Rain plus trees equals rainforest, right? Not really wrong, says naturalist Neal Maine, but that equation doesn’t begin to capture the complex interactions among air and water and leaf and soil and microorganisms and all the other elements required to create a functioning temperate rainforest.

Join Maine for a conversation in words and images about the forest native to this coast in a presentation titled “How to See a Rainforest.” To begin to understand our rainforest you need to do more than follow the rain as it splashes on a tree’s needles, runs down the bark, and reaches the roots in the soil. For instance, the biologist notes, “They look like a bunch of individual trees, but in fact they are literally all communicating with one another.” As always, Maine will take us below the surface of things, from how things seem to work to how—according to the latest science—things really work and what scientists still don’t understand about the rainforest biome.

This is the third program in the 2016 Listening to the Land series, which this year is following the theme of water. Listening to the Land is an annual winter speaker series presented monthly by North Coast Land Conservancy and the Necanicum Watershed Council in partnership with the Seaside Public Library. Admission is free and refreshments are served.