garner lives and writes in Warrenton, where he, his wife, and their dogs spend time under trees and on the sand. The recipient of the 2023 Neahkahnie Mountain Poetry Prize, his work has appeared in the Elevation Review, Flying Island, the North Coast Squid and others. His first poetry collection, “Here, in the Floodplain” was published by Plan B Press in 2023.
Another Warrenton resident, Lauren Mallett lives with her partner and rescue pup. Her writing has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. Locally, Lauren’s poetry can be found in recent issues of Rain Magazine, North Coast Squid, and Word & Image.
This first Forest Poets event is being coordinated by North Coast Communities for Watershed Protection and Fort George as a part of the brewery’s Thursday Lecture Series. Doors will open at the Lovell Taproom at 5:00 p.m., allowing time for mingling, food, and drinks before the event begins at 6:00 p.m. During the event, there will be a brief intermission. You will also get to hear from NCCWP about current and upcoming plans in Clatsop and Tillamook Counties, and how you can get involved with efforts to safeguard and restore your local watershed.
North Coast Communities for Watershed Protection is a 13-year-old grassroots organization located on the North Coast of Oregon. While NCCWP opposes logging and spraying in all drinking watersheds, we continue to focus on Jetty Creek in Rockaway Beach because it offers the best example of how logging activities were allowed to compromise, and possibly destroy, a town’s drinking water. Our goal is to prevent logging and pesticide use in all community water sources (regardless of land ownership), and to end pesticide applications near where people live, work, and recreate. Our mission is to raise awareness to accomplish these goals. Please join us.
To learn more about NCCWP:
The web – https://healthywatershed.org
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/NCCwatershedprotection/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/nccwatershedprotection/?hl=en
Email – rockawaycitizen.water@gmail.com
