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Big Lonely Doug : the story of one of Canada's last great trees / Harley Rustad.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: The Walrus BooksPublisher: [Toronto, ON] : House of Anansi Press Inc., 2018Description: 315 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color), map ; 22 cmISBN:
  • 1487003110
  • 9781487003111
Subject(s): LOC classification:
  • QH106.2.B7 R87 2018
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in electronic format.
Contents:
Prologue : a seed -- The ribbon -- Evergreen -- A tree of many names -- Green gold -- War for the woods -- A forest alliance -- The logger -- Last tree standing -- Growing an icon -- Big tree hunting -- Tall tree capital -- A new ecosystem -- Epilogue : a giant.
Summary: "On a cool morning in the winter of 2011, a logger named Dennis Cronin was walking through a stand of old-growth forest near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island. His job was to survey the land and flag the boundaries for clear-cutting. As he made his way through the forest, Cronin came across a massive Douglas-fir the height of a twenty-storey building. It was one of the largest trees in Canada that if felled and milled could easily fetch more than fifty thousand dollars. Instead of moving on, he reached into his vest pocket for a flagging he rarely used, tore off a strip, and wrapped it around the base of the trunk. Along the length of the ribbon were the words "Leave Tree." When the fallers arrived, every wiry cedar, every droopy-topped hemlock, every great fir was cut down and hauled away--all except one. The solitary tree stood quietly in the clear cut until activist and photographer T.J. Watt stumbled upon the Douglas-fir while searching for big trees for the Ancient Forest Alliance, an environmental organization fighting to protect British Columbia's dwindling old-growth forests. The single Douglas-fir exemplified their cause: the grandeur of these trees juxtaposed with their plight. They gave it a name: Big Lonely Doug. The tree would also eventually, and controversially, be turned into the poster child of the Tall Tree Capital of Canada, attracting thousands of tourists every year and garnering the attention of artists, businesses, and organizations who saw new values encased within its bark. Originally featured as a long-form article in The Walrus that garnered a National Magazine Award (Silver), Big Lonely Doug weaves the ecology of old-growth forests, the legend of the West Coast's big trees, the turbulence of the logging industry, the fight for preservation, the contention surrounding ecotourism, First Nations land and cultural rights, and the fraught future of these ancient forests around the story of a logger who saved one of Canada's last great trees."--
List(s) this item appears in: Northwest Ecosystems
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Lending Books Elisabeth C. Miller Library Pacific Northwest Connections Collection SB455.5 .R87 2018 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 39352800178766
Total holds: 0

"The Walrus Books, a partnership between The Walrus, House of Anansi Press, and The Chawkers Foundation Writers Project, supports the creation of Canadian non-fiction books of national interest. Big Lonely Doug is the first in this series."--Page [i]

Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-299) and index.

Prologue : a seed -- The ribbon -- Evergreen -- A tree of many names -- Green gold -- War for the woods -- A forest alliance -- The logger -- Last tree standing -- Growing an icon -- Big tree hunting -- Tall tree capital -- A new ecosystem -- Epilogue : a giant.

"On a cool morning in the winter of 2011, a logger named Dennis Cronin was walking through a stand of old-growth forest near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island. His job was to survey the land and flag the boundaries for clear-cutting. As he made his way through the forest, Cronin came across a massive Douglas-fir the height of a twenty-storey building. It was one of the largest trees in Canada that if felled and milled could easily fetch more than fifty thousand dollars. Instead of moving on, he reached into his vest pocket for a flagging he rarely used, tore off a strip, and wrapped it around the base of the trunk. Along the length of the ribbon were the words "Leave Tree." When the fallers arrived, every wiry cedar, every droopy-topped hemlock, every great fir was cut down and hauled away--all except one. The solitary tree stood quietly in the clear cut until activist and photographer T.J. Watt stumbled upon the Douglas-fir while searching for big trees for the Ancient Forest Alliance, an environmental organization fighting to protect British Columbia's dwindling old-growth forests. The single Douglas-fir exemplified their cause: the grandeur of these trees juxtaposed with their plight. They gave it a name: Big Lonely Doug. The tree would also eventually, and controversially, be turned into the poster child of the Tall Tree Capital of Canada, attracting thousands of tourists every year and garnering the attention of artists, businesses, and organizations who saw new values encased within its bark. Originally featured as a long-form article in The Walrus that garnered a National Magazine Award (Silver), Big Lonely Doug weaves the ecology of old-growth forests, the legend of the West Coast's big trees, the turbulence of the logging industry, the fight for preservation, the contention surrounding ecotourism, First Nations land and cultural rights, and the fraught future of these ancient forests around the story of a logger who saved one of Canada's last great trees."--

Issued also in electronic format.

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