Born of Fire and Rain

As someone who was born, raised, and still lives in the Pacific Northwest, much like James Taylor, I’ve indeed seen fire and I’ve seen rain. However while I’ve reviewed and reported on more books than I can reliably count that present the natural history of many a geographic area, I’ve not previously had the pleasure to be able to do so about one that presents such information about the place that I’ve called home for approaching three score years – not, at least, until Dr. M. L. Herring‘s recently published Born of Fire and Rain; Journey into a Pacific Coastal Forest arrived from Yale University Press.

Associate professor emerita of science communication at Oregon State University, Dr. Herring has called the subject area of this book home for nearly twenty years. Co-author with Dr. Sarah Green of the previously published Forest of Time; A Century of Science at Wind River Experimental Forest, and co-author with Dr. Judith L. Li of the delightful Ellie and Ricky books, Dr. Herring has a particularly appealing and effective writing style that melds clear and easy-to-understand information about her subjects with a narrative voice that is decidedly personal and familiar.

Enhancing her descriptions and explanations of the flora, fauna, geology, and all the other aspects of her subject Pacific temperate rainforest ecosystem are her truly lovely black and white illustrations that expand upon her words visually in ways that not only provide visual support to her narrative but convey the often enshadowed environment so widely found in these forested areas through their monochromatic sublimity.

I find that I have been reading Born of Fire and Rain a bit more slowly that I usually read most books, not because I find it difficult or uninteresting – far from it – but because I am savouring each and every image Dr. Herring brings to my mind through her superb descriptions. I’m also reveling in her explanations of local natural history and natural phenomena that I’ve observed throughout my life but never fully grasped that I didn’t truly understand them until reading what Dr. Herring had to say about them in this book.