The distinctive group of forty colleges profiled here is a well-kept secret in a status industry. They outdo the Ivies and research universities in producing winners. And they work their magic on the B and C students as well as on the A students. Loren Pope, director of the College Placement Bureau, provides essential information on schools that he has chosen for their proven ability to develop potential, values, initiative, and risk-taking in a wide range of students. Inside you'll find evaluations of each school's program and personality to help you decide if it's a community that's right for you; interviews with students that offer an insider's perspective on each college; professors' and deans' viewpoints on their school, their students, and their mission; and information on what happens to the graduates and what they think of their college experience. Loren Pope encourages you to be a hard-nosed consumer when visiting a college, advises how to evaluate a school in terms of your own needs and strengths, and shows how the college experience can enrich the rest of your life.

Puget Sound is a magnificent and intricate estuary, the very core of life in Western Washington. Yet it's also a place of broader significance: rivers rush from the Cascade and Olympic mountains and Canada's coastal ranges through varied watersheds to feed the Sound, which forms the southern portion of a complex, international ecosystem known as the Salish Sea. A rich, life-sustaining home shared by two countries, as well as 50-plus Native American Tribes and First Nations, the Salish Sea is also a huge economic engine, with outdoor recreation and commercial shellfish harvesting alone worth $10.2 billion. But this spectacular inland sea is suffering. Pollution and habitat loss, human population growth, ocean acidification, climate change, and toxins from wastewater and storm runoff present formidable challenges. We Are Puget Sound amplifies the voices and ideas behind saving Puget Sound, and it will help engage and inspire citizens around the region to join together to preserve its ecosystem and the livelihoods that depend on it.

Winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award Bounded on the east by the crest of the Cascade Range and on the west by the lofty east flank of the Olympic Mountains, Puget Sound terrain includes every imaginable topograhic variety. This thoughtful and eloquent natural history of the Puget Sound region begins with a discussion of how the ice ages and vulcanism shaped the land and then examines the natural attributes of the region--flora and fauna, climate, special habitats, life histories of key organisms--as they pertain to the functioning ecosystem. Mankind's effects upon the natural environment are a pervasive theme of the book. Kruckeberg looks at both positive and negative aspects of human interaction with nature in the Puget basin. By probing the interconnectedness of all natural aspects of one region, Kruckeberg illustrates ecological principles at work and gives us a basis for wise decision-making. The Natural History of Puget Sound Country is a comprehensive reference, invaluable for all citizens of the Northwest, as well as for conservationists, biologists, foresters, fisheries and wildlife personnel, urban planners, and environmental consultants everywhere. Lavishly illustrated with over three hundred photographs and drawings, it is much more than a beautiful book. It is a guide to our future.

Not far from Seattle skyscrapers live 150-year-old clams, more than 250 species of fish, and underwater kelp forests as complex as any terrestrial ecosystem. For millennia, vibrant Coast Salish communities have lived beside these waters dense with nutrient-rich foods, with cultures intertwined through exchanges across the waterways. Transformed by settlement and resource extraction, Puget Sound and its future health now depend on a better understanding of the region’s ecological complexities. Focusing on the area south of Port Townsend and between the Cascade and Olympic mountains, Williams uncovers human and natural histories in, on, and around the Sound. In conversations with archaeologists, biologists, and tribal authorities, Williams traces how generations of humans have interacted with such species as geoducks, salmon, orcas, rockfish, and herring. He sheds light on how warfare shaped development and how people have moved across this maritime highway, in canoes, the mosquito fleet, and today’s ferry system. The book also takes an unflinching look at how the Sound’s ecosystems have suffered from human behavior, including pollution, habitat destruction, and the effects of climate change. Witty, graceful, and deeply informed, Homewaters weaves history and science into a fascinating and hopeful narrative, one that will introduce newcomers to the astonishing life that inhabits the Sound and offers longtime residents new insight into and appreciation of the waters they call home. A Michael J. Repass Book

Running from Point Defiance to Sidney, British Columbia, the Washington State ferry system is the single largest tourist attraction in the state, with 28 routes and 23 million riders annually. In this volume, travelers are invited to look back to the past and bid Puget Sound's "ancient mariners" a fond farewell.

Artist and naturalist Tony Angell has used Puget Sound's natural diversity as his palette for nearly 50 years. He describes the methods he uses in his art and his observations and encounters with the species that make up the complex communities of the Sound's rivers, tidal flats, islands, and beaches: the flight of a young peregrine, an otter playfully herding a small red rockfish, the grasp of a curious octopus. Tony Angell is an illustrator, sculptor, and author of RAVENS, CROWS, MAGPIES, AND JAYS and OWLS. He served for thirty years as Washington State Director of Environmental Education.

With the same ability to make personalities and events come alive that characterizes his classic Skid Road, Murray Morgan here tells the colorful story of Tacoma, “the City of Destiny,” and southern Puget Sound, where many major events of Washington’s history took place. Drawing upon original journals and reports, Morgan builds Puget’s Sound around individuals, interweaving portraits of well-known historical figures with a raucous parade of saloonkeepers, politicians, union organizers, schemers, and swindlers. His account begins with the landing of Captain Vancouver in Puget Sound in 1792 and ends with the founding of Fort Lewis in 1916. Between are the arrival of the transcontinental railroad, the boom-and-bust of lumber mills, the anti-Chinese riots of 1885, and more distinctive Northwest history that will intrigue both new arrivals and longtime residents. With a new introduction by historian and historic preservationist Michael Sean Sullivan, this redesigned edition of Puget’s Sound brings new life to Morgan’s landmark history.

Prospective college students and their parents have been relying on Loren Pope's expertise since 1995, when he published the first edition of this indispensable guide. This new edition profiles 41 colleges—all of which outdo the Ivies and research universities in producing performers, not only among A students but also among those who get Bs and Cs. Contents include: Evaluations of each school's program and "personality" Candid assessments by students, professors, and deans Information on the progress of graduates This new edition not only revisits schools listed in previous volumes to give readers a comprehensive assessment, it also addresses such issues as homeschooling, learning disabilities, and single-sex education.

The stories and legends of the Lushootseed-speaking people of Puget Sound represent an important part of the oral tradition by which one generation hands down beliefs, values, and customs to another. Vi Hilbert grew up when many of the old social patterns survived and everyone spoke the ancestral language. Haboo, Hilbert’s collection of thirty-three stories, features tales mostly set in the Myth Age, before the world transformed. Animals, plants, trees, and even rocks had human attributes. Prominent characters like Wolf, Salmon, and Changer and tricksters like Mink, Raven, and Coyote populate humorous, earthy stories that reflect foibles of human nature, convey serious moral instruction, and comically detail the unfortunate, even disastrous consequences of breaking taboos. Beautifully redesigned and with a new foreword by Jill La Pointe, Haboo offers a vivid and invaluable resource for linguists, anthropologists, folklorists, future generations of Lushootseed-speaking people, and others interested in Native languages and cultures.

Comprehensive and easy to use, Marine Wildlife is the most accessible marine field guide for the Northwest. Containing separate sections on mammals, fishes, seabirds, seaweeds, and invertebrates, this guide provides clear descriptions and illustrations of the marine wildlife commonly seen around the inland waters of British Columbia, Washington, and Southeast Alaska. For anyone beachcombing the shores of Puget Sound, kayaking the Gulf Islands, or cruising the Inside Passage, this portable guide is the perfect companion for locals and visitors alike.