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Tree Thieves
Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America's Woods | Lyndsie Bourgon
10 posts | 7 read | 10 to read
A gripping account of the billion-dollar timber black marketand how it intersects with environmentalism, class, and culture. 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.
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review
Kelican17
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Mehso-so

My mind wandered throughout this book. Sometimes the story would grab my attention and other times I would be so distracted that I had no idea what was going on- but I also wasn‘t invested enough to go back and figure it out. #bookdump4

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Hooked_on_books
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Pickpick

Tree Thieves looks at some of the history and scope of tree poaching, then focuses in on the poaching of Redwoods (especially their burls) in the PNW. Really interesting stuff. A big thanks to @Soubhiville for putting this one on my radar!

Soubhiville Glad you liked it! 2y
bnp Sounds interesting. I read an article recently about how tree DNA can be used to identify where a piece of wood came from (once you have a database for that species.) 2y
Hooked_on_books @bnp Isn‘t that amazing? That gets discussed in here. It‘s a great way to provide solid evidence in court when someone is poaching. 2y
56 likes2 stack adds3 comments
review
Lindy
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Pickpick

A gripping, eye-opening look at illegal logging: its staggering extent, effects and causes. 30% of the world‘s wood trade is illegal. 80% of Amazonian wood is poached. I was impressed by the author‘s efforts to get to know some of the people in the Pacific Northwest who steal trees & why. Prevention of tree poaching in this area is best dealt with by addressing socio-economic factors that encourage poaching. #CanadianAuthor

41 likes1 stack add
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Lindy
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Corporations continue to cut as much as they can in the Amazon today—by some accounts, the area of a soccer field every minute. […]
By the summer of 2021, so much damage had been done to the Amazon rain forest that it began to emit more carbon than it stores.

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Lindy
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Big trees (those with trunks more than 21” diameter) have a particular power to curb climate change: because they have reached full root, bark & canopy development, they store more carbon than younger, still-developing new growth. A study in 2018 found that the world‘s widest trees hold about half of all the carbon stored in global forests.

charl08 😍 2y
30 likes1 comment
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Lindy
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… meth had originally been developed as a worker‘s drug.

SamAnne In my hometown mill town meth and uppers were used to keep up in the mills. My town was a sitting duck when the newer, cheaper and more destructive versions became widespread. Had family members and classmates struggle with it. 2y
Lindy @SamAnne I‘m sorry 😞 2y
25 likes2 comments
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Lindy
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Automation, globalization & increased education requirements—compounded by failures in government & institutions—have given rise to a generation of disconnected & fearful people. The number of men who have dropped out of the labour force & stopped looking for work has quintupled since the 1950s. ⬇️

Lindy The result is a form of community trauma deeply felt in many rural areas: intergenerational poverty, long-term unemployment , degraded environments, disconnected social relationships, and destructive social norms. 2y
25 likes1 comment
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Lindy
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Within its boundaries, Redwood National and State Parks holds 45% of the world‘s remaining old-growth coast redwood forest & the planet‘s tallest tree. Of the 2 million acres of coast redwoods that once carpeted the region, just 4% (along a 450-mile-long stretch) remains.

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Lindy
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I clearly remember the half-year of continuous protest in 1993 when the BC government planned to open two-thirds of the old growth in Clayoquot Sound region to logging. “It would become the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history.”
(Internet photo)

SamAnne I remember that has well. I was working on forest protection in the U.S. 2y
Lindy @SamAnne 🌲🌳💚 2y
26 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
Soubhiville
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Pickpick

Really interesting NF about mostly the Pacific NW. There is a lot of connection between the end of the logging industry, meth, and lumber poaching. If you read Damnation Spring and wanted a NF “what happened next”, this would be a great companion book. Author touched on tree poaching in lots of other regions of the world as well.

Soubhiville @Hooked_on_books I think you‘d probably like this too. 2y
Hooked_on_books Thanks for bringing it to my attention! I‘ve never heard of this book and it‘s definitely in my wheelhouse. 2y
Soubhiville @Hooked_on_books I think it just released in the last couple weeks. 2y
See All 6 Comments
Pogue You had me at trees, PNW and NF. 2y
Megabooks Awesome! Stacking!! 2y
DivineDiana I did not know tree poaching was a thing! 😲 2y
65 likes6 stack adds6 comments