Book Review of
Tree Thieves
Lynn's Review
Tree Thieves by Lyndsie Bourgon is a nonfiction true crime book set in the woods of the western U.S. This was a five star read for me, but I know that this book will not be for everyone.
This book would be a great pick for those that love true crime, especially non-murder true crime. This is a thought provoking book that hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. This book will probably make my top ten for the year.
It mixes true crime, with the logging world, with the environment. I grew up in a small middle of nowhere logging town in the far northwest corner of Oregon. Tree crime took me back to what life was like living in a logging town in the middle of the forest.
When I saw this book on vacation I knew it was a must buy for me. True crime and logging yes please.
I didn’t know how this book would portray the logging world. I thought it would be very anti logging pro-environment. And though it leaned towards pro environment, it was overall more balanced than I thought it would.
This gave a fairly good picture of what life in a small logging town is like. It dealt with the issues that the downturn in logging during the 1980s and 1990s has had on logging towns and logging families. It talks about the rise in poverty and drug use.
It also deals with the problem of stealing wood because it is valuable. What I didn’t think it gave enough credit to is the huge amount of honest hard working loggers that there are out there. Some of the hardest physical working men and women that I know are loggers. It is a world that few understand. They are third and fourth generation loggers who love what they do.
They love the forest and love nature. They don’t want to destroy it, they want to preserve it by logging it in a good, sustainable way. I also thought the book missed the point that the same people that are writing laws to shut down logging are the same ones that buy the fancy furniture and high end musical instruments that the stolen wood is used for.
Wood is a necessity. It is everywhere around us. We need wood. If the rules and regulations against logging continue to shut it down, where do we get the wood we need for all the things around us.
If you want a book that will make you think about trees, the forest, and nature, and take you into the logging world, this would be a great read. It is a read you won’t forget.