Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry

As a field guide, the editors of this edition have assembled a collection of endemic natural, historic, and cultural features of the Pacific Northwest to familiarize the reader with the area. But rather than restricting the contents to strict scientific categorization, the descriptions of the areas and their inhabitants are painted in an inviting narrative style, embellished with poetry and illustrated with entrancing black and white drawings. The blend of verse, art, background, and factual descriptions awakens the wonder a wanderer experiences when exposed to the wonders of this world.

Though the book is divided into thirteen regional sections, the reader can open randomly, perhaps to a page with a graffiti sketch of mosquitoes, to read that while mosquitoes can be annoying, we should nonetheless appreciate why they are necessary and smile at the accompanying verse. Or why we call the Hoary Marmot the Whistle Pig or identify Pinus contorta as the scientific name of the Lodgepole Pine, aptly named for its use by the Coastal Tribes for their lodges.

There is so much more about birds and bears, slugs and herbs, and fish, lizards, and crabs, all bound together in this ecological masterpiece aiming to meld art and cultural history with science.