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The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed

by John Vaillant

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A Pacific Northwest environmental mystery rooted in one singular tree

$16.44 USD
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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A Pacific Northwest environmental mystery rooted in one singular tree

John Vaillant centers this nonfiction account on the 1997 felling of a rare golden-needled Sitka spruce in British Columbia’s Queen Charlotte Islands and the disappearance of the man connected to the act, former logger Grant Hadwin. The book frames the episode as more than an isolated act of sabotage: the tree’s unusual presence and the surrounding old-growth forest bring questions of environmental conflict, protest, resource extraction, and human fixation into view. Beginning with evidence found on a remote island, it links an unresolved disappearance to the contested fate of a distinctive natural landmark.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in forests, trees, and Pacific Northwest natural history
  • Those drawn to true stories of environmental activism and logging conflicts
  • Readers who enjoy nonfiction mysteries grounded in real events

Themes

Old-growth forestsEnvironmental protestLogging and resource extractionMystery and disappearanceHuman relationships with nature

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

When a shattered kayak and camping gear are found on an uninhabited island in the Pacific Northwest, 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.

As vividly as John Krakauer puts readers on Everest, John Vaillant takes us into the heart of North America's last great forest.

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