Strong Winds and Widow Makers: Workers, Nature, and Environmental Conflict in Pacific Northwest Timber Country, by Steven C. Beda

Steven Beda persuasively argues that in “timber country”—the conifer-forested hills and mountains west of the Cascade mountains, running from northern California up into British Columbia—timber workers and their families have developed an oft-marginalized “ethic of forest stewardship” that seeks to protect their autonomy, their work, and their—the possessive is key here—forests. Beda’s analysis is powerful and provocative, demanding careful consideration of timber workers’ experiences and perspectives.