For the Good of the Order: The Braget Farm and Land Use in the Nisqually River [B1296-GW]

2020 PB in excellent condition. From OUUC author Timothy W. Ransom, PhD. For the good of the order is a story of the social, political, and economic forces at play in the struggle over land use in western Washington State, as told from the perspective of the owners of a dairy farm on the Nisqually River delta in southern Puget Sound. Three generations of the Braget family farmed in the Nisqually property with a love and affinity for the land that reflected the agricultural background of their Norwegian ancestors and the blood, sweat, and tears they spilled there for almost 100 years. Central to the book are the issues of land stewardship and the relationship of private ownership to the public trust. Perched on the edge of the Nisqually River estuary, the Braget dairy farm was the target of myriad proposals to develop or manage the delta by private entrepreneurs, ports, local, state, and federal governments (including the U.S. army) and, starting in the 1960's, the environmental and conservationist movements. Year after year, and at great personal cost, the family defended their own understanding of the highest and best use of the land, resisting all efforts by predatory agencies, anonymous institutions, and even their neighbors and natural catastrophes to deprive them of it. Finally, orphaned, elderly, and childless, Kenny Braget struggled to pass on the farm in a way that would protect his family's legacy. In 2002, he found a willing buyer that shared his values and love of the land, the Nisqually Indian Tribe. He knew that to improve the return of fish to the estuary the tribe would remove the dikes that his family had maintained on the tidal flats for a century, but he also knew he would be able to continue to live on the farm and hunt ducks there for the rest of his life. And he would say, "If we can't grow cows on the land, let's grow salmon!"-from back cover.

From Amazon reviews: "Puts faces onto the complex story of the Nisqually Delta. Dr. Ransom spent years researching the Braget family and their connection with the Nisqually Delta in Washington's Pierce and Thurston Counties. His book combines a compelling story of a family deeply connected to the land with the complicated, sometimes maddening and confusing claims, threats, and evolution of the area to become one of our most treasured wildlife areas."