In Search of the Canary Tree
The Story of a Scientist, a Cypress, and a Changing World
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
The award-winning and surprisingly hopeful story of one woman's search for resiliency in a warming world
Several years ago, ecologist Lauren E. Oakes set out from California for Alaska's old-growth forests to hunt for a dying tree: the yellow-cedar. With climate change as the culprit, the death of this species meant loss for many Alaskans. Oakes and her research team wanted to chronicle how plants and people could cope with their rapidly changing world. Amidst the standing dead, she discovered the resiliency of forgotten forests, flourishing again in the wake of destruction, and a diverse community of people who persevered to create new relationships with the emerging environment. Eloquent, insightful, and deeply heartening, In Search of the Canary Tree is a case for hope in a warming world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ecologist Oakes traces the slow death of the yellow cedar, alternatively known as the yellow cypress, in this significant ecological study. She chronicles a years-long investigation into the old-growth forests on Alaska's "remote outer coast," while suggesting that the yellow cedar's recent decline, attributed to climate change and rising temperatures, might be the proverbial "canary in the coal mine calling out for our own inevitable demise." With innate curiosity and a strong sense of purpose, she talks with naturalists who recognize "the ecological value" of dead trees and "the habitat they create for birds the nutrients they add to the forest floor as they decay." She speaks to indigenous weavers, too, and to loggers and land managers, all of whom offer unique perspectives. Oakes's storytelling gets bogged down occasionally. Discussions of academic and scientific methodology, for example, can become dull. The narrative takes a turn for the rawly emotional, however, when Oakes's father unexpectedly dies back in Virginia, and she finds herself grieving his passing and Alaska's environmental deterioration simultaneously. In these passages, Oakes admirably melds the professional with the highly personal, ultimately delivering a work of sensitivity and philosophical grace. B&w illus. and maps.
