One Square Inch of Silence

The Olympic Peninsula in Washington state is one of the silent battlegrounds where Quiet Park International activists fight to protect the “natural quiet”, defined as the sounds of nature without human-made noise.

I joined acoustic ecologists Laura Giannone and Gordon Hempton on their journey to record natural quiet, from the muddy trails of Hoh rainforest to the hilly streets of West Seattle. These “sound trackers” regard quiet as a birthright. They hope future generations will find solace and inspiration in listening to the Earth, their “solar-powered jukebox”.

This work is part of a feature story published in Usbek & Rica Magazine in January 2021.