A tale of obsession so fierce that a man kills the thing he loves most: the only giant golden spruce on earth. "Absolutely spellbinding."—William Grimes, New York Times
As vividly as Jon Krakauer put readers on Everest, John Vaillant takes us into the heart of North America's last great forest, where trees grow to eighteen feet in diameter, sunlight never touches the ground, and the chainsaws are always at work.
When a shattered kayak and camping gear are found on an uninhabited is... (show more)
A tale of obsession so fierce that a man kills the thing he loves most: the only giant golden spruce on earth. "Absolutely spellbinding."—William Grimes, New York Times
As vividly as Jon Krakauer put readers on Everest, John Vaillant takes us into the heart of North America's last great forest, where trees grow to eighteen feet in diameter, sunlight never touches the ground, and the chainsaws are always at work.
When a shattered kayak and camping gear are found on an uninhabited island, they reignite a mystery surrounding a shocking act of protest. Five months earlier, logger-turned-activist Grant Hadwin had plunged naked into a river in British Columbia's Queen Charlotte Islands, towing a chainsaw. When his night's work was done, a unique Sitka spruce, 165 feet tall and covered with luminous golden needles, teetered on its stump. Two days later it fell.
The tree, a fascinating puzzle to scientists, was sacred to the Haida, a fierce seafaring tribe based in the Queen Charlottes. Vaillant recounts the bloody history of the Haida and the early fur trade, and provides harrowing details of the logging industry, whose omnivorous violence would claim both Hadwin and the golden spruce. 16 pages of illustrations. (show less)
Photo Gallery
Paints a wonder picture of the history of the logging industry, and our impact on nature. He achieves this without sounding like a tree hugging hi... (show more)
Paints a wonder picture of the history of the logging industry, and our impact on nature. He achieves this without sounding like a tree hugging hippie. (show less)
The story would have made a good magazine article, but was stretched way too far as a novel. Some of the information used to flesh things out was i... (show more)
The story would have made a good magazine article, but was stretched way too far as a novel. Some of the information used to flesh things out was interesting, but overall it seemed repetitive and somewhat incoherent. (show less)
This tragic story is not just about Golden Spruce - a uniquely golden giant Sitka Spruce tree but also about the exploitation & destruction of natural resources on the North West coast. This golden Spruce tree stood on the bank of Yakoun River on Queen Charlotte Island, off the west coast of Canada. In 1997, a former logger turned environmentalist Grant Hadwin, fell this unique tree down to convey a message to the world that the death of this uniquely golden Sitka Spruce tree is no differ... (show more)
This tragic story is not just about Golden Spruce - a uniquely golden giant Sitka Spruce tree but also about the exploitation & destruction of natural resources on the North West coast. This golden Spruce tree stood on the bank of Yakoun River on Queen Charlotte Island, off the west coast of Canada. In 1997, a former logger turned environmentalist Grant Hadwin, fell this unique tree down to convey a message to the world that the death of this uniquely golden Sitka Spruce tree is no different than the destruction of other trees in the forest.
In this book, John Vaillant has done has done an amazing job of providing a detailed account of not only the events around the death of Golden Spruce but also about providing relevant historical details about native Haida people, the reverent status of Golden Spruce in their culture, their own part in the destruction of natural resources on the north west coast including otter fur trade in 18th & 19th centuries which resulted in making sea otter extinct on the North West coast, the arrival of Europeans and then the immense destruction of old growth forest on the North West coast by loggers. Many people will find John Vaillant's writing style similar to John Krakauer and this story may remind them of his story - Into the Wild. (show less)
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There are several interesting stories within the book, and the writing is beautiful, but I found the book to be poorly organized and containing too much superfluous information. If you're interested in the history of logging, the Canadian west coast, and/or the Haida native americans, I recommend it. And I have to give the author major credit for exploring the complex ethics involved in conservation.
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