The Twilight Forest: An Elegy for Ponderosa in a Changing West

by Gary Ferguson

With their towering, cinnamon-colored trunks and dusky green canopies, ponderosa pine has long been a charismatic icon of the American West. Yet a quiet unraveling has in the past decade, in a vast area from Santa Fe to the Sierras, more than two hundred million ponderosa have died. While some trees will survive in cooler places, scientists estimate that by mid-century less than five percent of the ponderosa in the American Southwest may remain. As the very character of this vast region shifts, what will be left behind? And how can we come to terms with such profound loss?

In The Twilight Forest, Gary Ferguson brings readers on an expansive journey through the ponderosa forests of the Southwest both to mourn—and to celebrate—the forests that nurtured him. In warm and luminous storytelling, Ferguson weaves together the human and natural history of ponderosa, from its march across the West more than 10,000 years ago, to centuries of artists inspired by its dazzling stature and shady passageways. Both wildfire and climate change are constant presences on this journey. Fire is necessary for healthy forests but has turned deadly, while climate change stresses even the hardiest beings of the natural world. Yet the story of ponderosa reminds us that loss can be a gateway to connection—to nature and each other.

While it is tempting to hide from the changes around us, Ferguson offers a healing “to pick even one of these thousand doors of loss, pull it open and walk through.” The resulting journey is a life-affirming tribute to one of America’s most cherished wild landscapes. 
 

176 pages, Hardcover

Published October 16, 2025

About the author

Nature writer, 1956-
Award-winning author Gary Ferguson has written for a variety of national publications, including Vanity Fair and the Chicago Tribune, and is the author of twenty-six books on nature and science. His memoir, The Carry Home, which the Los Angeles Times called “gorgeous, with beauty on every page,” was awarded “Best Nature book of the Year” by the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute. Gary is the co-founder of Full Ecology, with his wife, social scientists Mary M. Clare.

Reviews

[David Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good elegy for ponderosa pines and the American West. Starts out strong, but peters-out near the end; probably could (and should) have been shorter (though it's only 154 pages). Ferguson hangs his narrative on a trip through ponderosa pine forests from northern New Mexico through northern Arizona,into Utah and Nevada, and finally into California's Sierra Nevada. Full review to follow.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars