Join environmental journalist, artist, author, and clam digger David Berger on Thursday, October 18th at 7pm at Lopez Center. David will be presenting on the phenomenon of the Washington Razor Clam….. What brings thousands of men, women, and children to Washington’s sandy coastal beaches every year, braving weather and surf? The buried treasure known as the Pacific razor clam. Hunting and gathering these creatures has preoccupied Northwesterners from the time of the Native peoples to the present moment.
Challenging to dig, delicious to eat, and providing a sometimes heady experience of abundance, razor clams are entwined with Washington state’s commerce, identity, and history. David Berger’s lively presentation will explore the twists and turns of a quintessential Northwest activity from its pre-settlement days to the present. He will bring to light the long history of razor clamming as a subsistence, commercial, and recreational activity, and show the ways it has helped shape both the character and the psyche of this region. His presentation will illuminate the science behind the perplexing rules and restrictions that seek to keep the razor clam population healthy, and the biomechanics that make these delicious bivalves so challenging to catch.
David Berger lives in Seattle, and is a Metcalf Fellow for Marine and Environmental Reporting. He has been a contributor to the food feature, “Northwest Taste,” in the Pacific Magazine, and is former art critic for the Seattle Times. Answering the many questions generated about razor clam lore, history, and biology led to Berger writing a book, Razor Clams: Buried Treasure of the Pacific Northwest, published in fall 2017.
This is the next presentation in the HUMAN/NATURE fall speaker series, exploring the intersections between the human and natural worlds, co-sponsored by the Friends of the Lopez Library and a grant from the Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau.
All Library programs are free and open to the public. See you there! Thursday, October 18th, 7pm at the Lopez Center.