The Last Stand: A Journey Through the Ancient Cliff-Face Forest of the Niagara Escarpment.

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

There’s an ancient forest running through the middle of Ontario, with trees over 1,000 years old. Who knew? The answer is not many, as most of the people who see this forest have no idea what they’re looking at.

The eastern white cedars that make up this 700-kilometre-long ancient forest are cliff dwellers, clinging precariously to the rock faces of the Niagara Escarpment, a rugged land formation stretching from Hamilton in southern Ontario to where the Bruce Peninsula juts into Georgian Bay.

That these ancient trees could exist in such a heavily populated area yet be known only to a few researchers is the result of their appearance. They’d never make the short list for Christmas trees, wind breaks, or lawn ornamentals. Definitely not in the elegant class. They’re twisted, deformed, gnarled, tormented. Some appear to grow upside down. Some look more like a bundle of twisted ropes than a tree. Some appear to be dead. Fortunately, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the authors, attracted by the strange beauty of these unconventional trees, started studying them. That’s when they blew holes in the traditional association of great age with large size by discovering these small trees are among the oldest in North America.

With a gallery of over 80 photos and a text that alternates between too-scientific and too-casual, the authors introduce these unusual cedars, their habitat, growth patterns, and morphology, the stressors in their environment, and their role in Aboriginal and pioneer cultures. With energy and empathy, they introduce the special methodology for determining the age of a cliff-face tree and convey a feeling of awe and admiration for the tenacious cedars (“Imagine standing in the same spot for a thousand years”). The work concludes with profiles of 12 individual trees, each of which is introduced by a name: the Ghost, the Alien, the Snake, etc. The work makes it passionately clear that these ancients are weathered, stunted, and grotesque, but also beautiful and worthy of respect.