Rendezvous with the Wild: The Boreal Forest
James write: When the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society was gearing up to convene ten river trips across the country to raise awareness about the beauty and fragility of the Boreal Forest, I was keen to do what I could to help. Along with a stellar cast of other environmentalists, writers, artists, musicians, I joined This Hour Has 22 Minutes star Cathy Jones and others on a trip down the Berens River in Northwestern Ontario. The idea of this project, called “Boreal Rendezvous,” was that each of the people on each of the trips would communicate their experience in their own particular way. It became clear immediately that the richness of these responses to the wilderness were ideally suited to a book, so as now a Patron of the CPAWS Boreal Project I agreed to produce and edit a book that would bring together a sampling of the stories, poetry, artwork, music and new forest agreements that arose from the intiative. The results were published in this collaborative book called “Rendezvous with the Wild” and in a multi-media travelling musical revival and stage show called “True North Wild and Free” that toured ten cities across Canada from Ottawa to Whitehorse.
Gorgeously illustrated book celebrates those adventures and the largest single ecosystem in North America… a fuller sense of what it’s like to experience the boreal forest. (Carol Hilton Canadian Geographic 2005)
Collection of fascinating and compelling material.
If the boreal forest as a whole had a voice, this glorious book would be it… This book is intended to stir up protective feelings for one of the Earth’s last frontiers. (Hanneke Brooymans Edmonton Journal 2004)
Raffan’s done it, and done it beautifully… A beautifully done scrapbook of a trip we might all envy but few will ever be able to do… impressive and memorable. (Linda Turk Thunder Bay Chronicle-Herald )
So deliciously readable… 160 color and 40 black and white images, each one more stunning than the last. (Valerie Hill Kitchener-Waterloo Record 2004)
This is an inspiring and beautifully illustrated tribute to a vast, magnificent ecosystem.
One of the most remarkable and beautiful books about Canada’s wilderness areas to ever have been created… stunning photographs, sketches and paintings, journal entries, humorous dialogues, and even the words and music for a song. (Jodi Delong Halifax Herald 2005)