While in Redwood National Park several weeks ago, I picked up
The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed by John Vaillant, and
The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston.
The Wild Trees focused on a few individuals who dedicated their lives to finding the world's tallest living organisms within the Redwood State and National Parks. Quite an interesting read.
The Golden Spruce gives a history of the native people of Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte islands ~70 miles off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. However, the story also focuses on a man, Grant Hadwin, who felled the famous golden Sitka spruce tree.
Hadwin wrote several environmental manifestos (which I painstakingly attempted to find, and was mostly unsuccessful), regarding how people cared for a single organism -- the Golden Spruce -- because it was different, but those same people were completely indifferent to the mass destruction of the old growth forests around them.
Below is one of Hadwin's published letters:
Re: The Falling of Your "Pet Plant" On January 20 and January 21, 1997.
I put the falling cuts, into a tree, known as the Golden Spruce, near Port Clements, Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia. The tree is one, of two known Sitka Spruce, I believe, with an unusual colour pigmentation, which apparently causes a slightly golden hue. This tree is situated in a small "island" of old-growth forest, in a vast clear-cut (more or less), known as Haida Gwaii, by The Haida Aboriginal People. The next storm, in Haida Gwaii (if not before) will probably cause this +1000 year old plant, to fall into or near, the Yakoun River.
I don't care much for "freaks" whether they teach in university classrooms, sit in corporate boardrooms, perform in the circus or are put on display, as examples of old growth forest conservation or demonstration forests. I didn't enjoy butchering this magnificent old plant, but you apparently need a message and wake-up call, that even a university trained professional should be able to understand.
I draw your attention, to the Yukon news, of December 11, 1996 and the Daily News, in Prince Rupert, of January 7, 1997. (Next to the article on the Queen Charlotte City garbage dump and the murderer and the pedophile story). Perception is everything, I'm told. I really didn't have much trouble, crossing a rain swollen Yakoun River, at midnight, with a chainsaw and other equipment. Swimming in the Yakoun River, for thirteen minutes at -30 degrees Centigrade, is more challenging. It was challenging, however, to fall a +2 metre diameter Golden, at night, with a 25 inch chainsaw bar and leave this large plant, in a temporary vertical position.
I mean no disrespect, to most of the Haida People, by my actions or to the natural environment, of Haida Gwaii. I do however; mean this action to be an expression, of my rage and hatred, towards university trained professionals and their extreme supports, whose ideas, ethics, denials, part truths, attitudes etc. appear to be responsible for most of the abominations towards amateur life, on this planet.
Unfortunately, institutional professionals appear to be insane, in varying degrees, perhaps due in part to economically and psychologically abusive training methods. Please find enclosed, some of the last known photographs, of the Golden Spruce (unless you hurry), before the next wind storm.
Yours Truly
Grant Hadwin
I honestly was not sure where to put this. I have difficulty articulating my thoughts on this matter. Maybe the whole of humanity would wake up to the destruction of the natural world if many of our favorites were put on display like Hadwin did to the Golden spruce.
