Conservation scientist and author Lauren E. Oakes set out to chronicle how plants and people could cope with their rapidly changing world. From California, she traveled to the southeast coast of Alaska to discover that groves of yellow-cedar were on the decline.
Looking for a doctoral thesis topic, the fast-disappearing yellow-cedar became the focus. What followed was an extraordinary years-long research project and the deeply heartening, In Search of the Canary Tree: The Story of a Scientist, a Cypress, and a Changing World.
The book was jointly selected as the Book in Common for the 2019-20 academic year by California State University, Chico President Gayle Hutchinson and Butte College President Samia Yaqub.
The Book in Common is a shared, community read, designed to promote discussion and understanding of important issues facing the broader community.
