Popular outdoorsman, author dies at 81

Harvey Manning, a well-known Western Washington conservationist, hiker and author, died Nov. 12 after suffering from colon cancer. He was 81.

Manning may be best known as author of nine of the most popular trail guidebooks in Washington, some of which he co-authored with writer-photographer Ira Spring, who died in 2003.

The Seattle native was a member of The Mountaineers and a founding member of the North Cascades Conservation Council. He was also the editor of the club’s classic text, “Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills,” published in 1960.

He later published “The North Cascades,” which exposed the region to the nation for the first time. North Cascades National Park was established in 1968.

On the heels of that success, Manning edited “The Alpine Lakes,” a book by Brock Evans, founding member of the Washington Environmental Council who later became vice president of the National Audubon Society

The Alpine Lakes was later designated a wilderness and the region is one of the most-used backcountry destinations in the state.

Another Manning book, “Washington Wilderness: The Unfinished Work,” was instrumental as a lobbying tool in passing the Washington State Wilderness Act of 1984. This legislation effectively stopped efforts by business interests to halt the tide of wilderness designations. It also caused millions of additional acres of wild areas to become protected under those designations.

Manning’s talent for books was first put to use in l955, when the Mountaineers Club made him chairman of their editorial committee. The all-volunteer committee became the basis for the creation of the Seattle-based Mountaineers Books, which today is one of the nation’s leading publishers of outdoor recreation and conservation books. Manning was a driving force in the nonprofit publishing company’s development for 18 years, and went on to become ones of its best-selling authors.

“The early hiking guidebooks that Harvey helped publish — and then later wrote many of — were visionary in their advocacy,” said Helen Cherullo, Mountaineers Books publisher. “Harvey, Ira Spring and Louise Marshall knew, early on, that getting people into wild areas was the best way to make people love those places. They saw that when people were passionate about the backcountry, they were moved to preserve it. That was the main reason they wrote and published guidebooks.”

Among Manning’s popular guidebooks still in print is “100 Classic Hikes in Washington,” one of the best-selling trail guides for the state.

“He could be abrasive and wasn’t politically correct in any way,” said outdoor author and friend, Rick McGuire of Seattle. “But in a time where everything is made for the media and shaped by focus groups, Harvey said what he believed and didn’t worry about his image. He left the Cascades a much better place than he found them.”