I’ll write a proper post again soon. It has been a busy season.
Following are pictures from the Dalmatian Coast, Dublin, Montana, and the Colville Indian Reservation.
Archive for the ‘The Environment’ Category
Summer
August 7, 2019Salmon Restoration, Congressman Mike Simpson, and Izaak Walton
May 28, 2019
Lately, Idaho Republican congressman Mike Simpson’s vocal support of wild salmon restoration and the need to address climate change has received a lot of attention. His willingness to consider the removal of the Lower Snake River dams, has been a particular focus of the media.
Of course, Simpson acknowledges the many pragmatic reasons behind his stance. For instance, he notes that current efforts of the Bonneville Power Administration to protect salmon is exceedingly expensive and results in high costs for consumers. Ultimately, he emphasizes that the current situation is not working well for anyone, including farmers, who have seen more water sent down stream help salmon smolts. What is also interesting, though, is that Simpson counts the salmon and other nonhumans, impacted by the blockages and high water temperatures caused by the dams, right alongside the farmers, outfitters, tribal members, and others who are impacted (Simpson seeks bold action, Idaho’s salmon need hope, Simpson stops short, and more).
In an article published by Grist, writer Nathanael Johnson describes comments made by Simpson at a recent conference:
Recounting a trip to a spawning creek in the Sawtooth Mountains in central Idaho, Simpson paused to swallow hard a couple of times. Only one salmon made it to those shallows, he said, to “create its bed, lay its eggs and die. It was the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new one. These are the most,” he paused for a deep breath, “most incredible creatures I think that God’s created. It’s a cycle God has created. We shouldn’t mess with it.”
In these comments, Simpson indicates that among the many economic and ecosystemic reasons to save the salmon, is his view that salmon are a part of our shared creation. His understanding of this world and its inhabitants as sacred creations of his god remind me of Izaak Walton’s references to a “God of Nature” in his famous 1653 text The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man’s Recreation. I should point out to any readers unfamiliar with the text–assuming there are any–that The Compleat Angler is often cited as one of the most published English language texts in history, alongside the King James Bible and John Bunyan’s The Pilgrims Progress.
Venator and Piscator, Arthur Rackham, 1931.
Walton’s most powerful reference to the God of nature, at least in my reading, can be found at the conclusion of his original text (which becomes the conclusion of “part one,” in later editions). There, Walton writes, in the voice of the character Venator:
And as a pious man advised his friend, that, to beget mortification, he should frequent churches and view monuments, and charnel houses, and then and there consider how many dead bones time had piled up at the gates of death, so when I would beget content, and increase confidence in the power, and wisdom, and providence of Almighty God, I will walk the meadows, by some gliding stream, and there contemplate the lilies that take no care, and those very many other various little living creatures that are not only created, but fed, man knows not how, by the goodness of the God of Nature, and therefore trust in Him.
Many people will criticize Simpson as having fallen under the spell of liberal ideology, global warming conspiracies, or some such thing. But Izaak Walton’s words tell us that Simpson’s view of the salmon as sacred creations is anything but new to EuroAmerican thought. Walton, a deeply learned Anglican living in seventeenth century England, saw the salmonids of his island in just this way. Importantly, Simpson’s views very much correspond to those held my members of regional tribes in areas affected by the dams, as well. Indeed, many tribes are just starting this year’s First Salmon Ceremony, in which their members honor returning salmon (with dwindling numbers of returning salmon, these ceremonies are often bittersweet). So, Simpson is not an outlier in his understanding that salmon have a value that rivals that of humans. In fact, historically speaking, those who have no reverence for wild salmon at all are the strange ones.
Mind you, some of Simpson’s views diverge greatly from mine, tribal members, and probably even from Izaak Walton. But that is another post….
The Salmon do not Consent
February 18, 2019Christi Belcourt is a Métis artist from Alberta, who was raised in Ontario. She is part of an artistic and family known for their art and Indigenous rights advocacy. For those who don’t know, the Métis are one of three peoples legally recognized as aboriginal or indigenous, by the Canadian government. The other peoples are the First Nations (Indians) and Inuit.
Belcourt is a visual artist, who draws upon her identity as an Indigenous woman. Following is a description of her work, from her website:
Like generations of Indigenous artists before her, the majority of her work explores and celebrates the beauty of the natural world and traditional Indigenous world-views on spirituality and natural medicines while exploring nature’s symbolic properties. Following the tradition of
Métis floral beadwork, Belcourt uses the subject matter as metaphors for human existence to relay a variety of meanings that include concerns for the environment, biodiversity, spirituality and Indigenous rights. Although known primarily as a painter, she has for years been also practicing traditional arts.
You can find many examples of varied artwork at her online gallery. Besides the pieces you can find in the gallery, Belcourt also creates a great many graphic pieces, related to Indigenous rights and environmental protection. She makes these available for public use. Once such piece, posted recently on her Facebook page, particularly caught my eye.
This image addresses the “Trans Mountain” pipeline system. The Kinder Morgan cooperation is attempting to expand the capacity of this pipeline system, which will increase the environmental degradation at the Tar Sands of Alberta, where it originates. The pipeline ends at the Salish Sea, in British Columbia, and thus crosses a great deal of aboriginal Canadian land. The majority of First Nations along its pathway oppose the construction, because of the damage done at the Tar Sands as well as the possibility of further damage along its route (the pipeline has had numerous leaks, in the past).
Belcourt’s art implies that the salmon of British Columbia also oppose the Trans Mountain pipeline. This may seem like an odd claim to mainstream Canadians and Americans. However, traditional Indigenous peoples typically recognize animals as non-human persons, with whom they maintain reciprocal relations. Ancient stories often tell of agreements made between the Creator, culture heroes, or game animals themselves and humans. Generally speaking, these agreements stipulate that the animals “consent” to give their lives to humans, if they, in return, are honored and their overall populations protected. For a far more detailed explanation of such reciprocal relationships, I recommend the book Animism: Respecting the Living World (Columbia University Press, 2006), by Religious Studies scholar Graham Harvey.
I think many anglers can understand the relationships described above, even if we do not necessarily see animals as fellow persons. After all, a concern for conservation is reflected in angling literature dating back over 500 years in Europe. Authors emphasize the need to care for fish habitat and even to respect the fish (the latter need is particularly clear in Izaak Walton’s 1653 Complete Angler, in order to enjoy their sport). Today, many anglers join organization like Trout Unlimited or Backcountry Hunters and Anglers in order to “give back” to the fish.
In general, though, most Canadians, Americans, and Europeans are not very cognizant of the impact their actions have upon others–even their fellow humans. Drawing from her own people’s views, and those of other Indigenous Peoples, Belcourt urges us to do otherwise. I should add that we must do so, being fully prepared to consume less energy (lest any readers accuse me of hypocrisy). Make no mistake, while I am not the perfect person, I do consider the consequence of my actions regularly.
Giant Bears and Fanged Salmon
February 4, 2019Much of my attention at work, lately, has been directed toward a project involving grizzly bears. In thinking about the species of bears that roam the Americas, I was reminded of a piece of art I saw recently at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, in Spokane, Washington. It depicts one of the ancient, now extinct “short-faced bears” (Arctodus pristinus and Arctodus simus) wrestling with the also ancient and extinct “sabertooth salmon” (Onchorhynchus rastrosus). The massive sculpture, which is mounted on a wall, was created by artist Peter Thomas of entirely recycled materials. It is part of a larger, permanent exhibit of Thomas’ work.
Not surprisingly, these animals were massive. One species of the bear, Arctodus simus, may have stood 12 feet tall, while the salmon may have reached nine feet in length. Of course, the salmon is related to today’s Pacific salmon, while the short-faced bear’s closest living relative is the much smaller Andean “spectacled bear” (Tremarctos ornatus). Both of these animals roamed the waters and wilds of the Pacific Northwest. They were not actually contemporaries, but I still enjoy imagining what it might be like to land a giant salmon with huge teeth, while looking out for an even bigger bear that might want to steal my catch.
Watch and Learn
January 23, 2019Trout Unlimited recently published a short article by Crystal Elliot, TU’s Washington state habitat director, titled “Mimicking beavers improves trout habitat.” In it, Elliot writes, “The emerging restoration technique of mimicking beaver dams with beaver dam analogs (BDAs) is booming in popularity because of its effectiveness, relative ease of construction, adaptability, and low cost.”
My regular job involves promoting Indigenous land-based knowledge, often called in academia “Traditional Ecological Knowledge” or “TEK.” This knowledge is typically rooted in observations of the non-human world that are passed down, interpreted, and applied over many generations by members of Indigenous communities. Often, I find hard scientists to be the most receptive to collaborations with these communities, that incorporate such knowledge. In fact, some of the collaborations that come to mind have involved beavers, and were led by a Native American professor.
It is encouraging to see fisheries scientists looking toward non-human models of trout stream restoration. Sometimes the best solutions to a problem are those that have worked in the past. The Western obsession with human ingenuity sometimes distracts us from this fact.
The video accompanying Elliots’s article is below.
Book Recommendation: Moving Water, by Dave Hall
January 5, 2019
Many anglers are attracted to the aesthetic aspects of fly fishing. I refer not only to the spiritual or contemplative qualities of the pursuit, written about so often by Isaac Walton and others. Nor do I refer simply to the careful study or, in some cases, apprenticeship required for one to fish well–a phenomenon that is also written about extensively. Rather, I refer primarily to the sense of beauty, experienced visually and otherwise, in the places we fish. Sometimes, of course, this sense of beauty intersects with the spiritual. Indeed, over five centuries ago, the author of The Treatyse of Fyshingn wyth an Angle told us that smelling the flowers and listening to the melodies of the birds along the river bank, and even catching the occasional fish. is good for the “health of our body and soul.”
But this beauty is not easily conveyed in words or other images. Occasionally, however, someone succeeds in doing so. For instance, I have previously written about my appreciation of friend Claudiu Presecan’s paintings. Today, I write about the work of Dave Hill, who lives in the Rocky Mountain West. Hall is a rare individual, who has been able to capture the beauty of the places we fish in brushstrokes as well as words. He shares both in his new book, Moving Water: an Artist’s Reflections on Fly Fishing, Friendship, and Family (Blaine Creek, 2019).
Moving Water is a hardbound book with dust-jacket, that includes both single-page and full-spread, color reproductions of Hall’s paintings. Many of these depict the Yellowstone area of the American West. Along with the paintings are autobiographical reflections upon Hall’s life.
Hall’s paintings are both ethereal and very realistic, at the same time. Thus, they convey the sense of beauty that I describe above. In the paintings, anyone familiar with the West, or similar landscapes in other parts of the world, will recognize their own experiences of such beauty immediately. Because the written narrative accompanying the pictures is rather poetic, the words complement the pictures perfectly, and they provide an understanding of who Hall is, how his family influenced him, what his friends and fellow anglers were like, and so on. As a result, the words, along with the familiarity conveyed by the paintings, almost make you feel as if you are reacquainting yourself with an old friend, in the shape of Hall.
Rather than share my own, inevitably poor photographs of Hall’s work, I share an image from the artist’s website. This painting is featured in the book, and it is titled “Dawn on the Henry’s Fork.” It is one of my favorites.
I urge you to visit the Dave Hall Landscape Art to see more paintings. And you should visit Dave Hall’s Moving Water to learn more about his book and to place an order. You can also order postcards, posters, and more.
Hall’s paintings really do capture the Montana and Idaho with which I am acquainted; I can almost smell the flowers and hear the melodies of the birds, as recommended by the Treatyse’s author, just by looking at Hall’s paintings. Take a look; you may feel the same.
Steelhead Spirituality
December 9, 2018Lately, in Idaho, the volume of debates about how best to address the decline of wild steelhead in the Clearwater River and connected waterways (or whether to address it at all) has grown significantly. This is a good thing, in my mind, though of course I wish there was no question we would make the necessary sacrifices to protect them. Some of the loudest voices in this debate come from guides and others whose commercial ventures focus on steelhead fishing.
The Native Americans who have historically depended upon the steelhead and other anadromous fish are also rightfully vocal. Their dependence, I should emphasize, extends beyond their subsistence needs. Their cultural identities and spiritual lives are also tied to the fish. Most tribes pass down ancient stories in which this dependence is established, via agreements with the fish or their creator, that humans will care for the fish in return for the latter giving their lives to humans. The resulting reciprocal relationships feature heavily in ceremonies and other practices. The revered Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) elder Elmer Crow, explained this in a short film he made for Idaho Rivers United. The Clearwater, as I’m sure many readers know, flows through the Nez Perce Reservation.
We rarely hear Non-Native fishers describe their relationship to salmon and steelhead as spiritual. Yet, an Idaho angler and guide named Jerry Meyers did just that in a column, entitled “A Spiritual Loss,” for the Idaho Falls Post Register this fall. I have posted the column in its entirety below, and I urge you to read it.
A Spiritual Loss
by Jerry Myers, Post Register guest columnist. Sep 27, 2018
I am an Idaho salmon and steelhead angler edging into my sixth decade. What I am witnessing this year feels uncomfortably similar to the despair of the mid-1970’s and early 1990’s.
Wild steelhead and Chinook salmon counts are back near their desperately low post-dam-building numbers. Having spent 40 years advocating for wild fish in Idaho rivers, it can be depressing to yet again be wading into the same turbulent political and economic waters. The current discussion about Idaho’s salmon and steelhead future is centered largely on costs related to loss of fish and fishing opportunity, loss of electricity, loss of commodities transportation via barging, loss of biological diversity and loss of habitat.
Jerry MyersMuch less discussion is taking place regarding the spiritual value of these fish and related spiritual values that fishing opportunity provides to Idahoans like my family. What part of ourselves would be lost if salmon are allowed to slip away?
Perhaps older white guys like myself should not be engaged in attempting to explain the spiritual significance of what these fish mean. After all, our Native American brothers and sisters have taken on that role since Euro Americans first laid eyes on the inconceivably bountiful runs of the Northwest.
While it would be difficult for me to understand and accurately interpret Native Americans’ relationship to salmon, let me attempt to explain the spiritual relationship I have to these fish from the sea, and why wild steelhead are such a bone-deep part of our lives.
My parents were small Palouse-area farmers and ranchers who worked very hard to give their five kids a decent upbringing. Decent upbringing included understanding our responsibility to the land, have respect and awe for wildlife, wild places and respect for others.
My parents were generally in favor of building the Port of Lewiston and the four lower Snake River dams which made a seaport in Idaho possible. Their wheat got to Portland cheaper on barges and so each bushel we took off the farm became that much more valuable. More in the bank to feed and clothe a family.
Crop transportation costs still remain the main economic issue for farmers when it comes to barging grain to Portland. But farmers do not pay all the actual costs of barging. The taxpayer also contributes significantly by subsidizing the economic and environmental costs associated with the lower Snake dams.
I saw my first steelhead as a young lad walking along the creek that ran through our ranch. Seeing a fish the size of my leg which appeared like a ghost in a small turbid pool was one of those life-altering events.
When my Dad retired from farming and cattle ranching, he again took up steelhead fishing on the Clearwater River with a zealot’s focus. Free from the time constraints that farming and child-rearing require, he spent days, often by himself, chasing steelhead. I still cherish those too few days when we fished together and talked about many things that we had only argued about in the earlier, trying years of the 60’s and 70’s. Fishing was the neutral zone. I took my future wife steelhead fishing with Dad in the late 70’s, and we landed four steelhead that day.
We started our own river guiding business in 1982 and started our family a year later. Our two kids were largely raised on the river and became guides as soon as they reached 18. We fished together constantly, commiserated during the low-fish-run years and celebrated the stronger runs. Fishing fed our family both directly and indirectly through guiding wages. Our five grandkids, all under age 7, are already steelhead fishing veterans. Nothing excites them more than watching steelhead spawn in our nearby creek. They too are gaining a passion for wild creatures and wild places.
Our story is not that different than many Idaho families who also share our passion for fishing, hunting and exploring Idaho’s special places. I can’t fathom an Idaho that no longer has wild steelhead nor the collective will to fight to protect them.
I struggle to find words to accurately describe to others what these fish mean to us. How do we defend a spiritual need for wild things within an economic argument? We simply cannot assign a value to that innate part of ourselves that needs wildlife and wild fish, and we should never attempt to do so.
Salmon have been a part of the Northwest for many thousands of years, and I cannot conceive that within my lifetime we have gone from relative abundance to near extinction.
I find my faith in places where wild steelhead swim. It is here, in those places, that our family experiences beauty, an appreciation and empathy for those creatures nonhuman, a sense of humbleness in a natural world of which we are just a part. If we lose wild steelhead and salmon, we lose a part of our connectedness to our Creator, because our family believes they are part of the same.
______________________________________________________________________
Jerry Myers was born and raised on a farm/ranch near Genesee, Idaho. He has been an licensed Idaho river and fishing guide since 1977 and, with his wife Terry, has lived on the Salmon River for 40 years.
A.A. Luce on “The Fisherman,” by W.B. Yeats.
October 27, 2018
Yeats in 1908. Photograph by Alvin Langdon Coburn
Irish poet William Butler Yeats, winner of the 1923 Nobel prize in literature, published “The Fisherman” in 1919. In the poem, Yeats describes his past observation of a fly fisherman. In his memory, this man represents a simple life, free from the daily pressures most of us face. No doubt, Yeats faced serious pressures, indeed; when he wrote “The Fisherman,” he was already a successful poet and felt many demands upon his time and talents. And he had been deeply involved in Irish nationalism and would immerse himself in politics again, in the future.
I share the poem, below. Following it is commentary upon its meaning by A.A. Luce. Importantly, Luce was a philosopher and a fly fisher, himself.
“The Fisherman”
Although I can see him still—
The freckled man who goes
To a gray place on a hill
In gray Connemara clothes
At dawn to cast his flies—
It’s long since I began
To call up to the eyes
This wise and simple man.
All day I’d looked in the face
What I had hoped it would be
To write for my own race
And the reality:
The living men that I hate,
The dead man that I loved,
The craven man in his seat,
The insolent unreproved—
And no knave brought to book
Who has won a drunken cheer—
The witty man and his joke
Aimed at the commonest ear,
The clever man who cries
The catch cries of the clown,
The beating down of the wise
And great Art beaten down.
Maybe a twelve-month since
Suddenly I began,
In scorn of this audience,
Imagining a man,
And his sun-freckled face
And gray Connemara cloth,
Climbing up to a place
Where stone is dark with froth,
And the down turn of his wrist
When the flies drop in the stream—
A man who does not exist,
A man who is but a dream;
And cried, “Before I am old
I shall have written him one
Poem maybe as cold
And passionate as the dawn.
A.A. Luce, as a professor at Trinity College Dublin, was a colleague and acquaintance of Yeats’. In his remarkable Fishing and Thinking (Swan Hill, 1959), he wonders why Yeats chose to write about an angler:
Why did he pitch on angling, of all occupations? Why did he idealize the angler? It could not have been an accident. He must have found something in his own angling that answered a felt need. Was it objectivity, the sense of control by the object? The artistic imagination is in special need of such control and values it. When one’s sense of reality is perturbed, and the line between the real and the imaginary wavers, and perhaps the point approaches when “nothing is but what is not”, a day on a river is wonderful cure. It takes us out of ourselves, and confronts us with the comforting blank wall of something not ourselves, and confronts us with the comforting blank wall of something not ourselves, to which our sensing, imagining, thinking and action must conform. The sanity of the angler’s outlook commends angling to the sick in mind. …. The fresh air, the open spaces, the physical exercise, the nature of the occupation and the objectivity of the chase combine to make angling a sedative and a general tonic for the occupational dis-ease of the man of letters. (83)
I like Yeats’ poem, despite what feels to me like a bit of whining on its author’s part. I have faced my share of challenges, but my life is filled with blessings. One of them is the fact that I can fish regularly. As Luce suggests and perhaps as Yeats felt too, I find “the real” when I fish or otherwise spend time free from many of expectations and requirement placed upon me by those with whom I have very little meaningful connection. I was interested to hear a guest lecturer in my angling literature course say much the same thing this last week, and I wonder how many others feel the same. Regardless, I look forward to a good sleep and to experiencing reminders of what is “real’ tomorrow on the stream.
Addendum (11/5/18): I found mention of Yeats in this essay on occult bookstores, published this morning, to be intriguing: “Reading the Occult,” by Neil Armstrong.
Another year, another Angling Literature Syllabus
August 20, 2018Following is this semester’s syllabus for my angling literature course. Suggestions are always welcome (as are visitors).
Religion, Sport, and Water: Contemplation and Play in “Nature”
HONORS 380.3, Fall 2018
Class Time: TU,TH 9:10 AM-10:25 PM
Class Location: Todd Hall 324
Professor: Ken Lokensgard
Office: Plateau Center for Native American Programs, Cleveland 23A
Phone: 509-335-1055
E-mail: kenneth.lokensgard@wsu.edu
Office Hours: TU,TH 10:30 AM-12:00 PM and by appointment.
Depiction of Juliana Berners. Lithograph by William Nicholson, 1898.
DESCRIPTION AND GOALS OF COURSE
This course is an introduction to the literary history, religious significance, and socio-cultural impact of fishing. Students will read historically and culturally important texts ranging from those written in Ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, and in contemporary North America. All of these texts emphasize a relationship between religious experience, fishing, and the environment. We will explore this relationship, considering the cultural settings of each text while also learning about the overlapping aesthetic, ritual, and ecological dimensions ascribed to fishing—particularly fly fishing—by some of the most notable writers and intellectuals in European and Euro-American history. For comparisons’ sake, we will briefly examine religion and fishing in cultures outside of the European and North American literary worlds, as well. In addition to fishing literature, students will read relevant theoretical texts on religious experience, conservation, ecology, “play,” and “nature.”
As a whole, this course will serve as a focused study of the role that the extra-human environment and religious practice play in European, North American, and other cultural contexts. Thus, the course will introduce students to literature and ways of thinking that can be applied to any implicitly or explicitly religious phenomena that are practiced in so-called “natural” places. Moreover, the course will introduce students to the often religious significance that conservation and other ecologically informed practices play in the lives of many contemporary people.
This course is both reading and writing intensive. Most of the readings, however, were originally written for a popular audience. Also, the writing assignments will allow the student to incorporate his or her own, carefully examined reactions to these readings in his or her papers and essays. Therefore, this class is intended to be entertaining and engaging. Yet, it is designed for the student who is willing to consider religion within its broadest contours, who can devote concerted time to readings, and who is willing to engage in regular and thoughtful writing. If you are not such a student, then, this course is not designed for you.
The following table identifies specific learning goals (“LG”) to be achieved by the student:
| At the end of this course, students should be able to: | This objective will be evaluated primarily by: | Assignments and Activities advancing students toward these learning goals: | |
| LG1 | Demonstrate a firm command of the theories used to explain the social significance of play. | Classroom discussions, reaction papers, and essay exams. | Readings and discussion of important anthropological, philosophical, and religious studies theories (weeks 2, 5, 9, 12). |
| LG2 | Think critically about the concept of “nature” and its construction in Euro-American thought. | Classroom discussions, reaction papers, and essay exams. | Readings and discussions of anthropological literature, the views of angling authors, and reflections upon Euro-American ontology (weeks 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14, 15). |
| LG3 | Analyze the religious significance that many people ascribe to activities that take place outside the confines of “conventional” religion. | Classroom discussions and final paper. | Readings about and discussions of ritual, religious experience, and “religion” (weeks 1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16). |
Please note that Washington State University is committed to maintaining a safe environment for its faculty, staff, and students. Safety is the responsibility of every member of the campus community and individuals should know the appropriate actions to take when an emergency arises. In support of our commitment to the safety of the campus community the University has developed a Campus Safety Plan, http://safetyplan.wsu.edu. It is highly recommended that you visit this web site as well as the University emergency management web site at http://oem.wsu.edu/ to become familiar with the information provided.
ASSIGNED READINGS and OTHER RESOURCES
Required Books:
Walton, Izaak and Charles Cotton, ed. Marjorie Swann, The Compleat Angler (New York: Oxford University Press, USA: World’s Classics, 2014).
Maclean, Norman, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).
Duncan, David James, The River Why (New York: Back Bay Books, 2016)
Other readings are listed in the tentative schedule and will be accessible online, via the course’s Blackboard site. These readings include excerpts from the following:
Luce, A.A., Fishing and Thinking (Shrewsbury, UK: Swan Hill Press, 2002).
Snyder, Sam, Borgelt, Bryon, Tobey, Elizabeth, Backcasts: A Global History of Fly Fishing and Conservation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 2016).
Films, Guest Lectures, and other activities will serve as important resources.
The films are listed in the tentative schedule, below. Informal guest lectures will be delivered by regional artists, authors, and anglers at dates to be announced. Each guest will address the aesthetic and “spiritual” dimensions of fly fishing, from his or her perspective as a craftsperson or author. We will also visit the Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections reading room to examine exceptionally rare editions of texts read or discussed in class, which are part of the Wildlife and Outdoor Recreation Collection. Among these texts are several first and other 17th c. editions of The Compleat Angler.
Please note this course is designed to help students develop their critical reading and writing skills. Specific methods of critical reading and writing will be discussed in class at opportune times. You are also strongly encouraged to make use of the instructor’s office hours and of the Undergraduate Writing Center in Smith CUE 303.
REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
Four three-page critical reaction papers will be submitted throughout the semester. Papers should be written in a 12 point font with 1 inch margins. Each of these papers is worth 5 percent of your total grade (5 points each). There will be two exams, which will include short answer and essay questions. Each exam is worth 20 percent of the total course grade (20 points each). Toward the end of the semester, a twelve-page paper, analyzing the treatment of religion in at least three of the assigned readings, or in three texts dealing with other “outdoor” practices sometimes characterized as religious (I will provide a bibliography), must be submitted. This paper is worth 30 percent of your total grade (30 points). Ten points are reserved for attendance. Attendance will be taken randomly 10 times during the semester; an unexcused absence during any of these days will result in the loss of one point. See the tentative schedule, below, for due dates and exam dates.
An accumulated 93 or more total points for the course will result in a final “A” grade (“A+” and “D-“ letter grades are not awarded at WSU).
90-92pts = A-
87-89 pts = B+
83-86 pts = B
80-82 pts = B-
77-79 pts = C+
73-76 pts = C
70-72 pts = C-
67-69 pts = D+
60-66 pts = D
0-59 pts = F
Reasonable accommodations are available for students with a documented disability. If you have a disability and need accommodations to fully participate in this class, please either visit or call the Access Center (Washington Building 217; 509-335-3417) to schedule an appointment with an Access Advisor. All accommodations MUST be approved through the Access Center.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY and EXPECTATIONS
Academic integrity is absolutely required in this course. Any student caught cheating, in any way, will fail the course and be reported to the Office of Student Standards and Accountability. Cheating is defined by Washington State Academic Code ((WAC 504-26-010 (3).) It is strongly suggested that you read and understand the definitions.
In this writing intensive course, you should be particularly mindful of avoiding plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined in WAC 504-26-010 (3i) as follows:
Plagiarism is presenting the information, ideas, or phrasing of another person as the student’s own work without proper acknowledgment of the source. This includes submitting a commercially prepared paper or research project or submitting for academic credit any work done by someone else. The term “plagiarism” includes, but is not limited to, the use, by paraphrase or direct quotation, of the published or unpublished work of another person without full and clear acknowledgment. It also includes the unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic materials.
All written assignments must be submitted by 11:59 pm on the day they are due. To do this, upload your paper as a document file in the “assignments” section of the course’s Blackboard site. The title of your file should be “HONORS 380.3 Paper #–your first and last name” (e.g., HONORS 380.3 Paper 1–Juliana Berners). Please put your name on the first page of the document itself, as well. Late assignments will not be accepted unless prior arrangements are made or if a documentable emergency occurs.
Midterm Exam Date: Oct. 2.
Final Exam Date and Time: Thursday, Dec. 13, 10:10 am – 12:10 pm.
TENTATIVE WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Week 1: August 21 and 23.
Academic Integrity, the Academic Study of Religion, and Religion as a Lived, Social Phenomenon.
Readings: Snyder, “Wading through the History of Angling’s Evolving Ethics” (online).
Film: Prosek, The Complete Angler.
Week 2: August 28 and 30.
Water, Humanity, and Other-Than-Human Worlds.
Readings: Turner, “Liminality and Communitas,” (online); Harvey, “Signs of Life and Personhood” (online).
Week 3: September 4 and 6.
Ancient and Medieval European Fishing, Monasticism, Sustenance, and Leisure.
Readings: Hoffman, “Trout and Fly, Work and Play, in Medieval Europe (online); Berners, “The Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle” (online); James, excerpt from “Mysticism” (online).
Paper 1 Due Sept. 4.
Week 4: September 11 and 13.
King Arthur’s Knights, Celtic and Anglo Saxon Fishing, and England.
Readings: Walton, The Compleat Angler (Part I, ch’s 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 16, 21).
Visit to MASC.
Week 5: September 18 and 20.
The Enlightenment, Play, and the Escape to Nature.
Readings: Cotton, The Compleat Angler (Part II, letters, “Retirement,” skim ch’s 5-12).
Week 6: September 25 and 27.
The Americas, Natural Law, and Romanticism.
Readings: Seecombe, “Business and Diversion” (online).
Paper 2 Due Sept. 25.
Week 7: October 2 and 4.
Midterm Exam (Oct. 2).
No class Sept. 4.
Week 8: October 9 and 11.
The Americas, Romanticism v. Reality.
Hemingway, “Big Two-Hearted River” (online).
Week 9: October 16 and 18.
Fishing, Religion, and Relationship.
Readings: Luce, ch’s 1-6, Fishing and Thinking (online
Paper 3 Due Oct. 16.
Week 10: October 23 and 25.
Fishing, Relationship, and Ethics.
Readings: Luce, ch’s 7-12, Fishing and Thinking (online).
Week 11: October 30 and November 1.
Lived Religion, Map, and Territory.
Readings: Maclean, A River Runs Through It.
Week 12: November 6 and 8.
Lived Religion, Nature Mysticism, and Ecology.
Readings: Duncan, The River Why.
Paper 4 Due.
Week 13: November 13 and 15.
Lived Religion, Nature Mysticism,and Ecology.
Readings: Duncan, The River Why;
Week 14: November 20 and 22.
Native American and other Religious Views of Water, Fish, and Fishing.
Readings: Lokensgard, “From Serpents to Fly Fishers: Changing Attitudes in Blackfeet Country toward Fish and Fishing” (online).
No class Nov. 20 and 22.
Week 15: November 27and 29.
No class: Thanksgiving Break
Week 16: December 4 and 6.
Religion, “Nature,” and the Environment.
Film: A River runs Through It.
Analytic Paper Due: December 7 by 11:59 PM.
Final Exam Date and Time: Thursday, Dec. 13, 10:10 am – 12:10 pm.
Copyright 2018 Kenneth H. Lokensgard
In the Name of the River
July 22, 2018The waters symbolize the universal sum of virtualities; they are fons et origo, “spring and origin,” the reservoir of all the possibilities of existence; they precede every form and support every creation.
Mircea Eliade, Romanian Historian of Religion. From the Sacred and Profane: The Nature of Religion, translated by William Trask (Harcourt, 1957) 130.
Summer sometimes involves trips to Hungary, where my wife grew up. Sometimes I fish there, near my brother-in-law’s house, on the Danube or on a little-known trout stream. Other times, I visit friends in Transylvania to fish much deeper in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania
Claudiu Presecan, whom I have introduced to readers before, is one of these friends in Romania. Claudiu is a devoted fly fisher, as well as an artist. He cares deeply about the environment from which he draws artistic and spiritual inspiration. Some time ago, he made a short video sharing the beauty and potential threats to one of his favorite rivers, the Somesul Rece.
Understandably, the environmental concerns most of us have revolve around places and issues in our own regions. It is good to remember, however, that people in other parts of the world have similar concerns about their own regions. Just as we have come to view the land as an ecosystem, we should view humans similarly (after all, we are part of the ecosystem). Our rivers ultimately mingle through the aquifers and oceans, and our humanity mingles as we drink from or fish those same waters. So, take a look at Claudiu’s video about the Somesul Rece and remember that our fights to preserve the health of the world extend far beyond our own home waters.
You can see Claudiu’s paintings, including a series also titled ‘In the Name of the River,’ at ClaudiuPresecan.Com. He will also be showing his work in Seattle this fall. If your interest in art does not extend much beyond tackle, you might take a look at the rods built by his friend Paul Sas, of Xander Flyrods. Paul also hand makes lures, knives, and, I’m sure, much more. Paul and another angler, Dr. Mihai Vasilescue, appear in Claudiu’s movie.
The Literary Fly Fisher 