Up-Coast: Forest and Industry on British Columbia's North Coast, 1870–2005 (Royal BC Museum Handbook)

In Up-Coast, award-winning author Richard A. Rajala offers the first comprehensive history of the forest industry on British Columbia's central and north coast. He integrates social, political, and environmental themes to depict the relationship of coastal people and communities to the forest from the late 19th century to the present. The account begins with the emergence of a small-scale industry tied to the needs of salmon canneries and early settlements, and traces the development of a diverse structure involving sawmills, tie and pole producers, and hand loggers struggling to profit from participation in domestic and foreign markets. But from the early 20th century on, government policies favoured the interests of giant pulp-and-paper firms such as Pacific Mills at Ocean Falls. A turn to sustained-yield forestry after World War II promoted further concentration of ownership, a pattern that saw Columbia Cellulose capture the Skeena and Nass watersheds to meet the fibre needs of its troubled Prince Rupert pulp enterprise.