Category: Blog

2023-03-15 KPTZ Interview with David Williams, prelude to Seattle’s Geologic Secrets

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Nan Evans of KPTZ and Seattle Naturalist David Williams, discussed “A Sense of Place – What is it?”  This is a prelude to David’s March 18th lecture entitled “Secrets of Seattle Geology—Connections of the human story and the geology story.”

The interview was delivered for Nature Now, a weekly radio broadcast on KPTZ 91.9 MHz. The interview was recorded as a MP3 file and broadcast three times preceding David’s March 18, 2023 lecture for the Quimper Geological Society:

Show #610: David Williams—A Sense of Place:  What does that mean?
Broadcast on March 15 at 12:30 PM; March 16at 5:30 PM; and March 18 at 12:30 PM

A recording of the interview is available on KPTZ’s Nature Now

2023-03-18 David Williams—Secrets of Seattle’s Geology: Connections of the human story and the geology story

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Street Smart Naturalist

The Lecture.  Unlike many regions in the country, the Seattle area is constantly reminded of its geologic past, present, and future. Whether it is our landslides, our glacier-carved topography, or our volatile volcanoes, this area’s geologic history is young, dynamic, and accessible. In this talk, David explained why we can blame California for some of our geo hazards, how coal influenced our economic development, and why it’s harder to travel east/west than north/south throughout the area.

 

Denny Hill, Seattle, 1910

The Lecturer.  David B. Williams is an author, naturalist, and tour guide whose award-winning book, Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound is a deep exploration of the stories of this beautiful waterway. He is also the author of  Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle’s Topography, Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology, as well as Seattle Walks: Discovering History and Nature in the City. Williams is a Curatorial Associate at the Burke Museum and writes a free weekly newsletter, the Street Smart Naturalist.

Book sale/signing.  David B. Williams brought a supply of his award-winning books for sale before and after the lecture.

Shipman, Hugh

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Hugh was a geologist with the Shorelands Program at the Washington Department of Ecology since 1989 but retired in 2019 after 30 years.  His interests include coastal erosion, geologic hazards, and the environmental impacts of shoreline modifications. Hugh grew up near the coast of Maine but moved to the Puget Sound region in 1983. (Updated Oct. 2021)

Here is his bio from Sound Waters University 2018:

Hugh has been a Coastal Geologist with the Shorelands and Environmental Assistance program of the Washington Department of Ecology since 1989.  He works all over Puget Sound and is interested in coastal erosion, geologic hazards, beach restoration, and the environmental impacts of shoreline modification. He provides technical assistance to state and local agencies, conducts trainings and educational workshops, and participates on a variety of advisory groups.

Hugh received a BA in Earth Sciences and Engineering from Dartmouth in 1981 and an MS in Geological Sciences from the University of Washington in 1986. He grew up near the coast of Maine, but moved to the Salish Sea in 1983.

In his spare time, Hugh blogs about shoreline geology at his “Gravel Beach” website:  http://gravelbeach.blogspot.com