Author Janet R. Collins will give a presentation about polar explorer Ernest deKoven Leffingwell, who helped determine the edge of the Arctic’s continental shelf in 1906. With assistance from his Inupiaq neighbors, the driven young geologist pioneered research in ground ice (permafrost), observed birds, collected wildlife specimens, and surveyed and mapped along Alaska’s northeastern coast—often under extreme conditions.

Come meet Lauren Danner, author of Crown Jewel Wilderness: Creating North Cascades National Park, and discover the story behind Washington’s spectacularly majestic third national park. She chronicles how concern over natural resource agency policies—one favoring tourism development and the other promoting logging in national forests—plus  conservationists’ activism and skillful political compromise, eventually led to its creation 50 years ago in 1968. Lauren Danner