Excerpt from Of Bears and Ballots by Heather Lende, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Did we even need to campaign? We candidates publicly fielded lots of questions about the biggest issues facing the community: the economy, the multi-million-dollar harbor expansion project, the freight dock repairs, the expensive private dump that results in people tossing trash out in the woods or burning it instead. I don't know if my positions changed anyone's mind. Voters knew us, and most had a first choice before any of the six candidates vying for the two open seats had even said a word. Maybe their second choice was still up for grabs.

In my thirty-plus years in Haines, a lot has changed in the national political, social, environmental, and economic climates, and those developments have in some ways coincided with shifts in our community as well. Haines has grown from an old logging and fishing town to a newer artsy place for tourists and retirees, and it's more seasonal, bustling all summer and shrinking in the winter. Hillary won Haines, as did Obama before her, though neither won in the Mosquito Lake area, which typically has about a hundred voters or less who tend to vote more right wing than left. Don Young, "Congressman for all Alaskans" forever, it seems, hasn't taken Haines a few times in recent history. It's been close, but still. Lisa Murkowski has won here every time. e Haines electorate is violet with red and blue highlights. The Elks Club folded and is now a private gym owned by a chiropractor from Colorado with nine (or maybe ten by now) home-schooled children. There's a new distillery in a former army bakery and Leo Smith Logging Co. is no longer, and neither is Leo. The spruce that he once cut for sawmills is being used to craft custom snowboards and skis at another new business. Gift shops, tour offces, and art galleries surround his widow's trailer home and my husband Chip's lumberyard on the waterfront.The local NRA members host an annual fundraiser at the Fogcutter Bar, where raffe prizes include assault rifles. The Southeast Alaska State Fair raffes off a new Subaru. There is a women's pistol club, where some learn to shoot in self-defense, and others for sport. My hairdresser is a member. Her husband passed away following a long illness, and she is a vocal advocate for major healthcare reform to make it affordable, compassionate, and available to all. Susan marched with the club in the Fourth of July parade wearing a sidearm in a holster buckled over her jean shorts. They meet at the public library where the environmental organization, Lynn Canal Conservation, sometimes shows lms on protecting wild salmon and rivers threatened by mines, timber sales, and climate change. Bumper stickers on rigs parked on Main Street range from RESIST and BERNIE to FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS EAT FARMED SALMON and EARTH FIRST, WE'LL MINE THE OTHER PLANETS LATER. On one bumper there are both INUSURED BY SMITH & WESSON and IMPEACH OBAMA stickers. (they're hard to peel off after years of snow and grime.)

Here in the north, accelerated global warming is changing the landscape and altering the fisheries. No one is certain where the once-abundant Chilkat River king salmon have gone, but strict fisheries management measures are underway to keep them from disappearing altogether, including limiting commercial fishing so king salmon aren't accidentally caught with other, more plentiful species of Pacific salmon. The glaciers are retreating before our eyes, the winds blow harder, and it seems to rain more than it snows. There is a major mining prospect in the exploration phase near the headwaters of the Chilkat River, and state offcials are negotiating contracts for the largest timber sales in decades. State revenue from oil development, which communities like Haines depend on for much of their funding, is waning. The Alaska Marine Highway, as the public ferry service is called, is our link to Juneau (the nearest city, more than four hours away by boat.) It has seen reductions in service and more breakdowns than ever due to the aging fleet, all of which makes for anxious and defensive people.

Excerpted from Of Bears and Ballots by Heather Lende. Copyright © 2020 by Heather Lende. Excerpted by permission of Algonquin Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.