��������

Eric DeChaine is the curator of the Pacific Northwest Herbarium and a professor of biology at Western Washington University, but he says that at heart he is a naturalist.

DeChaine was one of two presenters at the April 21 Wild About Nature presentation held at the White Salmon Grange.

Bothered by bugs while researching in tropical rainforests, he had the bright idea: “I’m going to the arctic!” The audience laughed as he confirmed, “Yes, mosquitoes!” He now researches in the area of the Pacific Rim, the “Ring of Fire,” which consists of an arc of volcanoes stretching from south of Japan north through Russia, across to Alaska, and down the west coast of the Americas.