In Feathered Forest, an award-winning nature writer entwines the lives of birds with a hidden vertical world of wild trees.

Beginning with an ascent of a 200-foot-tall Douglas fir with a bird biologist, author Marina Richie leads us from her home in Central Oregon into the ancient forests of Cascadia, a bioregion which rivals the Amazonian rainforest in significance for climate and biodiversity. Birds are guides to intricate and imperiled communities thriving at every level, from understory to midstory to overstory. They lead us to cool havens within multilayered, centuries-old groves that are critical refugia in a time of climate crisis. Their songs and flights at every level show us what we must protect for the future of threatened birds, forests, and humankind.

A narrative of perception change, memoir, and kinship, Feathered Forest is a soaring ode to birds and wild trees.

About The Author

Marina Richie's writing career began in the early 1980s as a reporter for a weekly newspaper in northeastern Oregon. That led to a journalism master’s degree in 1988 from the University of Montana, a complement to her undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Oregon in 1981. Halcyon Journey was her first book for adults, and it earned the 2024 John Burroughs Medal, a National Outdoor Book Award (gold) and a Foreword Indies Award (silver). She has written two children’s books (under a prior name), Bird Feats of Montana and Bug Feats of Montana. The latter was selected as the one Montana book to represent the state at the National Book Fair in Washington, D.C. in 2009. 

She has worked as a journalist, writer of interpretive signs, wildlife viewing coordinator, and communications director for national wildlife initiatives—Teaming With Wildlife and the Sage Grouse Initiative (2011-2015). She's written for the National Wildlife Federation, National Audubon Society, Appalachian Trail Conservancy, American Birding Association, National Wildlife Refuges, and Oregon Wild. She gives environmental presentations, teaches nature writing workshops, and serves on the board of the Greater Hells Canyon Council.