How is plywood made? What are dozer boats? How has forestry changed in the last century? These questions and dozens more are answered in Forestry A-Z, both in the informative and fascinating text and in the beautiful photographs. In writing this book, Kathleen Cook Waldron and Ann Walsh consulted dozens of experts. In illustrating it, Bob Warick traveled British Columbia capturing our forests and forestry through the seasons.
About Writing Forestry A-Z
Writing is a lonely business, especially if you live in a small town, as I do. I met Kathleen Cook -Waldron through the Writers’ Union of Canada and we became friends. We thought that if we wrote a book together we would have an excuse to see each other more often (Kathleen and I both live in small towns, but not the same small town. Our homes are about 130 km apart.)
The idea of an alphabet book about forestry appealed to us. It is one of Canada’s largest industries, and both Kathleen and I live in forestry towns, We both had friends who worked in the industry, and the ‘letter by letter’ format of an ABC book was something we felt we could work on individually, then meet once a week to compare our results.
We began meeting at a restaurant half way between our homes, on the shores of Lac La Hache. The staff at Clancy’s were very good to us, allowing us to linger over our French waffles in a quiet back corner and work. We tried not to interrupt the other diners, but occasionally we did produce shouts of “I’ve got K” or “Yes! That’s perfect for Z.” We didn’t always meet once a week; real life interferes with writing and sometimes it was months before we got back to the book. But we never gave up.
Many people helped us, from giving initial input to proof reading the final drafts. We had horse loggers, water loggers, saw operators, tree planters, ecologists and many more who gave of their time to help this book become a reality.
We hope you enjoy it. It took years and many French waffles to complete the text, and then many more years to find a publisher who felt it was a worthwhile project. Luckily Orca shared our vision; Forestry A-Z became a reality in the Spring of 2008.