The Douglas fir is an indelible symbol of the Pacific Northwest. The thick-barked native represents the aesthetics of biologically rich Cascadia and the checkered past of overlogging.

eight feet and then the trees end up being submerged into the salty water at these coastal marshes,” Diego Melgar, director of University of Oregon’s Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center ...

Along this fraught stretch, called the Cascadia Subduction Zone, two pieces of the Earth’s crust slide against each other, building up stresses capable of unleashing a catastrophic 9.0-magnitude ...