“Canopy of Titans: The Life and Times of the Great North American Temperate Rainforest,” by Paul Koberstein in conversation with Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala, chief scientist at Wild Heritage.

Canopy of Titans examines the global importance of the Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest that stretches from Northern California to Alaska. It catalogs the threats to this vital environmental resource, and it provides readers with easy-to-grasp insights into the value of forests as climate mitigation. The story starts with the wildfires that raged across the American West in the summer of 2020 and ends at the UN Climate Change Conference in November 2021, with many historical flashbacks along the way. The authors pull back the curtain on governmental policies that have seriously diminished the rainforest’s capacity to store carbon, and they uncover industry practices that have led to the destruction of this major ecological resource. Through the lens of environmental justice, the book also shines a light on the indigenous communities that have lived in the rainforest for millennia, and the impact forest policies have had on their lives.

Paul Koberstein co-founded Cascadia Times in 1995 and has been its editor ever since. A journalist for 40 years, Paul was a staff writer for the Oregonian and Willamette Week in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2004, Paul won the John B. Oakes Award, given annually by Columbia University for the most distinguished environmental journalism in the United States, and in 2016, the Bruce Baer Award, given annually to an Oregon journalist for excellence in investigative journalism.

Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala is chief scientist at Wild Heritage and former president of the Society for Conservation Biology, North America Section. He is an internationally renowned author of more than 300 science papers and award-winning books on forests, climate change, and endangered species.

Held 7 to 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17.