I’ve read a lot of books about Pacific Northwest forests. I even wrote my own (Oregon’s Ancient Forests: A Hiking Guide). You might think they eventually all seem the same. But reading an advance copy of my friend Peg’s book about our region’s forests inspired me to learn more about and protect this amazing place we call home all over again. Her compelling writing style, the stories she shares, her wonderful illustrations, and the passionate voice she brings to the urgency of our forests’ plight all set this book apart as something new and worth reading – regardless of how many other books about forests one has read.
Because this forest of rain and fire is so big and tumultuous, it is a good place to consider life on a rapidly changing planet far beyond human control. At this particular moment in history, as the earth is shifting all around us, understanding what it means to be a forest might help us understand what it means to be human.
In the book, Peg takes readers on an imagined field trip into the fire-born, rain-soaked forests of western Oregon and Washington, and some of the countless upheavals they have survived for millennia, including the age of modern industrial forestry that began in the 20th century.
Now, as policies that implement environmental laws are being revised and the public is being asked to comment on sweeping changes to federal forest management, it is more essential than ever for us to understand how complex forest ecosystems actually work. This compelling read will prepare you for this important advocacy.
- Sign up for the March 5, 2025 Oregon Wild webcast with the author!
- Buy the book through bookshop.org or your local bookstore
About the author:
Peg (M.L.) Herring is an emerita professor of science communication at Oregon State University, an active Great Old Broad for Wilderness, and an enthusiastic supporter of Oregon Wild. Based in Corvallis, Oregon, she leads workshops to inspire people to experience the world through observation, art, and ecology.
From the publisher (Yale University Press):
Born of Fire and Rain: Journey into a Pacific Coastal Rainforest
Go beyond the scenery of the Pacific temperate rainforest to witness how complex ecosystems survive in a world of upheavals
In this engaging book science writer M. L. Herring takes readers into the Pacific temperate rainforest at the tumultuous edge of a shifting continent in a precarious moment of time. Readers peek behind the magnificent scenery into a forest of ancient trees, exploding mountains, disappearing owls, tsunamis, megafires, and ten million people to learn what it means to be a forest in a world of upheavals.
Through Herring’s words and pictures, readers drift into the canopy through masses of ferns and lichens, burrow into soil through hair-thin threads of fungi, and plunge headlong through a watershed flushed with rain and snowmelt. Readers experience the temperate rainforest through science and art as it faces a shifting climate and the shifting priorities of a constantly changing society. The book journeys beyond the grid of latitude and longitude and into places only one’s imagination can fit, to discover what it means to be human in an ecological world.
A few notable words of praise:
“Born of Fire and Rain is filled with deeply researched scientific stories about the adaptations and intricacies at work in ancient forests. Beautifully written and illustrated, inviting, and up-to-the-minute, this wonderful and remarkable book is a rewarding and enjoyable read. It will appeal especially to readers who liked Braiding Sweetgrass or Finding the Mother Tree.”—Kathleen Dean Moore, author of Earth’s Wild Music
“The Douglas-fir forests of the Pacific Northwest region of North America are nearly without rival in the world, and their distinctions have rarely been fully appreciated. M. L. Herring beautifully captures their story.”—Jerry F. Franklin, University of Washington College of the Environment
“M. L. Herring weaves together strands of science and nature writing, local history, and memoir to create a contemplative, deeply researched, and sensory-rich portrait of the Pacific temperate rain forest.”—James Barilla, author of My Backyard Jungle
