“Harold Macy has done something remarkable in The Four Storey Forest. Part autobiography, part spiritual journey, part historical fiction, and part arboreal adventure, this is a four-pillared exploration of life as it is lived by the people and the forests of north-central Vancouver Island. As a portrait of both a man and his place, it is brave, original, humourous, sometimes stern, but always wise.”
~ Jack Hodgins, author of Spit Delaney’s Island and Master of Happy Endings.
The Four Storey Forest
by Harold Macy
The Four Storey Forest is a handbook for a new approach to forestry. It shares the steps we have taken in our family woodlot on Vancouver Island to close the gaps between our distracted human lives, the natural world, and the role of God in both.
The “stories” refer not only to the fundamental layers of a coastal forest, but also to the “stories” of ecology, community, Spirit, personal memoir, politics and history. The book follows the regeneration of a burnt forest and the deepening of belief under the trees. It details our activities on the ground with tools in hand, but also the journey of the heart attempting to understand the forest. It aims to provide a vision of a new era.
Within these pages are accounts of selective logging, berry picking, mushroom harvesting, vandals and meditation with mosquitoes. There is also a vision of the New Forest Homestead. Woven throughout is the fictional story of Jacob, a local Mennonite, growing up with this forest, providing a narrative voice and a pleasing change of pace.
The Four Story Forest is published by Poplar Publishing, Courtenay, BC. You can order a copy of the book from Laughing Oyster Book Shop in Courtenay, BC.