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Publisher’s Message for DYNAMIC FOREST

To shed light on today’s cultural, social, economic, and political issues that are shaping our future as Canadians, Dundurn’s Point of View Books offer readers the informed opinions of knowledgeable individuals.

Whatever the topic, the author of a Point of View book is someone we’ve invited to address a vital topic because their front-line experience, arising from personal immersion in the issue, gives readers an engaging perspective, even though a reader may not ultimately reach all the same conclusions as the author.

Our publishing house is committed to framing the hard choices facing Canadians in a way that will spur democratic debate in our country. For over forty years, Dundurn has been “defining Canada for Canadians.” Now our Point of View Books , under the direction of general editor J. Patrick Boyer, take us a further step on this journey of national discovery.

Each author of a Point of View book has an important message and a definite point of view about an issue close to their heart. Some Point of View Books will resemble manifestos for action, others will shed light on a crucial subject from an alternative perspective, and a few will be concise statements of a timely case needing to be clearly made.

But whatever the topic or whoever the author, all these titles will be eye-openers for Canadians, engaging issues that matter to us as citizens.

J. Kirk Howard

President

A Note from the General Editor

A tree’s leaf symbolizes our country on the national flag. Since Canada’s centennial, Gordon Lightfoot’s potent imagery about “the green dark forest ” has moved us with primordial feelings about the dense woodlands that are both background and living presence in our lives. National income in the billions and jobs for many thousands come from exporting timber and wood products.

Forests come with issues, too. As well as enduring trade disputes with the Americans over softwood lumber, there have been determined battles between loggers and “tree huggers” about such things as felling the world’s tallest Sitka spruce in B.C.’s Carmanah Valley, logging the West Coast’s wilderness Stein River Valley, and harvesting in Ontario’s provincial parks.

The saga of our country is entwined with forests. However, the reality of our national life — including economic, social, cultural, and environmental dimensions — being inextricably linked with forests does not mean we’ve got a clear fix on just what this relationship is, or should be.

Given that, it’s clear greater knowledge and awareness are needed. Dynamic Forest offers a welcome guide to the forest and our relationship with it. Malcolm Squires’s informative and engaging account reveals the intrinsic dynamism of forests, as well as the evolving outlooks of those living in harmony with them. Forester Squires scrutinizes the shortcomings of views ardently held, upholds the strength of Canadian democracy in shaping public policy, and demonstrates how the quest for “balance” in forestry policy and practice must account for the fact that, in nature, nothing is static or unchanging. He moves us beyond “logging” to forest management. He reminds us that without plants we can’t continue to exist, but they can do very well without us. He takes us into his natural home — the boreal forest — and shows how lessons from Newfoundland and northwestern Ontario provide guidance for public policy and private action in the great boreal expanse from our Pacific to Atlantic coasts.

With “dirt under the nails” wisdom drawn from years of wide experience, Malcolm Squires makes a compelling case, applicable to far more than forestry, for avoiding destructive polarization and for seeing how knowledge promotes respect.

J. Patrick Boyer

General Editor

Point of View Books