January 2018 Book Selection

Jefferson Land Trust Natural History Society book club will discuss One Square Inch of Silence by Gordon Hempton on Monday, January 22, 2018.  We will meet at the Pink House next to the Port Townsend Carnegie Library from 3:30-5:00.

Acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton warns us that natural silence is the fastest-disappearing resource in the U.S.  His book recounts his road trip across the country in a 1964 VW bus, recording and measuring natural sounds from one side of the country to the other.    He talks with people he meets along the way about the role of quiet in their lives.  His destination is Washington, D.C. where he meets with federal officials to talk about the need for natural silence preservation.

The “one square inch of silence” is an actual place, located in one of America’s last naturally quiet places, in the Hoh River area of Olympic National Park.