The Golden Spruce and other "environmental" books

[danlo]

Funny little books like Rachel Carson's The Sea Around Us and Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire inspired a multitude of environmental activists in the '60s and '70s. And even though I've been pretty damm immersed in SF and Fantasy I was lucky enough to stumble upon the most beautifully written and best researched book on environmental issues of the century. OK the last 6 years . Actually it's probably the best "environmental" book I've ever read and I was a PIRG (Nader) Environmental Issues Coordinator and canvas director for 6 years.

The book is called The Golden Spruce and was written by John Valliant. It centers on an impossibly rare Golden Sitka tree cut down in the middle of the night, in the dead of Winter, by a logger turned environmetalist in a state of madness. You will learn SO much about the history of the Haida people, the Pacific Northwest, the North American logging industy and Earth's environmental issues that it will absolutely blow your mind. Not since Keysey's Sometimes a Great Notion has a better book written about the Pac. NW come along.

What's amazing, tho, is: it's all true! The Hecate Straight is, probably, the most incredible ecosystem left on earth and the Queen Charlotte Islands are one of the most remarkable habitats ever. The history and myths of this region are uttely fascinating. This is a hell of a book-you won't be able to put it down.

The Golden Spruce itself is a Gilden tree, in fact it's THE Gilden tree. The parallels between this story and the Land's history are obvious: comsuption is the Sunbane and the companies are Ravers. Actually, with ignorance taken into account, we are (all) Ravers.

[Damelon]

The Golden Spruce is a good read. A true story of a rare genetic freak of a tree, a spruce tree with golden needles. Usually those trees can't survive, but this one was in just the right place where it could thrive - it was estimated at 300 years old. The Haida, the native population, had a myth concerning how it came to be. A park was set aside to view it. It had become a tourist resource for the town nearby.

In the mid '90's the tree was cut down in at night by an environmental activist. He had worked for years in the logging industry, and at some point had a epiphany and opposed logging. To him the golden spruce was part of the problem. People weren't literally seeing the forest because of the tree in his point of view. By cutting down the tree, he united everyone against him in the community.

[Avatar]

Sounds a sad story.

--A

[danlo]

Well, the deforrestation of North America (not to mention Greece, N. Africa, Europe, the Amazon, Indonesia, etc...) is pretty sad. But, actually, there are many reasons to be optimistic about future after reading this book. I didn't know that Greenpeace was founded in Vancouver, or the exact origin of it. In fact Hadwin: the logger, super outdoorsman, madman, was in fairly close contact with the group-even if he acted completely independently.

[Avatar]

I meant the poor bugger who cut down the golden spruce.

--A

[pondhopper]

Interesting

Sounds like Hadwin is/was a man of many paradoxes, whose health-sense of the land perceived many ills & ultimately, fell victim to Despite & performed his own "Ritual of Desecration". Probably, has a Raver mocking him in his dreams. A little similar to Treadwell, whom became the catalyst for the death of one of the bears he sought to protect.

Odd, how there seems to be a regional common denominator for these events in the Americas