I decided to ignore the convention that discourages people from reviewing books by their friends because in this case there is some virtue in having a reviewer who knows the people and the subjects to a certain extent. I admit that I was a co-editor, with Dave Marshall and Matt Hunter, of Birds of Oregon: A General Reference. Marshall’s memoir, issued privately through the Audubon Society of Portland, is far, far more than a personal recollection. It is in effect a compact history of the wildlife refuge system in the Far West, told through the experiences of someone who helped build the refuges from scratch.