Logging and trapping
July 16th, 2020
In Crossing the Divide: Discovering A Wilderness Ethic in Canada’s Northern Rockies (Creekstone $21.95), Wayne Sawchuk describes his life working as a logger and trapper, and his role in creating the largest protected wilderness area in the Rocky Mountains. Sawchuk grew up near Chetwynd working with his father in resource industries. In 1985, he helped his uncle build a trapper’s cabin at Mayfield Lake in the Northern Rockies and eventually sold his logging company to buy his uncle’s trapline. Switching “careers” changed his life he says when he experienced “an immediate drop in my standard of living and a corresponding increase in my quality of life.” Through the 1990s he began taking extended horse packing trips into the area while helping shape the future of the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area, 6.5 million hectares of land where intact ecosystems co-exist with carefully regulated resource extraction. “It is an incredible experiment,” he says, “where we can maintain a sustainable economy and keep the wild heart of Canada’s Northern Rockies beating strong forever.” 978-1-928195-06-1
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