washington

Field Guide to the Grasses of Oregon and Washington

April 20, 2021

For those of who react allergically to grass, being able to identify one species from another is not only helpful, but in serious cases it can be potentially life saving as one thus knows when one is in the presence of a species that may cause a particularly severe respiratory reaction. The challenge is that the grasses are one of the trickiest of all the plant families to get sorted, and the sheer number of them here in Oregon and Washington – native and introduced – approaches four hundred when subspecies and varieties are included.

Trees to Know in Oregon and Washington

February 15, 2021

From its first edition originally published in 1950, “Trees to Know in Oregon” has been an essential field guide for naturalists, ecologists, foresters, and anyone else interested in identifying and understanding the trees to be found in its title-referenced U.S. state.

Fishes of the Salish Sea

August 27, 2020

It isn’t known whether or not Theodor Seuss Geisel was thinking of the ichthyological diversity to be found in the Pacific Northwest’s Salish Sea when declaring “Say, what a lot of fish there are” in the opening of his now classic book “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish,” but it would be entirely understandable if he had been.

After the Blast

May 2, 2020

On the morning of 18 May, 1980, I was camping with my Boy Scout troop in Ft. Stevens State Park. We were just finishing up breakfast when the news reached us from one of the rangers that Mt. St. Helens had erupted. None of us would learn the full extent of the damage – including the destruction of Spirit Lake, a heartbreakingly beautiful location at which we had camped the year before – wrought by explosion until days later. Fifty-seven people died from the blast, as well as countless animals and plants. So much of the surrounding landscape was either incinerated or buried by ash that it resembled the surface of the Moon more than any Earthly environment. Like so many of my Pacific Northwest neighbors, I remember wondering if I would live to see the area even begin to return to its former lush, green state.