The Golden Spruce

by John Vaillant

  In addition to collecting rare and unusual conifers, the Finchams sell them as well, and since Bob Fincham’s green thumb extends to grafting, he has been quietly sharing Bentham’s Sunlight with the world for more than twenty years. Cuttings of this tree are growing now in Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and throughout the United States, among other places. The present price for a graft in a one-gallon pot is US$40, plus shipping. But competition has been heating up recently, and one of Fincham’s beneficiaries, Collector’s Nursery of Battleground, Washington, has posted the following ad on their Web site:

  PICEA SITCHENSIS ‘BENTHAM’S SUNLIGHT’—FRESH GRAFT $20.00 NEW! A piece of history from a legendary 300 yr. old Golden Sitka Spruce growing wild on fog shrouded Queen Charlotte Island in Canada, sacred to the Haida Indians, with a tragic end. In 1997 a protester felled this tree in protest to general apathy towards clearcutting. He disappeared before he made it to his court appearance, presumed dead, with only the remains of his broken and battered kayak to be found, and some rudimentary camping gear. A story that has it all—history, sacred symbolism, tragedy, mystery. Grafting material was taken from the downed tree and efforts have been made to graft on to the original rootstock. Read the full story in the American Conifer Society bulletin, fall 1997.

  Fincham is a recognized conifer expert and is working on a revision of Krussmann’s Manual of Cultivated Conifers (Timber Press), one of the standard reference texts on the subject. Unless someone objects before the new edition goes to press, the golden spruce will be included under the name or “epithet” ‘Bentham’s Sunlight.’ In the world of horticulture, the person responsible for naming a new plant or cultivar becomes its “author,” and as it turns out, Oscar Sziklai, the author of Picea sitchensis ‘Aurea,’ was using an epithet that had already been taken. There is, in Australia, a cultivar of Sitka spruce with a sickly green colour—not gold at all—that already goes by this name. But it, too, is invalid because Latinized epithets for cultivars have not been recognized by the International Cultivar Registration Authority—the official arbiter of plant taxonomy—since 1958. That year, a new taxonomic policy was instituted that combines Latin with the author’s native tongue; for example, Fincham’s: Picea sitchensis ‘Bentham’s Sunlight.’ How—or if—the Haida will respond to this remains to be seen, but they have more pressing matters to attend to, the foremost being how to regain control of the islands they have never formally relinquished.

  IN THE SPRING OF 2000, Luanne Palmer’s golden spruce grafts were declared ready for transplantation, and they were treated with the kind of care usually reserved for masterpieces and controlled substances. Unaware of Fincham’s clones, the Haida had made it clear that no cuttings could be taken unless their distribution remained under tribal control. Their primary concern was not that different from MacMillan Bloedel’s forty years earlier: they didn’t want the tree, or its branches, to be commercialized or turned into souvenirs by aggressive collectors. The Ministry of Forests agreed to these terms and is holding the cuttings in trust for the Haida in a secure location. Because of where they came from on the golden spruce, there is a good chance that these will be dramatically different from Fincham’s second-generation clones.

  The Haida gave the town of Port Clements one of Luanne Palmer’s grafts; it was planted next to a church, in the town’s new millennium park, where it may be the safest tree in Haida Gwaii. The spindly knee-high sapling is surrounded by a two-and-a-half metre chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. In June of 2001, a small group of Tsiij git’anee held a private ceremony during which a second cutting was planted beside the stump on the banks of the Yakoun. Both trees are growing in shady areas where they appear reasonably healthy, with golden needles interspersed among the green. Only time will tell whether they will be plagiotropic dwarfs, as every other artificially propagated golden spruce has proven to be, or if they will live up to the lofty message they carry with them from the golden crown of their mother tree.

  WOOD MEASUREMENT

  Board foot (bf)

  =

  12” x 12” x 1”

  Cubic foot (cu. ft.)

  =

  12 bf

  Cubic metre (cu. m.)

  =

  420 bf, or 35 cu. ft.

  Metric ton

  =

  1 cu. m. wood (average)

  Cord

  =

  approx. 128 cu. ft.

  A highway logging truck can carry twenty-five 50’ x 2’ logs

  (approximately 40 cubic metres).

  Haida Monarch and Haida Brave (log barges) can each carry approximately 15,000 cubic metres of wood (approximately 430 truckloads).

  A typical big log (32’ x 9’) equals 11,500 board feet (approximately 60 tons).

  A typical 2,000 square foot (185 square metres) home uses nearly 16,000 board feet of lumber and 6,000 square feet (560 square metres) of structural panels, such as plywood.

  It takes approximately 550 cubic metres of wood to produce a weekend edition of the Globe and Mail, in addition to 13 million litres of water and 7.5 billion BTUs of energy.

  It takes approximately 20 cubic metres of wood to produce 10,000 copies of the average book, in addition to 450,000 litres of water and 230 million BTUs of energy.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  BOOKS/ARTICLES

  Acheson, Steven R. “‘Ninstints’ Village: A Case of Mistaken Identity.” BC Studies, no. 67 (Autumn 1985): pp. 47–56.

  ———. “In the Wake of the ya’aats’ xaatgaay [Iron People]: A Study of Changing Settlement Strategies among the Kunghit Haida.” British Archaeological Reports, iss. 711, (1998).

  ———. “Ships for Taking: Culture Contact and the Maritime Fur Trade on the Northwest Coast of North America.” The Archaeology of Contact in Settler

  Societies, ed. Tim Murray et al. Cambridge, England, 2004: pp. 48–77.

  Andrews, Clarence L. The Story of Sitka; the Historic Outpost of the Northwest Coast, the Chief Factory of the Russian American Company. Seattle, Washington, 1922.

  Andrews, Ralph W. Glory Days of Logging: Action in the Big Woods—British Columbia to California. New York, 1956.

  ———. Timber: Toil and Trouble in the Big Woods. Atglen, Pennsylvania, 1968.

  Apsey, Mike, et al. “The Perpetual Forest: Using Lessons from the Past to Sustain Canada’s Forests in the Future.” Forestry Chronicle, vol. 76, no. 1 (January–February 2000): pp. 29–53.

  Barman, Jean. The West Beyond the West: A History of British Columbia. Toronto, Ontario, 1991.

  Blackman, Margaret B. “Window on the Past: The Photographic Ethnohistory of the Northern and Kaigani Haida.” National Museum of Man, Mercury Series (Canadian Ethnology Service), paper no. 74. Ottawa, Ontario, 1981.

  Blackmore, Stephen, and Elizabeth Tootill, eds. The Facts on File Dictionary of Botany. Aylesbury, England, 1984.

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  Bringhurst, Robert. A Story as Sharp as a Knife: The Classical Haida Mythtellers and Their World. Vancouver, B.C., 1999.

  Carey, Neil G. A Guide to the Queen Charlotte Islands. Vancouver, B.C., 1998. Caufield, Catherine. “The Ancient Forest.” The New Yorker, May 14, 1990, pp. 46–84.

  Chase, Alston. In a Dark Wood: The Fight over Forests and the Rising Tyranny of Ecology. New York, 1995.

  Collison, Frank, et al. Yakoun: River of Life. Massett, B.C., 1990.

  Connell, Evan S. Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn. San Francisco, California, 1984.

  Dalzell, Kathleen E. The Queen Charlotte Islands, 1774–1966. Terrace, B.C., 1968.

  ———. The Queen Charlotte Islands, Book 2: Of Places and Names. Prince Rupert, B.C., 1973.

  Davis, Chuck, ed. The Greater Vancouver Book: An Urban Encyclopaedia. Surrey, B.C., 1997.

  Dietrich, Willi
am. The Final Forest: The Battle for the Last Great Trees of the Pacific Northwest. New York, 1992.

  Ecotrust Canada. Seeing the Ocean Through the Trees: A Conservation-Based Development Strategy for Clayoquot Sound. Vancouver, B.C., 1997.

  Fawcett, Brian. Virtual Clearcut: or, The Way Things Are in My Hometown. Toronto, Ontario, 2003.

  Fincham, Robert. “Gordon and the Haida.” Coenosium Newsletter, vol. 1, no. 1 (Winter, 1998).

  Frank, Steven. “Schools of Shame.” Time (Canadian Edition), July 28, 2003, pp. 30–39.

  Gibson, Gordon (with Carol Renison) Bull of the Woods: The Gordon Gibson Story. Vancouver, B.C., 1980.

  Gibson, James R. Otter Skins, Boston Ships and China Goods: The Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1785–1841. Montreal, Quebec, 1992.

  Gill, Ian. Haida Gwaii: Journeys Through the Queen Charlotte Islands. Vancouver, B.C., 1997.

  Gould, Ed. Logging: British Columbia’s Logging History. Vancouver, B.C., 1975.

  Grainger, Martin A. Woodsmen of the West. London, England, 1908.

  Grove, Richard. “The Origins of Environmentalism.” Nature, vol. 345 (May 1990): pp. 11–14.

  Harrison, James P. Forests: The Shadow of Civilization. Chicago, Illinois, 1992.

  Hayes, Derek. Historical Atlas of the Pacific Northwest: Maps of Exploration and Discovery. Seattle, Washington, 1999.

  Hays, Finley. Lies, Logs and Loggers. Chehalis, Washington, 1961.

  Herndon, Grace. Cut and Run: Saying Goodbye to the Last Great Forests in the West. Telluride, Colorado, 1991.

  Hindle, Brooke, ed. America’s Wooden Age: Aspects of Its Early Technology. Tarrytown, N.Y., 1975.

  Horsfield, Margaret. Cougar Annie’s Garden. Nanaimo, B.C., 1999.

  Klenman, Allan. Axemakers of North America. Victoria, B.C., 1990.

  Lange, Owen S. Living with Weather Along the British Columbia Coast: The Veil of Chaos. Victoria, B.C., 2003.

  Lillard, Charles. The Ghostland People: A Documentary History of the Queen Charlotte Islands, 1859–1906. Victoria, B.C., 1989.

  ———. Just East of Sundown: The Queen Charlotte Islands. Victoria, B.C., 1995.

  ———. “Revenge of the Pebble Town People: A Raid on the Tlingit.” BC Studies, nos. 115 and 116 (Autumn–Winter 1997–98): pp. 83–104. Lovtsov, Vasilii Fedorovich.

  The Lovtsov Atlas of the North Pacific Ocean (1782). trans. with an introduction and notes by Lydia T. Black; ed. Richard A. Pierce. Kingston, Ontario, 1991.

  Lukoff, D., F. Lu, and R. Turner. “From Spiritual Emergency to Spiritual Problem: The Transpersonal Roots of the new DSM-IV category.” Journal of Humanistic Psychology, vol. 38, no. 2 (1998): pp. 21–50.

  Luoma, Jon R. The Hidden Forest: The Biography of an Ecosystem. New York, 1999.

  Macdonald, Bruce. Vancouver: A Visual History. Vancouver, B.C., 1992.

  MacDonald, George F. Haida Monumental Art: Villages of the Queen Charlotte Islands. Vancouver, B.C., 1983.

  MacKay, Donald. Empire of Wood: The MacMillan Bloedel Story. Vancouver, B.C., 1982.

  MacMillan Bloedel, Ltd. “The Backwoods Baronet and the Golden Spruce.” Company newsletter. Vancouver, B.C., Nov. 25, 1974.

  MacQueen, Ken. “Blood in the Woods: Logging is Dangerous Work.” Maclean’s, January 19, 2004, pp. 31–33.

  Mahood, Ian (with Ken Drushka). Three Men and a Forester. Madeira Park, B.C., 1990.

  Manning, Samuel F. New England Masts and the King’s Broad Arrow. Kennebunk, Maine, 1979.

  Marchand, Etienne. A Voyage Round the World, performed during the years 1790, 1791 and 1792. London, England, 1801.

  Marsh, George Perkins. Man and Nature or Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, ed. David Lowenthal. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1965.

  May, Elizabeth. Paradise Won: The Struggle for South Moresby. Toronto, Ontario, 1990.

  McCulloch, Walter F. Woods Words: A Comprehensive Dictionary of Loggers Terms. Portland, Oregon, 1958.

  Nichols, Mark. “The World Is Watching: Is Canada an Environmental Outlaw?” Maclean’s, August 16, 1993, pp. 22–27.

  Parfitt, Ben. Forest Follies: Adventures and Misadventures in the Great Canadian Forest. Madeira Park, B.C., 1998.

  Perlin, John. A Forest Journey: The Role of Wood in the Development of Civilization. New York, 1989.

  Peterson, E. B., et al. Ecology and Management of Sitka Spruce, Emphasizing Its Natural Range in British Columbia. Vancouver, B.C., 1997.

  Pike, Robert E. Tall Trees and Tough Men. New York, 1967.

  Platt, Rutherford. The Great American Forest. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1965.

  Pojar, Jim, and Andy MacKinnon. Plants of Coastal British Columbia. Vancouver, B.C., 1994.

  Price, Simon and Emily Kearns, eds. The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion. Oxford, England, 2003.

  Pyne, Stephen J. Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire. Princeton, New Jersey, 1982.

  Raban, Jonathan. Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meanings. New York, 1999.

  Schama, Simon. Landscape and Memory. New York, 1995.

  Scott, Grant R. “Some Morphological and Physiological Differences between Normal Sitka Spruce and a Yellow Mutant.” Undergraduate thesis for Faculty of Forestry; University of British Columbia. Vancouver, B.C., 1969.

  Shearar, Cheryl. Understanding Northwest Coast Art: A Guide to Crests, Beings and Symbols. Vancouver, B.C., 2000.

  Sloane, Eric. A Reverence for Wood. New York, 1965.

  Snyder, Gary. The Gary Snyder Reader: Prose, Poetry, and Translations. Washington, D.C., 1999.

  Swanton, John R. (John Enrico, ed.). Skidegate Haida Myths and Histories. Skidegate, B.C., 1995.

  Thoreau, Henry D. The Maine Woods. Boston, Massachusetts, 1864.

  Trower, Peter. Bush Poems. Madeira Park, B.C., 1978.

  ———. Chainsaws in the Cathedral. Victoria, B.C., 1999.

  ———. Haunted Hills & Hanging Valleys: Selected Poems 1969–2004. Madeira Park, B.C., 2004.

  Van Syckle, Edwin. They Tried to Cut It All: Grays Harbor—Turbulent Years of Greed and Greatness. Aberdeen, Washington, 1980.

  Villiers, Alan. Captain James Cook. New York, 1967.

  Weigand, Jim, et al. “Coastal Temperate Rain Forests: Ecological Characteristics, Status and Distribution Worldwide.” Ecotrust/Conservation International, Occasional Paper Series, no. 1. Portland, Oregon, June, 1992.

  Williams, Gerald R. “The Spruce Production Division”. Forestry History Today, Spring 1999.

  Williams, Michael. Americans and Their Forests: A Historical Geography. Cambridge, England, 1989.

  Wright, Robin K. Northern Haida Master Carvers. Vancouver, B.C., 2001.

  Wyatt, Gary. Spirit Faces: Contemporary Native American Masks from the Northwest. San Francisco, California, 1995.

  VIDEOS

  Voices from the Talking Stick. Todd (Tyarm) Merrell, 1997.

  Personal footage; Archie Stocker.

  ENDNOTES

  PROLOGUE

  Kayak find information: Scott Walker. Personal communication.

  CHAPTER 1: A THRESHOLD BETWEEN WORLDS

  dumped twenty-eight metres of snow…: “The National Climate Extremes Committee’s Evaluation of the Reported 1,140-Inch National 1998–99 Seasonal Snowfall Record at the Mount Baker, Washington, Ski Area.” Findings presented at the 57th Eastern Snow Conference, Syracuse, New York, 2000, www.easternsnow.org/proceedings/2000/leffler.pdf.

  Information on original range and distribution of coastal temperate rainforests: based on Weigand, et al.

  “biological desert”: Luoma, 42.

  It has been estimated that a square metre of temperate forest soil…: Ibid., 94.

  Andy Moldenke, an entomologist at Oregon State University…: Ibid., 97.

  “west of west”: Lillard, The Ghostland People, 33.

  “One conspicuous feature of the atmospheric effect…”: Ibid., 305.

  Very Wet Hypermarine Subzone: Peterson et al. 4.

  Twe
nty-three species of whale live in or pass through the region’s waters: Doug Sandilands, researcher, B.C. Cetacean Sightings Network. Personal communication. waters: Doug Sandilands, researcher, B.C. Cetacean Sightings Network. Personal communication.

  “She’s a black-hearted bitch…”: Dalzell, The Queen Charlotte Islands, Book 2: Of Places and Names, 152

  “I didn’t even make an axe mark on it…”: MacMillan Bloedel, 6.

  CHAPTER 2: THE BEGINNING OF THE END

  “You’d gouge into the ground that deep, too….”: Wesley Pearson. Personal communication.

  One county on the Washington coast…: Grays Harbor County; Van Syckle, 65.

  “How’dya like that?”: Aubrey Harris. Personal communication.

  CHAPTER 3: A BOARDWALK TO MARS

  “There were some awful bloody animals…”: Peter Trower. Personal communication.

  “a wizard on the pegboard”: Truls Skogland. Personal communication.

  “He was very polished….”: Tom Lundgren. Personal communication.

  “You never won an argument with Tom Hadwin”: Harry Purney. Personal communication.

  “Even with his hands in his pockets,…”: Paul Clark. Personal communication.

  “the unexpected heaped atop the unforeseen”: Fawcett, 55.

  CHAPTER 4: THE PEOPLE

  “first-class prospectors, and know all about gold mining…: Downie Report 10/10/1859. Lillard, The Ghostland People, 92–95.

  “very large and capable of carrying one hundred…”: “The Haidah Indians of Queen Charlotte’s Islands,” James G. Swan, 1873. Lillard, The Ghostland People, 121.

  There has been a great deal of speculation about how far the Haida travelled…: See Tilikum: Luxton’s Pacific Crossing—Being the Journal of Norman Kenny Luxton, Mate of the Tilikum, May 20, 1901, Victoria B.C., To October 18, 1901, Suva Fiji. Sidney, B.C., 1971.