Stronghold

Stronghold is Tucker Malarkey s enthralling account of an unlikely visionary, Guido Rahr, and his crusade to protect the world s last bastion of wild salmon. One of the most determined creatures on earth, salmon have succeeded in returning from the sea to their birth rivers to spawn for hundreds of thousands of years no matter what the obstacles. But our steady incursions into their habitats mean increasingly few are making it, pushing these fish to near extinction. In this improbable and inspiring story, we follow Guido on a wild and, at times, dangerous adventure from Oregon to Alaska, and then to one of the world s last remaining wildernesses, in the Russian Far East. Along the way, Guido contends with scientists, conservationists, Russian oligarchs and corrupt officials and befriends some unexpected allies in an attempt to secure a stronghold for the endangered salmon, an extraordinary keystone of our ecosystem whose demise would reverberate across the planet. This book is a remarkable work of natural history, a clarion call for a sustainable future and a riveting insight into a fish whose future is closely linked to our own. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Adobe Garamond Pro'} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Adobe Garamond Pro'; min-height: 14.0px}

“"An astonishing story, grippingly told, with the inspiring example at its heart of a man for whom the wellbeing of the natural world is the only goal. It is a story to counter any sense of despair. Tucker Malarkey, in one intriguing twist and turn after another, has shown that, with the application of rare talent, with luck and at some personal cost, real good can in the end be done."- Adam Nicolson, author of The Seabirds Cry”

An astonishing story, grippingly told.
The Melvillian showdown between this extraordinary man and his equally extraordinary quarry forms the climax of Stronghold. Rahr's passion for salmon is contagious, and Malarkey channels it well...[she] is a novelist by trade, and it shows. New York Times

Tucker Malarkey spent four years working on the foreign desk of The Washington Post and then with columnist Haynes Johnson on the book Sleepwalking Through History, a bestselling account of the Reagan years. She is the author of the novels An Obvious Enchantment and Resurrection. She has taught writing workshops in schools around Portland and was a founding editor of Tin House magazine, a literary journal based in Portland and New York.

Guido Rahr was an unusual young boy; from the age of three, he was exploring the fields and streams near his home in Oregon; by 12 he was an authority on rare snake species; and at 15, he began a life long love affair with the majestic salmon, spending all his time on the Deschutes River teaching himself to fly fish. Salmon, one of the most determined, single minded creatures on earth, have for hundreds of thousands of years succeeded in returning from the sea to their birth rivers to spawn - no matter the conditions or obstacles. But as Guido discovered to his alarm when he started studying them in the late 90s, fewer and fewer were returning each year as the rivers of the US were becoming increasingly inhospitable, due to dams, industry, and climate change. The salmon of the Pacific Rim, it seemed, were set for near extinction, just like the salmon that once filled the Atlantic Ocean. An improbable and inspiring story, Stronghold takes the reader on a wild and at times dangerous adventure as we follow Guido from Oregon to Alaska to one of the world's last remaining salmon strongholds, in the Russian Far East - a landscape of ecological richness and diversity that is rapidly being developed for oil, gas, minerals, and timber. As Guido befriends and navigates scientists, conservationists, corrupt officials, Russian oligarchs, unexpected allies, and impenetrable bureaucracies, he reveals the astonishing natural history of the endangered salmon, a species whose demise will reverberate across the planet. And he sets into motion a plan that can secure their survival.

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