Review by Booklist Review
With illegal tree harvesting, or poaching, accounting for as much as 30 percent of the global timber trade and as much as $100 billion annually, according to Interpol and the UN, Bourgon zeroes in on the Pacific Northwest, where the poaching of redwoods, Douglas firs, maples, cedars, and other trees is having a ruinous impact on forest habitats. Bourgon is not unsympathetic to the perpetrators, who are often members of those generational logging communities most adversely impacted by forest-conservation laws, but she also shares the frustrations of law enforcement in their efforts to catch and prosecute them: "They don't leave fingerprints on these tree stumps," as someone pointed out. Bourgon also reports on hopeful advances in DNA research to tie specific tree specimens to suspected illegal wood products. Bourgon, who's written on the topic for National Geographic and Smithsonian, brings a nuanced understanding to an important, overlooked environmental issue.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Historian Bourgon explores the lucrative and complex crime of timber poaching in her fascinating debut. An estimated $1 billion worth of wood is poached annually in North America alone, Bourgon writes, and while the forest was once seen as "a common source of commodities or privileges," there's long been a tension resulting from conservation efforts and private forest management initiatives that too often "disregard and marginalize the working-class people who not only live among the trees but rely on them to survive." As well, historically, the creation of national and state parks displaced Indigenous and logging communities throughout the Pacific Northwest, and broader industry declines led to widespread job loss and an increase in poverty levels in logging communities. As such, Bourgon posits that timber poaching can be "an act to reclaim one's place in a rapidly changing world" and promotes changing forest management policies so that they take into account the communities involved. Bourgon's thoughtful approach and sharp investigative reporting will give environmentalists, policymakers, and park lovers a new perspective on the consequences of prioritizing endangered environments at the expense of the people who live in them. Nature lovers, take note. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Timber poaching could be judged simply: Stealing is wrong, and destroying protected national treasures and resources is even worse. But this book by British Columbia-based ecology writer Bourgon delves into the complexities of the illegal timber market in an evenhanded manner. Focusing primarily on forestry in the Pacific Northwest, the author explains how timber poaching--although difficult to prosecute--is an offense with significant long-term ramifications to the global economy and the well-being of all living creatures. At the same time, Bourgon's interviews with poachers (and with police, former loggers, Indigenous communities, and international timber cartels) help readers to be sympathetic to the circumstances. The book is grounded in these interviews and research, but it also dips into narrative nonfiction that puts readers in the mindset of its subjects (e.g., the anxious moment of stumbling onto a recently abandoned poaching site). It might be hard to sell readers on the unsexy crime of stealing trees, but there's much of interest in this book (high-tech efforts to catch poachers and identify stolen trees; the supply chain by which illegal timber from around the world finds its way into U.S. stores and homes). Note that the interviews include some heavy profanity. VERDICT Fascinating for motivated readers.--Elissa Cooper
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A study of the causes and effects of timber poaching in North America. Focusing on the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia--based writer and oral historian Bourgon, a 2018 National Geographic Explorer, investigates tree poaching in North America. Much of the author's account focuses on the small logging town of Orick, California, the southern gateway to Redwood National Park, created in 1968. "While some pinpoint 1968 as the year Orick's economic troubles began," writes Bourgon, "it was only the start of a slow change that unfurled over the following decades, sowing the seeds of chronic unemployment, housing decline, and anti-establishment sentiment that smoldered before erupting across the Pacific Northwest in the Timber Wars of the 1980s and 1990s." While many assumed that the money the town lost from logging would be regained by tourism, it didn't materialize. In 1976, the Department of Interior proposed expanding the park, a plan opposed by loggers. Many residents felt their concerns were being ignored in favor of those who wanted to protect the forests. "Though opportunities for work existed elsewhere," writes the author, "a core group…felt so connected to the region that they refused to move after the industry declined." As a result, timber poaching became a "cultural practice" that reinforced their "once-shared heritage." Through extensive research, interviews, and diligent boots-on-the-ground reporting, Bourgon evenhandedly examines the many factors involved, including the effects of unemployment on timber communities, including substance abuse and increased crime rates; the ravages of timber poaching on the environment; and the challenges, fears, and dangers faced by law enforcement agencies attempting to capture and prosecute timber poachers. Bourgon also discusses timber poaching in other regions of the world, particularly the Amazon, noting the many similarities to the plight of the Pacific Northwest. An enlightening and well-balanced account of the potential effects of environmental protections on local communities. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
