Welcome back to the Port Porel's Almanac. This is Andy, and today we're joined by the author of the book Tree Thieves, Lindsay Borgon.

This book covers illegal timber harvesting on the West Coast.

In this episode, Lindsay explains her initial interest in the subject,

which was sparked by a 2012 news story about Stolen Old Growth Cedar.

Through a series of interviews and research,

she uncovers the complexities of tree poaching

and how it's not necessarily just a conversation of bad people doing bad things.

This raises really important questions about the roles that economic and cultural

disenfranchisement have and how we assign blame and responsibility with ecological issues and how this might tee up

some bigger conversations as climate change accelerates.

This is a really fun conversation and we talk a lot about the interplay between identity

and work and environmental ethics and how this all plays out in this extreme example of

illegal timber harvesting

on the West Coast. So take a listen. Let us know what you think. Lindsay, thanks so much

for joining us. You released a book last year about illegal timber harvesting on the West Coast.

First off, how did you find

yourself interested in this subject? Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I first came to

the topic of tree poaching and really kind of poaching in general in 2012. And that was when a short news story came out on the CBC here about a old

growth cedar that had been stolen from a provincial park in British Columbia on the west

coast. And at the time, it was, you know, a short news story.

I had seen people sharing it online.

And I was working as a magazine writer.

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