Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America's Woods

Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America's Woods

by Lyndsie Bourgon
Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America's Woods

Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America's Woods

by Lyndsie Bourgon

Hardcover

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Overview

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COLUMBIA SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM J. ANTHONY LUKAS BOOK AWARD

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 PEN/JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH AWARD FOR NONFICTION

FINALIST FOR THE NELLIE BY CHANTICLEER INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS FOR JOURNALISTIC NON-FICTION

A gripping investigation of the billion-dollar timber black market “and a fascinating examination of the deep and troubled relationship between people and forests” (Michelle Nijhuis, author of Beloved Beasts).


There's a strong chance that chair you are sitting on was made from stolen lumber. In Tree Thieves, Lyndsie Bourgon takes us deep into the underbelly of the illegal timber market. As she traces three timber poaching cases, she introduces us to tree poachers, law enforcement, forensic wood specialists, the enigmatic residents of former logging communities, environmental activists, international timber cartels, and indigenous communities along the way.

Old-growth trees are invaluable and irreplaceable for both humans and wildlife, and are the oldest living things on earth. But the morality of tree poaching is not as simple as we might think: stealing trees is a form of deeply rooted protest, and a side effect of environmental preservation and protection that doesn't include communities that have been uprooted or marginalized when park boundaries are drawn. As Bourgon discovers, failing to include working class and rural communities in the preservation of these awe-inducing ecosystems can lead to catastrophic results.

Featuring excellent investigative reporting, fascinating characters, logging history, political analysis, and cutting-edge tree science, Tree Thieves takes readers on a thrilling journey into the intrigue, crime, and incredible complexity sheltered under the forest canopy.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780316497442
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publication date: 06/21/2022
Pages: 288
Sales rank: 1,095,202
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Lyndsie Bourgon is a writer, oral historian, and 2018 National Geographic Explorer based in British Columbia. She writes about the environment and its entanglement with history, culture, and identity. Her features have been published in The Atlantic, Smithsonian, the Guardian, the Oxford AmericanAeon, The Walrus, and Hazlitt, among other outlets.

Table of Contents

Characters xiii

Prologue: May Creek 3

Part I Roots

Chapter 1 Clearances 7

Chapter 2 The Poacher and the Gamekeeper 15

Chapter 3 Into the Heart of the Country 21

Chapter 4 A Lunar Landscape 33

Chapter 5 Region at War 45

Part II Trunk

Chapter 6 The Gateway to the Redwoods 63

Chapter 7 Tree Troubles 71

Chapter 8 Music Wood 77

Chapter 9 The Trees of Mystery 85

Chapter 10 Turning 97

Chapter 11 Bad Jobs 103

Chapter 12 Catching an Outlaw 119

Chapter 13 In the Blocks 125

Chapter 14 Puzzle Pieces 135

Chapter 15 A New Surge 147

Chapter 16 The Origin Tree 157

Part III Candpy

Chapter 17 Tracking Timber 163

Chapter 18 "It Was a Vision Quest" 169

Chapter 19 From Peru to Houston 181

Chapter 20 "We Trust In the Trees" 191

Chapter 21 Carbon Sinks 195

Chapter 22 In Limbo 203

Afterword 209

Acknowledgments 213

Glossary 217

Notes 221

Bibliography and Sources 227

Archives 261

Index 263

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