The Last Atoll: Exploring Hawai'i's Endangered Ecosystems - Paperback
by Pamela Frierson (Author)
Far from the beach-towel-covered sands of Waikiki there is a hidden Hawaii: remote islands and atolls that are some of the wildest--and at the same time most vulnerable--places on earth.
In The Last Atoll, Pamela Frierson chronicles a decade of travels to this wildlife-teeming outback of the Hawaiian archipelago. Spanning 1200 miles, the Northwestern Islands are home to some of the world's rarest species, including the Hawaiian monk seal, the Laysan duck, and the Nihoa millerbird. The vast surrounding reefs are one of the last intact Pacific ecosystems, dominated by the big predators: giant jacks, groupers, and sharks. But according to Frierson this far-flung region is "both pristine and plundered." In a series of arduous journeys she uncovers a history of use and abuse. At Midway Atoll she watches the politics of clean-up as a naval facility shuts down, and learns about clandestine Cold War activities. At Laysan Island she finds a legacy of guano mining and bird feather hunting that led to the extinction of three endemic landbirds. In a compelling adventure tale, this award-wining Pacific writer explores lives both human and wild at one of the extreme edges of the world.Pamela Frierson is the author of The Last Atoll: Exploring Hawaii's Endangered Ecosystems and The Burning Island: Myth and History in Volcano Country, Hawaii, as well as many articles and essays about the Pacific world. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including The World Between Waves, A Thousand Leagues of Blue and Intimate Nature. She is one of forty-four writers invited by Barry Lopez to write original work for Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, featured on NPR's "Living on Earth" program. She is the recipient of numerous honors, including a PEN Hawaii award, grants from the Hawaii Council on the Humanities, and fellowships from Breadloaf, Squaw Valley, and Island Institute. Raised in Hawaii, she lived for many years in the American West working as a country school teacher in Montana, a backwoods homesteader in Idaho, an apple grower near California's Eel River, an employee of the Whole Earth Catalog, and was one of the founding publishers of the innovative quarterly Place Magazine. She has taught at the University of California at Davis and the University of Hawaii at Hilo, and was founder-director of the writers' conference: The Fire Within: Writing at the Volcano. She returned to the Islands two decades ago and lives on the slopes of Mauna Kea, where she grows tropical fruit and works as a freelance writer, photographer, and educator. Her photographs have appeared in several publications, including Wildlife Conservation, Christian Science Monitor, and the Los Angeles Times.
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