The Four Storey Forest

“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 Reading The Four Storey Forestfun­da­men­tal 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.