The West's vast ponderosa pine forest has been home to people for thousands of years. Ponderosa from distant mountains provided timbers for the ancient pueblos of the Southwest. Pioneers on horseback extolled the giant pines and grassy glades of yesterday's forest. Ponderosa timber was used to build Gold Rush-era flumes, sluice boxes, and mine shafts, as well as ties and trestles for the transcontinental railroad. Ponderosa: People Fire, and the...

At the time of his death in 1907, John Waldie, founder of the Victoria Harbour Lumber Company, was identified as "the second largest lumber operator in Canada." A young Scottish immigrant who came to Wellington Square (now Burlington, Ontario) in 1842, he rose to prominence as a wealthy merchant and ship owner. In 1885 he entered the lumber business. Active in local and federal politics, and a friend of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, he invested capital in...

An olive farmer journeys through Spain, Italy, and North Africa to find the future of agriculture in an age of chemicals and climate challenges. Carol Drinkwater's beloved olive farm in the South of France was suffering badly from destructive pests and premature ripening. In a hunt for answers, she decided to set out on her own for a fact-finding tour of Spain, Italy, Morocco, and Algeria. In The Olive Tree, Carol recounts not only the agricultural...

Nearing the end of a lifetime in the boreal forest, a retired forester writes a passionate plea for rational, science-based forest management. The boreal forest is constantly changing, often dramatically. We like to picture it as a stable, balanced system. Really, it is anything but stable. The boreal forest is dynamic. For over sixty years, forester Malcolm F. Squires has seen mature forests within protected areas devastated by insects, moose, wind,...

A long-awaited volume in the New Naturalist series examining the trees of Britain. Trees are immensely valuable. They give shape to our lives with wood, the material that makes our homes, our books, our belongings, they nourish us with the air we breathe and the fruits we eat, and they sustain us, with their shade and the comfort of their presence. They are also fascinating — they are the biggest and oldest living organisms on the planet and are...

Building a fire to warm your home is incredibly satisfying. Splitting logs, stacking and seasoning the wood, and then building a fire is the height of self-sufficiency. Norwegian Wood is a practical and inspiring book that teaches you how to do all of those things. A runaway best-seller in Europe, the book provides in-depth information about tree types, wood-stacking methods, tools, and stoves; it also examines the history of man's longstanding need...

At a small farm in Provence, a woman tries to do her part to save the bees, and the planet, in this stirring, entertaining memoir. After a long research trip, Carol Drinkwater is back home with her husband, Michel, on their olive farm in the south of France. She's overjoyed, but also has something serious on her mind: the ecological threats to their own farm, and countless others. The die-off of honeybees has reached crisis levels globally, and Carol...