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Take a journey with the authors into a rough and magical place where the couple lives in a log cabin among the beavers and egrets. Theirs is a lush tale of learning about, advocating for, and explaining the mysteries of Portland, Oregon’s most hidden natural landscape, the wet and wild Columbia Slough.

Laura O. Foster, author of Portland Stair Walks

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Moving to a log house bordering the Columbia Slough, a couple discovers a vest-pocket Valhalla within the city, a place where nature’s rough magic captivates them. The rich floodplain that once nourished Chinookan peoples is gone, its wetlands channelized by 20th century landowners to form today’s nineteen mile slough.

As the authors walk, kayak, and bike an industrialized landscape, they celebrate a wealth of wildlife holding fast against the heavy-metal bedlam of development.

With evocative language and self-deprecating humor, Henry and Campbell tell an intensely personal story and highlight creative efforts to rewild the slough’s denaturalized habitats. Amanda Marisa Williams’ vivid pen and ink illustrations illuminate each chapter.

Chapter Excerpts

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Citizen Crow: Up to No Good

“Crows eyeball us in the garden like tower guards tracking inmates in the prison yard.”

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Love form clients

ADVANCE READER PRAISE

Who speaks for the Columbia Slough? No one more eloquently than the authors of this down-home, down-and-dirty testament to one of the region’s most important and too often maligned greenspaces. The interweaving of their intimate, earthy stories with the environmental regulations, restoration, management, and—for too many years—mismanagement of this natural treasure makes for a fascinating read. Beyond the science, politics and policies, it’s the couple’s personal experiences—fighting Himalayan blackberry and pesky nutria, encountering coyotes, eagles, otters and myriad other denizens, both wild and human—that make for an engaging and at times poignant read.

Take a journey with Campbell and Henry into this rough and magical place where the couple lives in a log cabin among the beavers and egrets. Theirs is a lush tale of learning about, advocating for, and explaining the mysteries of Portland’s most hidden natural landscape, the wet and wild Columbia Slough.

This Rough Magic captures the beauty, complexity, and challenges of life on Portland's Columbia Slough . . . It is a story of degradation and rejuvenation told by a couple with a keen eye for their furred and feathered co-inhabitants, often relegated to the shadows, but slowly emerging as the slough itself emerges from a century of neglect.

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Author and Illustratior BIOS

BRUCE CAMPBELL

lives in Portland, Oregon, where he gardens, hikes, and writes short stories, novels, and nonfiction. Published in The Timberline Review, Aestas 2015, and The Tishman Review, Bruce was a two time award winner in Willamette Writers’ Kay Snow Fiction Contest and a finalist in the San Francisco Writers Conference Contest, and the Tucson Festival of Books. https://brucecampbellauthor.com.

NANCY HENRY

grew up along lakes and rivers in the South, where she developed a love for open water. For many years, she led a creative team that designed learning programs for national service and educational clients. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where she bikes, swims, gardens and volunteers.

This Rough Magic