This study of foresters and forestry in Nova Scotia presents profiles of seven forestry professionals, whose careers run from the 1920s to the present. Including figures from the interwar, postwar, and contemporary periods, the sample reflects issues and experiences in industrial, government, and civil-sector forestry. It points to a rich tradition of alternative and dissenting practices that is intertwined with the professional and political orthodoxies of the day.

Too often, the ideas and practices of professional foresters have been viewed as monolithic. This book argues that forestry is a more diverse and complex activity than has been generally recognized. It also underlines the political character of the profession. Difference lies at the root of politics, and Nova Scotia forestry has been punctuated by fundamental debates on matters of science, policy, and management. In different ways, the subjects of this volume all have run “against the grain,” raising challenges in pursuit of new forestry practice. Many of their challenges have failed, in the face of a determined consensus. Nonetheless, the plurality of views and experiences they reveal are an apt reflection of the inherently political character of modern forestry and of the need to push beyond appearance to find the foundations of both orthodoxy and dissent.

Against the Grain speaks to the concerns of foresters, social scientists and resource managers in a variety of fields. Sandberg and Clancy draw upon archival materials, public records, and personal interviews with the subjects to set their seven protagonists in a wider historical context. The profiles and the conclusions that follow from them have relevance well beyond the province of Nova Scotia, giving deeper perspective to the public and environmental challenges that have engulfed contemporary forestry.