Expecting a large crowd, I parked several blocks away from the New Traditions Café and set out dashing through the rain. It seems remarkable now – after several additional days of steady rain, that on Saturday, September 23rd, dashing through rain after two months of drought brought out almost joyful feelings.
The joy was quashed upon reaching the café and learning that the expected speakers, the authors of the recently released book, Canopy of Titans: The Life and Times of the Great North American Temperate Rainforest, were sick with COVID and the event was canceled. I expect the event’s sponsors, Mason County Climate Justice and Legacy Forest Defense Coalition, were also disappointed, although had they been present, they surely would have been heartened to see that quite a number of attendees came through the Café door that afternoon.
Because of the cancellation, this article now becomes a book review rather than an event account. Although I suspect that it ultimately amounts to the same, having read their book, I was looking forward to hearing from its authors and perhaps asking a question or two.
The authors are journalists Paul Koberstein and Jessica Applegate of the Cascadia Times, an independent online journal dedicated to issues of the environment in the Pacific Northwest. It is an advocacy publication with a mission banner that reads “Journalism on Behalf of the Planet.” "Canopy of Titans" is a publication of Cascadia Times.
The book itself reads like a series of investigative articles about the Pacific Northwest forests, sandwiched between an introduction and a conclusion. This is not surprising, since Koberstein has been researching and writing about these issues for over 40 years, having written for The Oregonian and Willamette Week before founding Cascadia Times in 1995. Also not surprising, with the Times and both authors based in the Portland area, the content leans heavily into Oregon forest management issues, both historic and contemporary.
The book’s principal subject is the Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest, stretching from Northern California to Alaska, and its importance globally and not just to us in the Northwest. It discusses forest management and emphasizes the vital importance of Pacific Northwest forests as an environmental resource, as well as how forests can be at the heart of climate change mitigation.
As such it introduces a relatively new term – proforestation. Coined in 2019 by William Moomaw, this approach to forest management emphasizes protecting existing natural forests for their multiple ecological benefits. Just as carbon sequestration was new and unfamiliar only a few years ago, thanks to this book, the term “proforestation” may soon enter the common environmental lexicon.
I urge the reader not to become too bogged down in the lengthy accounts of corruption and environmental damage in Oregon forestry or similar accounts from British Columbia and Alaska. These articles, essentially reprinted from earlier publications, are valuable background but may distract from the book’s vital messages – forests as climate change mitigation, managing forests by proforestation, and the fact that forests in the Pacific Northwest are ideal for growing huge trees (the titans for the book’s title).
The Washington State readers might be disappointed with this book. Washington forest history, current practices and regulations, are given little specific attention (although Washington suffers under many of the same economic pressures described for other states). This is understandable since the journalists/authors have focused on other states, but it is nonetheless concerning. In Washington, forest companies, Indian tribes and state regulators have hammered out several agreements over the past four decades, including ones that fund Indian tribes to be involved in forest studies and regulation.
The book's sections touching on Indians are also somewhat disappointing to me, although some readers will find it informative. Many writers, including these authors, tend to write about Indian communities by looking backward, to what was, rather than forward to what is and will soon be. Indian Tribes are major players in forest ownership and management; they are making decisions every day that are central to the issues raised in Canopy of Titans.
Finally, it is unfortunate that the authors did not give more attention to the economics of forests. Timber harvest generates huge wealth and the economy of the Pacific Northwest, that is to say all of us, benefits greatly as this new wealth circulates through our communities. Proforestation implies a substantial alteration of these regional economic benefits. I would like to read more about how we in the Pacific Northwest can provide important climate mitigation without having to endure negative impacts.
Here's an example of the difficulties. Recent Washington carbon offset auctions raised over $1 billion. That sounds like a lot. But, with forest lands valued at approximately $5000/acre or more, these funds would purchase only 200,000 acres to manage in a proforestation manner (and that assumes that the owner of that imagined timber land was willing to sell).
All in all, this newly published book will provide a reader who has little knowledge about our Pacific Northwest forests with an abundance of background information and a good introduction to the role these forests could play in climate mitigation. If that is you, by all means, get a copy of the book. However, if you are already enmeshed in Washington forest management issues, you might not find this book all that insightful.
CANOPY OF TITANS - The Life and Times of The Great North American Temperate Rainforest.
Paul Koberstein and Jessica Applegate. OR Books (Feb 7, 2023)
Hardcover (416pp); Paperback (335pp) - 978-1-68219-345-7
George Walter writes the Thurston's Birds column each week in The JOLT. He is the environmental program manager at the Nisqually Indian Tribe’s natural resources department; he also has a 40+ year interest in forest management in the Nisqually Watershed. He may be reached at george@theJOLTnews.com
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