Giant Trees of Western America and the World

Alice Kidd is an editor with The New Catalyst editorial collective in
Lillooet, B.C.

Al Carder’s interest in trees began in 1917 travelling by rail in the
Fraser Valley. His first giant trees or “jaw droppers” were in the
remaining stands of Douglas fir, their tops often lost in the clouds. He
was aware at an early age that we were cutting down our heritage out of
greed. Schooling and career took him far away from the tall trees of the
Northwest until he returned in the 1970s. He missed the old giants and
began to seek out the few remaining ones he could find, either living or
historic. Along the way he found many fellow travellers documenting the
life and size of the giants as they disappeared.

Giant Trees is about magnificent individuals, not whole species; about
the eye appeal of an entity so magnificent we must strain our bodies
just to see all of it. It begins with five species of tree found in
British Columbia—Douglas fir, Western red cedar, Sitka spruce, Yellow
cedar, and Black cottonwood—then expands out to the rest of the world.
Finally Carder includes some lesser individual trees that belong to
“eye-appealing” species.

The introduction outlines what we will find: scale drawings and
accounts of the trees and their observers. All but one of the main
drawings is to the same scale for comparative purposes, with the
inclusion of six-foot humans at the base. Each species is represented by
a composite individual—equal in height and girth to the greatest known
measurement. Small sketches are used to explore some of the other
features that call our attention. The text includes species description,
historical accounts, and other features such as branching patterns and
silhouette. The book closes with several charts and a table of the
“tallest trees.”

Al Carder has done a superb job of capturing the magnificence of these
extraordinary giants through beautiful drawings, clear captions, and the
occasional few lines of poetry. Equally valuable are the accounts of the
humans involved in the documentation process. I am lucky to live beside
a few Douglas fir and Black cottonwood; I will never take them for
granted again.