Join Harley Rustad in conversation with Sarain Fox to launch his new book, Big Lonely Doug: the story of one of Canada's last great trees.  Big Lonely Doug, is the nickname given to a 226 foot tall Douglas Fir tree located in a clearcut in B.C.'s Gordon River Valley.  Around 39 feet in circumference, Big Lonely Doug is estimated to be about 1,000 years old.

The book weaves the ecology of old-growth forests, the legend of the West Coast’s big trees, the turbulence of the logging industry, the fight for preservation, the contention surrounding ecotourism, First Nations land and resource rights, and the fraught future of these ancient forests around the story of a logger who saved one of Canada's last great trees.

Harley Rustad is an editor at The Walrus magazine. He has written for Outside, the Globe and Mail, Geographical, and CNN. He is a faculty editor of the Banff Centre's mountain and wilderness writing residency and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.  Originally from Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, he lives in Toronto. 

Sarain Fox is an Indigenous multidisciplinary activist, spokesperson and dancer of Anishinaabe heritage. She has used dance to create meaningful dialogue between her indigenous community and settler communities. Her collaborative work with Xara Choral theatre (Fatty Legs) can be seen as an example of Sarain’s lifelong commitment to art as a tool for reconciliation. She’s also the host of the VICELAND show Rise, which takes her to North American Indigenous communities fighting to protect their homelands, and a co-host of APTN’s Future History, where she seeks out those who are harnessing Indigenous knowledge to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to have an Indigenous worldview.