Base Camp: Peg Herring, Our Forests, Born of Fire and Rain

The mountains most identified with our region — the Cascades, Olympics, and Coast Range — hold some of the most timber-productive forests in the world. This is a dynamic place of fire and rain, volcanic eruptions, landslides, timber wars, disappearing owls, and some of the biggest, longest living trees in the world.

These forests weathered relentless logging during the 20th century, until the threat of losing species prompted paradigm-shattering shifts in how federal forests are managed. After 30 years, forest management is changing again with serious consequences to our water supply, wildfire risk, changing climate, and species extinctions. At this moment of rapid environmental change, Herring offers an illustrated journey deep into the forests that cloak our Pacific Northwest mountains.

M.L. (Peg) Herring is an emerita professor of science communication at Oregon State University. Her work focuses on the public understanding of science, particularly the science that supports policy and management of public lands. Her newest book and winner of 2025 National Outdoor Book Award, Born of Fire and Rain (Yale University Press, 2024) offers a richly illustrated tour of the Pacific temperate rainforest, its lively past and its threatened future.