Veteran journalist Jim Lotz tells the history of how the forests of the province have been both ravaged and occasionally preserved over the centuries. It begins with the Mi’kmaq people who relied on the woods for game and useful products. Green Horizons then traces the history of the forests in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when the ethic of “cut and run” ran rampant, destroying huge numbers of trees as did massive forest fires. The story moves on to the time of saw millers who “took the best and left the rest.”

In the first decade of the twentieth century, concern arose among those in the forest industries that the province would run out of wood to sustain them. The first scientific survey by a forester revealed the deplorable state of the province’s woodlands because the government’s policy towards the forests was one of benign neglect.

Green Horizons also recounts the history of the past 50 years in Nova Scotia’s forests through interviews of those directly involved in forestry. Environmentalists add their perspective to the debate that still rages today about fair use of our forests. In recent years, the woodlands of Nova Scotia have been the scene of conflicts and tensions between those who seek to preserve them and others who simply see trees as sources of wealth, to be cut down and made into commercial products.

Born in Liverpool, England in 1929, Jim Lotz has held 25 different jobs ranging from grouse beater in the Scottish Highlands to glacial meteorologist in the Arctic. Coming to Canada in 1954, he was fired from his first job (for just cause) and crashed his car on same day. Since 1960, he has been actively engaged in community-based development and has taught at the Coady International Institute. His travels in search of learning have taken him from Alaska to Slovakia and from the High Arctic to Lesotho. He has written 20 books.