“The Lebanese flag has a cedar tree on it because much of what is now desert was thickly forested before the harbingers of civilization--i.e., woodcutters, farmers, and goats--saw to it that large stands of cedar will never grace the Holy Land again. The stark and sere limestone hills that we think of as typical Greek and Italian landscape were once all but invisible beneath a layer of long-gone topsoil held in place by forests of cedar and oak.” ― John Vaillant, The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed Trees: magnificently diverse, delicate in their beginnings, their survival amongst the competition of the forest floor is almost a miracle. As species jockey for precious sunshine, there are winners, and there are losers in the game. Canada is home to some of the most incredible forests and biodiversity in the world: trees of such staggering proportions that the Vikings knew them as saplings, and the Indigenous peoples of Canada knew them as seeds. ...