David B. Williams comes to Orcas Library for ‘In the Range of Fire and Ice’

What stories can a mountain range tell?

||| FROM SAM GAILEY for ORCAS ISLAND LIBRARY |||

On Wednesday, October 7 at 6:00 p.m., the Orcas Island Public Library welcomes award-winning author and naturalist David B. Williams for a special conversation about his book, In the Range of Fire and Ice: A Human and Natural History of Washington’s Cascades. Williams will be joined in conversation by Amy Frost, Executive Director of the Lopez Island Historical Society.

Blending human and natural history, In the Range of Fire and Ice offers a fascinating portrait of one of North America’s most dynamic landscapes. From glaciers and volcanoes to forests, wildlife, and the people who have called the region home, Williams explores the forces that have shaped the Cascades—and continue to transform them today.

Drawing on conversations with anthropologists, park rangers, ecologists, climate scientists, and others, along with his own firsthand explorations, Williams uncovers stories written into the landscape over thousands of years. The result is an engaging journey through a mountain range defined by both dramatic change and remarkable resilience.

Through Williams’s characteristic curiosity and storytelling, the Cascades emerge as far more than a spectacular backdrop to life in the Pacific Northwest. They are a living, evolving landscape shaped by fire and ice, people and nature, destruction and renewal.

Williams is an author, naturalist, and tour guide whose award-winning books include Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound and Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle’s Topography. He is also the author of Seattle Walks: Discovering History and Nature in the City and Wild in Seattle: Stories at the Crossroads of People and Nature. His popular Street Smart Naturalist newsletter explores the often-overlooked connections between people, place, history, and the natural world. Williams has fittingly been described as an “evangelist for the practice of paying attention.”

The evening offers islanders an opportunity to hear from one of the Pacific Northwest’s most engaging interpreters of place and to look at a familiar landscape with fresh eyes.

In Conversation with David B. Williams
In the Range of Fire and Ice: A Human and Natural History of Washington’s Cascades
Wednesday, October 7 • 6:00 p.m.
Orcas Island Public Library
Moderated by Amy Frost, Executive Director, Lopez Island Historical Society

The event is presented by the Orcas Island Public Library, with Darvill’s Bookstore.

Free and open to the public.