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Sippewissett: Or, Life on a Salt Marsh

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From the opening sentence of Tim Traver's Sippewisset, you can tell that the author has spent a great deal of his life attuning to the rhythms of Nature. There is a rhythmic, undulatory quality to his prose, echoing the ebb and flow of water, wind, and wondrous life that is the perennial pulse of his beloved Sippewisset salt marsh.

Beloved. Be loved. The tradition of American nature writing might be said to ever and again utter this adjective and this injunction. American places have been celebrated by nature writers because they are beloved by the writer, whose words then invite us readers to love them as well. The act of loving a place is usually in nature books a wholly affirmative undertaking, risking at times and often succumbing to a saccharine sentimentality. Traver's Sippewisset keeps us listening to a muted but undeniable voice of negation as counterpoint to the author's reveling in beauty and slack-jawed marveling at biological process. There is a bit of the ascetic monk in Traver; the lean voice of the desert haunts his reveries about making a home on this good green earth of ours.

One hears in Tim Traver's voice a relentless questioning of the ways that natural science knows this well-studied wet spot on the sand margin of Cape Cod. Along with the lively pictures he gives us of scientists past (like Louis Agassiz & Rachel Carson) and present (John Teal, Lynn Margulis, and others) at work in the field, Traver constantly communicates his own inner landscape as he seeks to answer the driving question of the book: "How do we save both the soul of a place like Sippewisset and our own souls?"

Soul is a quality more endangered on this marshy planet than even the most fragile wetland, and the beauty of this book is that as deeply and intelligently as it penetrates the microbes in the mud of Sippewisset, Traver always puts the smelly stuff in service to the messy muds of our modern alienated minds. And as serious business as this soul-making search for sacred stewardship gets, we feel him always at play. The ten-year-old hunter of crabs and clams is never far away from the seasoned chronicler of biological process.

Seasoned. Sipewisset's seasons -- carried particularly by its animal denizens -- are of course here. And so are the seasonings of tasty prose inspired by the sheer fecundity of the place. But the reader will quickly come to feel that for all of his boyish wonder and playfulness, Traver is fully seasoned, his reflections upon Nature and Life warmed by the practicality that mature humanhood will convey upon any earnest participant in the mystery of life. Go walk and talk and play with him in his favorite place on Earth.

Kevin Dann
Department of History
Plattsburgh State University
author, Lewis Creek Lost & Found; Across the Great Border Fault; Traces on the Appalachians

Traver's stories in Sippewissett make the progression of environmentalists in the Eastern United States a tale of interest, rather than one of dry history. And the recounting of Traver's childhood, young adulthood, and recent visits to the magnificient marsh bring this place and its inhabitants of all kinds to life. I can almost hear the birds cry and feel the slimey smoothness of the fish. What a wonderful read. I've even shared some of the passages with my teenage son.

Such a delightful book!

A delight! Well written story of one man's life-long enjoyment of and study of one of Cape Cod's best kept treasures - Sippewisset Salt Marsh. This is an accessible account of the value of salt marshes in protecting our environment and how important it is to preserve marshes for the future.

Tim Traver writes with grace, humor and insight. He tells the compelling story of a small salt marsh on Cape Cod - where he, his family and friends spent endless summers discovering the world and themselves. His story blends intimate memories of growing up - fearless and curious - with science history and the broad progress of ecological inquiry. Readers are drawn into a thoughtful journey that reveals our place in the living, still-breathing world. Traver's salt marsh is transformed into a harbinger of the planet's health. We learn that everything we do matters.

This was an enjoyable book. Traver apparently views the world in a way very similar to my own. He values those long walks in a natural environment more than most everything else. His daughters for instance are an example that take precedence over life outdoors. These are easy things to relate to.

This book is ostensibly about life, memories and ecology as it relates to the Massachusetts' salt marsh Sippewissett. Those of us who are tyros when it comes to salt marshes get some instruction in an understandable way. We learn about the grasses, birds and other life but we learn a lot about Traver. It is very personalized as he relates events and people that were important to him as he grew up in the marsh.

The book is broken into twenty four essays that are only marginally sequential. It is written as if while musing, Traver remembers an event or wants to opine his views. This is not to say that he is sentimental or finger wagging, quite the contrary. Traver is confident that the battle to save swamp marshes will come from science when it comes to the ecology. The people and culture though require something less reductive than that.

When I received the book in the mail the other day, I set aside my current reading to browse it. I hardly put it down. The essays that I found to be the best were the ones on birds, microbes, fences and daughters to be the ones I enjoyed the most.
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We bought four more copies for friends and family. Our UU minister is building a service around just part of this. Add our emphasis on the incredible continuous dedication to researching life of this marsh over 75 years starting with Rachel Carson.