Artist and naturalist Tony Angell is reading in September and October  from his new book, Puget Sound Through an Artist’s Eye, in Olympia, Bainbridge, Bellingham, Seattle and Port Townsend. Tony’s a long-time friend and supporter of People For Puget Sound and his book sales at these readings benefit our education and advocacy programs.

I asked Tony some questions about his book, his views on how Puget Sound and its critters are doing, and what the future holds for us.

YOU’VE WRITTEN A NUMBER OF BOOKS ABOUT PUGET SOUND BIRDS AND ANIMALS. IN WHAT WAY IS THIS BOOK DIFFERENT?

Where my previous books were largely narrative that I sought to enrich with illustrations, this book is a collection of my artistic response to Puget Sound with a narrative that serves as a "structure" within which the art is placed.  It's my feeling that (and I say this in the book) where words fail art will prevail.  The aesthetic experience of witnessing the exquisite life forms that reside here invites one into a deeper relationship with this place.



The book, composed mainly of my sculptural work, is a venue for this part of my artistic expression whereas my earlier books have exclusively included my drawings.  I'd like the person who comes to my book to be caught up in some of the emotional moments that I experienced when observing the subjects in the field and later bringing forward some of their forms in stone or bronze.


OVER THE YEARS YOU’VE OBSERVED PUGET SOUND AND ITS SPECIES, WHAT ARE THE MAJOR CHANGES YOU’VE NOTICED?

I’ve lived along the Sound for more than 50 years and the most obvious change is that of habitat loss, be it from the watersheds, river valleys, estuaries, or near shore intertidal and open water.  The population has grown to be several times greater, of course, and we have settled into regions that were formerly open to wildlife, but out enterprises, whether recreational, agricultural or industrial have continued to overwhelm the natural areas -- often because they are the easiest to access.  The results are, in most cases, a decline in the diversity of species that can survive here.



At the same time over this past half-century, I've witnessed an exceptional growth in the ecological and biological awareness in much of the public.  A score of state and local organizations have been formed and are active in environmental projects that benefit the Sound from land acquisition and public education to planting pinto abalone.  Prior to the l960s there seemed to be little going on in the way of conservation, restoration or stewardship, but a lot of action in the hunting and "harvesting" of the game species which were seen pretty much as something to be taken with little concern over diminishing numbers.

 Among the species that have benefited from this growing awareness, however, are the more obvious larger birds like the bald eagle, peregrine falcon, snow and Canada geese and Trumpeter swans -- all of which have had and continue to have human "champions" that have worked for their welfare.  Perhaps their salvation has been the fact that we no longer shoot them at will, some of the toxins in their diets have been better controlled and portions of their habitat (easily identified) has been protected.  The larger share of the more subtle and less obvious species, however, (crows and glaucous winged gulls being the exception for obvious reasons) still struggle.  


WHICH SPECIES ARE DOING BETTER? WHICH ONES HOLDING THEIR OWN? WHICH ONES GOING DOWNHILL?


I mention species like eagles, peregrines, swans, snow geese, crows and gulls as doing pretty well in company with humankind.  Frankly, the reasons of success for the first four involve the fact that they are exceptionally attractive and the public is willing to invest in their welfare.  Crows, gulls and Canada geese, on the other hand, do well in large part because they know how to exploit our sloppiness.  What we leave behind, disrupt or displace, they use or take advantage of.  Unfortunately the increase in crows, Canada geese and gulls (through no fault of their own) often results in the displacement of the less aggressive and tolerant species like songbirds in the case of the crows and other waterfowl in the case of the Canada geese and gulls.



I think some of the specialized waterfowl like scoters, ruddy ducks, scaup and diving birds like all the wintering loons and grebes have diminished appreciably in numbers since I've observed them on Puget Sound. Then, too, murres, marbled murrelets and tufted puffins continue to decline in numbers. It's largely the loss of their food base that accounts for this.  Take out a salmon redd, an estuary or eelgrass or kelp bed and you destroy a nursery for the fish stocks that these species feed on.   If a near shore shelf of sand is dredged or inundated, you destroy a rich community of marine invertebrates and the scoters and other diving ducks are without their source of food.


I've focused on some of the larger, more visually accessible, companions we share Puget Sound with.  In someways I would hope these artistic interpretations would become the gateway for the public to discover the more subtle, less obvious life forms here.  I can only give you a fragment of the changes I monitored while I was still diving off Lopez and a few other spots along the Straits.  Lingcod, rock fish, perch all took a precipitous drop in populations during the years that I was in their company and, while they still have a "fin hold," it's very tenuous.  The great schools of herring I would swim into and encounter became increasingly absent and I find nothing in today's literature to suggest that they have recovered.  I particularly remember what unbridled divers did to our pinto abalone and rock scallop populations.  In the span of two years the edges of our San Juan Islands  were essentially scoured clean of these once abundant shellfish.  The good news here is there is an initiative underway to reintroduce the abalone in protected areas. 



LOOKING TO THE FUTURE, MORE PEOPLE ARE PREDICTED TO COME HERE TO LIVE AND WORK. ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC OR PESSIMISTIC THAT WE CAN SUSTAIN THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT HERE IN PUGET SOUND?


Look, I'm an optimist, but no one can deny that the task of dealing with some of what I've mentioned or alluded to above is going to become far more difficult and expensive as more people come here to live and expect the rewards of a quality environment.  Over the past fifty years we've done the easy stuff.  We've bought and set aside  the less expensive critical land to protect and restore some of the natural diversity that gives this region its character.  Now the more challenging road is ahead and that's learning what we as individuals can do to sustain what remains here and acting on this knowledge.  A greater investment of our time, energy and dollars into environmental education is certainly one priority.   I spent many, many rewarding decades of my life in this field and I've seen first hand the exceptional benefits in learning and taking responsibility for stewarding Puget Sound.   Math, science, economics, social studies and basic reading and writing skills have been developed by making the classroom the real world outside the conventional school in stream and wetland restoration projects, field monitoring beaches in marine science studies, beach cleanups and recycling programs, just to name.   Washington State has some of the finest curriculum strategies for environmental learning in the world and much of it is specifically tailored for Puget Sound.



It's one thing to expect to pull a trout or salmon out of one of our rivers and it's something else to roll up your sleeves and clean up the banks and spawning beds of that river or stream system so it becomes hospitable to these fish.  You can check off a white winged scoter from your  life list of birds to see, but it requires something else to take time to understand what species like this need to remain on our waters as wintering birds.  We might wish to dedicate acres of intertidal habitat to the birds’ welfare – along with other invertebrates,  that might even include leaving some clams for the ducks. The possibilities, I think, are endless and the long-term benefits immeasurable. 

Consider the "services" the great Puget Sound Basin/watershed provides us: The quality of our air, water, local food from rich soils and still productive waters are but the more obvious benefits we enjoy from a respectful relationship with this place.  When it comes to the aesthetic, emotional and intellectual invigoration that Puget Sound provides the residents here, well, it is beyond measure.



Yes, we do take a lot for granted here.  If the surface waters look calm and clear, we assume that all's well when what is below the surface may be in dire straits.   We all know the symptoms of degradation -- oil slicks, dead birds on the beach, foul smells, slides and eroded  hillsides, etc., etc.  Proactive people don't wait for the symptoms to get to work and I'm optimistic about the future of Puget Sound because we have the state agencies, public organizations, the laws and the opportunities in place to act and many of us are.  What's required of the rest of us is only the will to do so.