Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
The Golden Spruce
The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed | John Vaillant
12 posts | 19 read | 20 to read
The Golden Spruce is the story of a glorious natural wonder, the man who destroyed it, and the fascinating, troubling context in which his act took place. A tree with luminous glowing needles, the golden spruce was unique and, biologically speaking, should never have reached maturity; Grant Hadwin, the man who cut it down, was passionate, extraordinarily well-suited to wilderness survival, and to some degree unbalanced. But as John Vaillant shows, the extraordinary tree stood at the intersection of contradictory ways of looking at the world; the conflict between them is one reason it was destroyed. Taking in history, geography, science and spirituality, this book raises some of the most pressing questions facing society today. The golden spruce stood in the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii), an unusually rich ecosystem where the normal lines between species blur. Without romanticizing, Vaillant shows that this understanding is typified by the Haida, the native people who have lived there for millennia, and for whom the golden spruce was an integral part of their history and mythology. But seen a different way, the golden spruce stood in block 6 of Tree Farm License 39. Grant Hadwin had worked as a remote scout for timber companies. But over time Hadwin was pushed into a paradox: the better he was at his job, the more the world he loved was destroyed. On January 20, 1997, with the temperature near zero, Hadwin swam across the Yakoun River with a chainsaw. He tore into the golden spruce, leaving it so unstable that the first wind would push it over. A few weeks later, Hadwin set off in a kayak across the treacherous Hecate Strait to face court charges. He has not been heard from since. Vaillant describes Hadwins actions in engrossing detail, but also provides the complex environmental, political and economic context in which they took place. The Golden Spruce forces one to ask: can the damage our civilization exacts on the natural world be justified?
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
blurb
LiseWorks
post image
review
melissajayne
post image
Pickpick

3.5⭐️ It was something that I was glad to have read, even though I probably wouldn‘t have picked it up on my own. #2023 #bookclub #bookstagram #nonfiction #bookreview #mystery #truecrime #biography #britishcolumbia #forestindustry

review
jlhammar
post image
Pickpick

Gripping story about a shocking, violent and somewhat perplexing act of environmental protest in British Columbia. Great read!

#NaturaLitsyBingo2023 #Trees

AllDebooks This sounds amazing 2y
72 likes3 stack adds1 comment
review
HillsAndHamletsBookshop
post image
Pickpick

The Hidden Life of Trees meets Devil in the White City. This masterpiece of environmentalist true crime writing had me spellbound from start to finish. Lifelong Canadian logger Grant Hadwin experiences a spiritual transformation into an environmental activist. His increasingly quixotic quest to change the industry in the 1990s leads to a bizarre and seemingly inexplicable protest with a truly epic backstory. Hadwin remains missing to this day.

SamAnne This was a good one. 2y
HillsAndHamletsBookshop Another visiting bookseller from Orcas Island recommended to me when visiting our bookstore here in Georgia. It‘s an older title I hadn‘t even heard of and I just loved it! 2y
jlhammar Yay! I'm planning to read this in February for #NaturaLitsyBingo. Can't wait! 2y
HillsAndHamletsBookshop @jlhammar awesome! You are in for a treat! 2y
underground_bks Sounds so good! 2y
17 likes5 comments
review
EmilieGR
post image
Pickpick

A wonderful history of the Queen Charlotte islands and the logging industry of North America. Vaillant‘s emotional writing tugs on the heartstrings of the reader and enhances the already existing love and respect most people naturally have for the rainforest. I didn‘t expect to enjoy this book as much as I did.

SamAnne It was a fascinating read. 3y
EmilieGR @SamAnne It absolutely was! 3y
5 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
SamAnne
post image
Pickpick

Good read. A book on the history of logging and colonization of British Columbia‘s coastal forests and the Haida people told through the story of a man who cut down a sacred golden spruce in a twisted protest of the rapacious logging committed by MacMillian-Bloedel and Weyehaueser. I grew up in a town and forested community ravaged by Weyco. It hit home. Now I want to visit Haida Gawaii.

blurb
SamAnne
post image

“Despite the logging industry‘s profound impact on our lives and on this continent, few people outside the industry have actually witnessed a logging operation. While some of the mystery can be traced to the industry‘s skittish attitude toward spectators, it also owes much to the average consumer‘s lack of interest in the origins or true costs of the resources we take for granted”. So true.

SamAnne I can‘t believe I did not come across this book sooner. I grew up in a tiny Oregon timber community and saw how timber corporations ravage forests, rivers, communities and people. What I witnessed in the late 70s and early 80s turned me into an activist to try and stop the logging of the Northwest‘s last old growth. Enjoying the descriptions of the original wild B.C. Coastal forests. (edited) 5y
StillLookingForCarmenSanDiego I was told about the book while on a trip the Vancouver Island. Im really keen to read it. 5y
43 likes2 stack adds2 comments
blurb
SamAnne
post image

Well, at least I‘m beginning this book in a beautiful spot on vacation. I know it will sadden and anger me.

JanuarieTimewalker13 Wow!! That is beautiful!! 5y
Suet624 Ummmm...I want to be there...right there in that hammock. 5y
SamAnne Celebrating 10 wonderful years with my sweetheart. Feeling damn grateful. 5y
57 likes1 stack add3 comments
blurb
Oryx
post image

The good thing about emptying your bookshelves is that something that's sat there for years suddenly gets noticed again. This belongs to Mr Oryx, and it was bought about 12 years ago, and had never been read. It's compared to Into the Wild, so I'm giving it ago. Really interesting so far, and now I want to go to the Pacific Northwest.

58 likes1 stack add
review
ReadingEnvy
post image
Pickpick

This checks a number of boxes for me - cold weather islands (ever heard of the Haida Gwaii?), Canada, nature, and tiny fascinating facts to keep my interest through the whole read! Plus one glorious tree and one troubled man.

LectricSheep Whoa! Sounds fascinating. 6y
ReadingEnvy It really is. It's also fun to say "Haida gwaii." ? 6y
64 likes2 stack adds2 comments
review
Runsforbeer
post image
Pickpick

Amazing book! It‘s about man‘s tense relationship with nature. He uses a small story to tell a much larger one. Check out his other book - The Tiger - as well.

review
Lindy
post image
Pickpick

Captivating. As a protest to logging practices, a man chopped down a giant beloved 300-year-old Sitka spruce one night in 1997. His whereabouts remain a mystery. Dense with information and ideas across a broad spectrum of topics, this book really made me want to visit Haida Gwaii.

MrBook Interesting. You've talked me into it. 8y
Lindy @MrBook So much to talk about! Doctors who had evaluated the culprit earlier found he had "very overvalued ideas about the environment." Valiant: "This is a decidedly sinister assessment: how is it possible to 'overvalue' air and water?" 8y
Megabooks This sounds fascinating. 8y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa How is it possible to overvalue the only environment fit for human life? Good question. I'm adding this one! 8y
RealLifeReading Wow that sounds interesting! 8y
31 likes4 stack adds5 comments