295: The Killing of K’iid K'yaas. Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site.

Summary

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National Park After Dark

Episode 295: The Killing of K’iid K'yaas – Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site
Release Date: April 28, 2025
Hosts: Cassie & Danielle

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Overview

This episode explores the mysterious and devastating 1997 killing of the Golden Spruce—K’iid K’yaas—on Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. Cassie and Danielle dive into the cultural significance of this one-in-a-billion golden Sitka spruce to the Haida people, its ecological importance, and the controversial protest by logger-turned-environmentalist Grant Hadwin, who felled the beloved tree. The story weaves together themes of indigenous heritage, environmental activism, logging industry excess, and unresolved disappearance and mystery.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Story of K’iid K’yaas, the Golden Spruce

• Location & Uniqueness:
  • The Golden Spruce stood over 160 ft tall on the banks of the Yakoon river (Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands).
  • It garnered attention for its golden needles, a rare mutation (chlorotic), making it a statistical “one in a billion” tree.
  • The tree “stood out like a beacon of light” among endless greens (Cassie, 03:31).
• Ecological Marvel:
  • The temperate rainforest environment provided the precise conditions for the mutant tree to survive—"just right," as Cassie notes: “Direct sunlight could kill it, but not enough and it would have never grown at all” (Cassie, 04:10).
  • The forest itself is described as “the Galapagos of Canada” for its diversity and endemic species (Cassie, 06:42).
• Haida Mythology:
  • The tree was central to Haida culture and mythology—symbolizing transformation, loss, and care.
  • Legendary origin: A boy who looked back at his destroyed village was transformed into the golden spruce, cared for by his people for generations (Cassie, 09:51).
  • It survived colonialism, epidemics, and logging—one of the few pieces of tradition to endure.

2. Logging, Colonialism & Environmental Change

• Colonial Impact:
  • The Haida population plummeted from around 20,000 to 600 after European diseases and resource extraction (Cassie, 08:30).
  • The Haida lost much oral tradition and culture, but the story of the Golden Spruce survived.
• Logging Industry Attitude:
  • The belief in limitless timber persisted through the 20th century, with severe consequences: 40% of BC’s forests lost by the time Grant Hadwin entered logging (Cassie, 13:00).
  • Performer Al Wanderer’s quote captures the guilt:

    “Good God, we gutted that place. I didn't think it was possible to log this much. ...sometimes you wonder if it was all worth it.” (Cassie quoting Al Wanderer, 19:13)

• Slow Realizations:
  • Early loggers like Grant began noticing clearcut areas didn’t recover as promised.

3. Who Was Grant Hadwin?

• Background:
  • Grew up in Vancouver, began in logging at 17.
  • “Daredevil, adrenaline junkie... invincible” (Danielle, 15:34).
  • Known for extreme exploits, resilience, and deep connection to wilderness.
• Growing Environmentalism:
  • Became increasingly troubled by his role in destruction, struggling with “head and heart” conflict (Cassie, 20:46).
  • Attempted to modify his work—advocated for sparing ecologically sensitive areas, writing critical reports.
• Mental Health & Isolation:
  • Exhibited paranoia, isolation, and family history of mental illness (Cassie, 33:04).
  • Episodes of erratic behavior: swimming in frozen rivers, distributing hypodermic needles as protest (Cassie, 43:32).
• Central Quote (Leopold, via Cassie):

  “One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds...” (25:56)

4. Felling of the Golden Spruce: Protest or Crime?

• Hadwin’s Motivation:
  • Position: Acts not from hatred but from “profound love,” a radical protest against hypocrisy in protecting only a single tree (Cassie, 10:36).
  • Bought tools openly in logging country—chainsaw, gasoline (Cassie, 47:34).
• Execution:
  • On Jan 20, 1997, Hadwin swam 60 ft. across the freezing river at night. Used a precise “Humboldt undercut” and other techniques to fatally destabilize, but not immediately fell, the tree (Cassie, 47:54).
  • Wrote and faxed a letter explaining himself to Greenpeace, local newspapers, and the Haida Nation:

    “I didn't enjoy butchering this magnificent old plant, but you apparently need a message and a wake up call...” (Cassie quoting Hadwin, 52:37)

• Aftermath:
  • The tree fell the following day, sparking profound grief and anger in Haida communities.
  • Official Haida Nation statement declared:

    “The loss of K’iid K’yaas is a deliberate violation of our cultural history...” (Cassie, 53:34)

  • Hadwin was quickly arrested; “He wasn’t running... had pointed a bright neon sign at himself” (Cassie, 54:33).

5. Mystery: The Disappearance of Grant Hadwin

• Flight & Missing Person:
  • Fearing violent retaliation, Hadwin planned to kayak the notoriously dangerous Hecate Strait to attend his own trial—rather than travel publicly among an angry crowd (Cassie, 56:38).
  • “Fourth most dangerous body of water in the world” (Danielle quoting Cassie, 57:10).
  • Set out on Feb 13, 1997, never to be seen again.
  • Several months later, part of his kayak and gear were found; oddly, items seemed remarkably well-preserved, suggesting a recent wreck or staged disappearance (Cassie, 62:18).
• Theories:
  • Did Hadwin die, stage his death, or disappear voluntarily?
  • Unresolved, but as Cassie summarizes:

    “Grant Hadwin was as confounding in his absence as he was when he stood in front of everyone.” (62:18)

• Speculation & Legacy:
  • Some connect Hadwin to subsequent sabotage cases, notably the Luna redwood incident in California, but no proof (Cassie, 65:56).

6. Ripple Effects, Ethics & Legacy

• Was the Protest Effective?
  • No clear result; “destruction cannot be reversed, and if we want our forest to stretch on forever, we must care for them today.” (Cassie, 68:48)
  • Danielle: “He wasn’t harming the industry. He was going towards... the only people who cared about this tree were the ones most affected.” (Danielle, 69:23)
• White Saviors, Indigenous Harm:
  • Cassie notes the pattern of “a white man comes and destroys what is sacred with the idea that he knows what is best.” (68:52)
• Incomplete Restoration:
  • Clippings from K’iid K’yaas replanted, but seedlings grew green needles—not golden (Cassie, 67:12).
  • “You can't recreate a miracle in that way.” (67:07)
• Logging Practices Today:
  • Responsible forestry and sustainable logging are now more common and proven possible, though they are “not the simplest, not the cheapest, not quick and dirty” (Cassie, 78:47).
• Final Reflections:
  • The episode ends with the hosts pondering Hadwin’s fate, his intentions, and the indelible loss of the Golden Spruce’s unique magic.
  • “The world lost the magic of something special because of what he did. And the world will never get that back.” (Danielle, 76:41)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Tree’s Impact:

  “The tree was such a bizarre sight that people came up with different theories and stories as to why it was golden... Some thought it had been struck by lightning, others thought it was sick and dying. In reality, though, the cause... was a mutation.” (Cassie, 03:31)

• On Environmental Grief:

  “I heard the trees cry today.” (Cassie quoting Hadwin’s friend, 31:02)

• On the Paradox of Hadwin’s Act:

  “For one last time, his deep knowledge of the forest helped him destroy it.” (Cassie, 47:58)

• On Irreversible Loss:

  “Even the oldest and most powerful forms of life here on earth are not invincible. Destruction cannot be reversed.” (Cassie, 68:48)

• On Human-Nature Relationships:

  “The Haida principle of Yagudang translates to respect for all living things... The Haida people function largely in a kincentric way.” (Cassie, 35:04, 40:52)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Golden Spruce Description & Haida Myth: 03:31–10:36
• Logging Industry Context: 11:16–19:13
• Grant Hadwin’s Backstory & Philosophy: 14:51–33:53
• Environmental Ethics & Indigenous Views: 35:04–42:00
• Increasingly Erratic Behavior: 43:32–47:34
• Felling of the Golden Spruce: 47:54–53:10
• Community Reaction & Arrest: 53:34–54:41
• Kayak Disappearance: 56:38–59:26
• Evidence & Ongoing Mystery: 62:18–66:22
• Aftermath, Restoration Attempts: 67:11–69:23
• Modern Logging Practices: 77:00–78:50

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Flow & Tone

The episode blends reverent, mournful storytelling with analytical commentary. Cassie details both the emotional impact of the event and the complex motivations behind Grant Hadwin’s infamous act. Danielle acts as a sounding board—outspoken and skeptical, offering relatable reactions and prompting deeper discussion. The tone is somber, curious, and reflective, never shying from ethical ambiguity or difficult questions.

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In Summary

This episode of National Park After Dark transports listeners to the misty rainforests of Haida Gwaii and the felled stump of a legendary tree. Through the tragic tale of the Golden Spruce, Cassie and Danielle explore indigenous loss, ecological wonder, protest gone awry, and the limits of radical acts to inspire true change. The stump by the Yakoon River stands as a lesson: irreplaceable things are often lost when the lessons of the land are not heeded, and healing requires both respect and responsibility.

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Further Resources:

• The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed by John Vaillant
• Hadwin’s Judgment (documentary)

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“Even the oldest and most powerful forms of life here on earth are not invincible. Destruction cannot be reversed.” (Cassie, 68:48)

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Transcript

[Cassie]

Tears mixed with rain. On the afternoon of February 1, 1997, off the coast of British Columbia, a large crowd was gathered for a memorial service led by members of the Haida Nation. The indigenous peoples of the Haida Gwai Islands, and the community was in deep mourning. Some attendees had to park a mile away as people from all across the islands had traveled in for the ceremony, one in which Haida leaders played drums and sang songs in somber remembrance. A foundational member of their community had been unexpectedly killed, and everyone was feeling their loss. As sobs, drumbeats, and songs of mourning filled the cold island air, gazes drifted across the river where the body of the elder that they had lost laid untouched on the riverbank. The elder's arms stretched out onto the banks and reaching up towards the gray sky. You wouldn't have known it at first glance, but the crowd that gathered that day was not there to mourn a human. They were grieving the loss of a tree. A massive Sitka spruce, more than 300 years old, lay dead on the ground. The tree was known as Kid Kios, or old tree to the Haida people. Ten days earlier, just before daybreak, a man swam across the freezing river and made a series of calculated chainsaw cuts that put an end to the generations old Sitka spruce's life. The trees killer had spelled out his motives for this strange and devastating crime in a letter that he later publicized himself. But for every answer in this story came a new and puzzling question. Some of them remain unanswered to this day. And while the life of this monumental Tree ended in 1997, its killer's case remains open. Welcome to National Park After Dark.

[Danielle]

Speed. Speaking to my heart in this episode, I am already upset. I just. Something about tree episodes, they always get me.

[Cassie]

Well, your Julia Butterfly Hill episode that you did years ago is made very. I have a little tidbit about that in here, too.

[Danielle]

Oh, interesting. Do they like.

[Cassie]

Because it's kind of a little bit tangentially related. A little. But yeah, I know you're a big fan of tree episodes, and I think you've done almost every one of them up until this point in time. So I'm taking the reins and I decided to do this story this week because of Arbor Day. So Arbor day is actually the 25th of April, so we would have just missed it. But yeah, that's why we're doing this episode today. Yeah.

[Danielle]

Cool. Well, I'm excited. And welcome everyone. If you're new here, this is National Park After Dark.

[Cassie]

And I'm Cassie and I'm Danielle, and I'm telling you a story today about Kid kiosk. And you may also know it as the golden spruce. So here we go. And this was just mentioning a recommendation from a listener literally years ago. So it's just like, put in your pocket for years.

[Danielle]

One day you will come, truly, like most of the time.

[Cassie]

All right, here we go. If you were to walk along the banks of the Yakoon river on Haida Gwait, a string of islands off the coast of British Columbia, before Kidgeass was chopped down, you would have spotted it right away, even if you didn't know anything about it, even if you weren't looking for it. It was said that the Sitka spruce glowed from within. And while that usually alludes to some sort of inner beauty, people didn't mean this in some kind of metaphorical way, because this was no ordinary Sitka spruce. It was a golden spruce. It had golden needles and. And I'm not talking about just a couple of branches or a vague gold undertone or a soft gold that sparkles in just the right sunlight at just the right time of day. If you squint your eyes or tilt your head, this spruce was over 160ft tall, and warm golden needles lined every single branch. In a sea of dark green spruce trees that hugged the coast of the Yakoon River, Kid Kiosk's needles stood out like a beacon of light. The tree was such a bizarre sight that people came up with different theories and stories as to why it was golden. Some thought that it had been struck by lightning, while others thought it was sick and dying. In reality, though, the cause for this tree's unusual golden needles was neither magic or a sign of death. The tree had a mutation. It was calordic, meaning it lacked 80% of the normal amount of chlorophyll that would have otherwise made all of its needles green. Other spruce trees do have this mutation, but it usually just affects a branch or two. But this mutation made the golden spruce particularly sensitive to light. It could have just as well been called the goldilocks tree, because conditions needed to be just right. Direct sunlight could kill it, but not enough, and it would have never grown at all. Considering this fragility, it was nothing short of a wonder that the golden spruce not only survived, but grew to the towering height that it did. Haida Gwaii provided the perfect gentle environment for this unusual tree to come into its own. The foggy, soft light reflecting off of the Yakoon river was likely just enough to Keep this tree alive without killing it. A series of highly unlikely odds, all lined up perfectly, made it possible for the golden spruce to grow. Some call it a miracle, others call it a statistical one in a billion occurrence. And it was remarkable enough to warrant its own scientific name. Picea sits aurea.

[Danielle]

Say that 3 times fast.

[Cassie]

Oo don't even know if I said it right the first time, so I'd rather not, but this tree was absolutely stunning and it definitely stood out like a golden thumb across this swath of endless green in British Columbia. If you've ever been there or seen pictures of it, it's just it looks like the forest goes on forever. So to see this just like beacon of a tree, especially an old growth tree over 160ft tall, it was a sight to behold for sure.

[Danielle]

Yeah, it sounds really interesting and really special.

[Cassie]

This one in a billion golden spruce grew in what was later to become a national park.

[Danielle]

Ah, there it is. Of there it is. There's a national park tie in. National park after dark.

[Cassie]

It took root on the banks of the Yakoon river on the Queen Charlotte Islands, otherwise known as Haida Gwai, part of an archipelago that lies off of the coast of British Columbia, Canada. The lands are a part of the Guai Hanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. And this park is what I would say, kind of like the definition of an ecological wonderland. It is so ecologically diverse it's often referred to as the Galapagos of Canada. Wow, quite the title.

[Danielle]

Yeah.

[Cassie]

The ocean surrounding the islands is home to salmon, octopus, sea lions and over 20 species of whales and dolphins. Safe in the surrounding National Marine Conservation Area. That kind of safeguards and protects the islands. Its temperate rainforests stretch from the ocean all the way to the base of the San Christobal Mountains along jagged mountain range which is the highest on the islands. Moss covered cedar, hemlock and spruce trees from an impressive swath of aged old giants line the island's coasts. Part of the park that is protected from mountaintop to sea floor. And many of the species and subspecies on Haida Gwaii are endemic, which we've been over before, but essentially means they only exist there. And some examples of those are the Haida short tailed weasel and the Haida Gwaii black bear.

[Danielle]

Wow, they have their own black bear?

[Cassie]

They sure do.

[Danielle]

That's really cool.

[Cassie]

I know there's some physiological differences, but looking at them, I couldn't like if somebody put an American black bear and this subspecies side by side. I don't think I could differentiate, but they exist.

[Danielle]

Oh, yeah. They look like a black bear.

[Cassie]

Yep, checks out.

[Danielle]

Checks out. That's a black bear for sure.

[Cassie]

A safe haven on paper since 1985. Prior to the arrival of European settlers in the 1860s, Haida Gwai's Haida people lived on the island for thousands of years. As is the story elsewhere, from around the world, settlers brought war and diseases, including smallpox, measles, and typhoid, which spread like wildfire and took a harrowing toll on the Haida people. Pre European contact, the haida numbered around 20,000. By the late 19th century, that number was down to a staggering 600 individuals. Losing over half of their population also meant losing huge portion of portions of Haida oral history, culture and traditions. As with numerous other indigenous and first nations groups, oral storytelling is an integral part of the Haida culture. And with the loss of thousands of their people, entire generations just gone. Their stories and family histories that had been passed down through generations died with them. The story of the golden spruce, however, survived. It was one of the few things the epidemics and the settlers did not wipe out. So here is a condensed version of the story of Kid kiosk, and it goes like this. There was once a great storm, and a grandfather and a grandson were the only two survivors and were forced to leave their village. The grandfather told his grandson, don't look back. If you look back, you will go into the next world. People will be able to stop and admire you, but they won't be able to talk to you. But the young boy, leaving behind everything he knew, couldn't help but stop and turn to look back one last time. In that moment, in that final glance, his feet grew roots, and he transformed into Kid Kios, the golden spruce. His grandfather told him not to worry, that his people would always tend to him and know his story. He would be loved, and he would not be alone. And the Haida people kept that promise. They tended to the golden spruce, and the story of this young boy was passed down from generation to generation. For such a visually beautiful tree, and one that had been held in such a high regard for centuries, you might think that in order to kill a tree this special, you'd have to hate it, or at least be, like, indifferent to it, not have really any opinion about it, right? But surprisingly, neither was the case, because the tree's killer didn't see his crimes as one of hatred, but one of profound love, a way to defend and advocate for all trees, a sort of bizarre environmental protest. And they say that love makes you do some crazy things. So how did 47 year old Canadian forest engineer Grant Hadwin's love drive him to commit such a devastating act? So let's talk a little bit about Grant.

[Danielle]

Okay.

[Cassie]

Grant was born in 1949 and raised in a middle class family in West Vancouver, Canada. When he was around 17 years old, he quit high school to join the workforce and wound up joining his uncle's logging company. Despite the insanely dangerous aspects of the job, which pretty much comprised the entire job, I mean, loggers and arborists in general have a really dangerous profession. It had a major perk for Grant and that was he got to spend most of his time in the forest, which is where he felt most at home. At the time that Grant entered into the logging world in the 1960s, the long held belief that forests and timber were this infinite resource was still held in pretty high regard by the logging industry as a whole. The hills of British Columbia were blanketed in a seemingly endless sea of trees that seemed to stretch forever. And it seemed as if no amount of clear cutting appeared to even make a dent in the sheer volume of trees that covered nearly two thirds of the province of British Columbia, which is Canada's third largest. And to me, I was like, okay, I don't know too much about Canada as a whole, even though they sit right on top of us. So I wanted to put some context to this a little bit because I can spew numbers at you, which. So BC is about 364,764 square miles, which seems like a lot because it, because it is, it's nearly four times the size of the entire uk.

[Danielle]

Wow. Okay, that definitely puts it into perspective a little bit better.

[Cassie]

And most of it is forest. At the time it felt like there was nothing to lose and just everything to gain. For the logging industry, especially up here, there's money, resources and power. And conservation was the last thing on any timber company's minds and certainly, certainly never discussed at any team meeting or board meeting or anything, especially with the workers.

[Danielle]

Yeah. If you're under this belief that you have an infinite resource that's just going to regenerate quickly and it's a forest, it's always growing and you have this huge landscape that's making you money, you're not going to be like, hey, maybe we shouldn't cut down things and make less money.

[Cassie]

Yeah, no. And they perpetuated that to everyone from the top down. And many loggers, you know, just on boots, on the ground, people were sold this myth that there was just simply no way that they could clear cut fast enough to cause any sort of permanent damage or devastation to the landscapes and that trees felled would simply grow back. Kind of like you just alluded to companies like Evans Woods Products, British Columbia Forest Products, Rayonier and more clear cut mountainsides and forests with little to no regulations in place, resulting in devastation that Grant started to wake up to before anybody else. Grant was a very polite and reserved person, but there was a fierceness that boiled under the surface of his mild nature. And everyone that knew him and reflected back on him would describe him as intense. Like that's a word that just repeatedly came up over and over. And he gained quite the reputation in the communities that he lived in. Primarily Goldbridge, B.C. about a five hour drive north of Vancouver. He was first of all always up for a wilderness challenge of any kind and would take on anyone who dared to compete with him. Whether it be at a bar or just a friendly competition at work or whatever. He was always down to beat somebody.

[Danielle]

Outside very competitive nature.

[Cassie]

On one occasion he disappeared into the snowy woods wearing only a jean jacket and carrying a half empty bottle of vodka and a rifle and returned two days later with a mountain goat he' killed strung over his shoulder. On another occasion, a friend of his was in the woods with him when they ran into two grizzlies. Instead of trying to avoid the bears, Hadwin taunted them, yelled at them and provoked them until they charged towards the two of them. Grant sprinted across the river and escaped their attack. But stunts like this earned him this like cowboy of the forest type of moniker and reputation.

[Danielle]

Like daredevil, adrenaline junkie, kind of of fearless, but in a reckless way.

[Cassie]

Yeah. Kind of like feels invincible.

[Danielle]

Yeah.

[Cassie]

Whether it's with animals or the, the elements or weather or whatever, just like kind of just at home in the forest, but also maybe kind of like it can't harm me type of thing. I don't know.

[Danielle]

Yeah.

[Cassie]

And despite consuming large amounts of chewing tobacco and going on occasional vodka fuel binges, he was in top physical condition. He would head outdoors so often in the midst of said binges that locals even had a joke. They would say, hey, look, snowbank is moving. It must be Grant because he would go out in the snow and pass out in a snowbank.

[Danielle]

Oh man. Just like, like, oh, it's just Grant drunk again in the snow.

[Cassie]

Yeah. He lived to be in nature and the danger and challenge rugged landscapes provided absolutely fueled him. He loved the old growth forests of Canada and they Fueled his mind, body and his spirit. He did drop out of high school, like I said, when he was a teenager, but he did go on to earn his forest technician's degree. And that combined with this just intuitive understanding of the forest, just made him so insanely good at his job. Like he stood out amongst this entire community of loggers of being like the best of the best. He just had a really innate and natural ability for this type of stuff. And he began to work his way up in responsibility. He started as a logger and then onto a rock driller, a blaster, a prospector, and eventually landed a job as what was titled a layout superintendent for a lumber company called Evans Wood Products. So essentially, it was his job to trek deep into the woods, many of which were places so remote that he was likely the first non indigenous person to step foot in them. He was going to out there, and he basically needed to take a lay of the land and see if they could get logging trucks up there, how they would bulldoze roads to get their machinery up there and what trees were viable and things like that.

[Danielle]

He mapped it out a bit to see what the conditions of the landscape was exactly.

[Cassie]

By this point in the 1980s, most of the easy or obvious terrain in British Columbia, in the area that they were operating within, had already been logged, thanks to over a hundred years of indiscriminate destruction. And because of this, Grant had to find ways for logging trucks to access steeper, more technical sections of forest. It was a challenging task, but he had a knack for it, A vision that made him unique, as he was known to be able to look at a swath of land that would stump others and still somehow be able to lay out a gentle path to navigate to the heart of the forest and the trees that they wanted the most. His intimate knowledge of the forest helped him penetrate its most vulnerable regions with ease and precision. And in this way, his work was also devastating. His love of the forest was helping destroy it. According to Eco Trust, which is an Oregon based conservation group, California, Oregon and Washington had lost 90% of their combined coastal rainforest, while British Columbia, which originally had twice as much forested area, had lost nearly 40%. All by the time that Grant was aiding in the logging industry. And for him, these figures weren't numbers on paper, they weren't percentages, they weren't something in a graph. He was seeing this catastrophic reality day in and day out, and he had a heavy hand in it.

[Danielle]

Did he have any feelings towards it or he just thought he was doing?

[Cassie]

Did he have feelings on it? Yes. And that is what this entire episode is about. So yes, he did, for sure. Many of Grant's colleagues would later reflect back on that time their hand in the logging industry as well. Al Wanderer, for example, who was interviewed for the New Yorker in 2002, told John Valiant, who is also the author of the book the Golden Spruce, the True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed, which is one of the. I mean, I read that book for this, for this episode and he's an awesome writer. Yeah. So Al said, quote, good God, we gutted that place. I didn't think it was possible to log this much. I've made a good living, but sometimes you wonder if it was all worth it. Day after day, month after month, year after year, the largest log barges in the world would carry off millions of cubic feet of timber sourced from some of the oldest trees in the world. One tree, however, was spared from all of this, and that was kid kiosks. In the mid-1960s, McMillan Bloedel, which was the biggest logging company in Canada at the time, agreed to not touch the sacred tree or the 12 acres directly surrounding it. Even an industry at its peak of ruthlessness in their quest for money and power, was willing to protect this golden giant, albeit reluctantly. So don't think you're like, oh my God, they did so good. They fought, they fought to log that area.

[Danielle]

Well, 12 acres is a pretty small, small chunk to give people back when they've just decimated the amount that you're talking about.

[Cassie]

I know, but I had to say because it's like, I think they used it for a while. It was like, we can, yeah, we're a logging company, but we're also in like, look at what we've protected. But it was only after a lot of advoc advocacy from other groups that pushed them into ultimately saying, okay, we'll protect it. In 1988, they relented after a years long battle with both the Haida and several environmental groups, resulting in setting aside that few acres of old growth forests that surrounded the golden spruce. So just had to make mention of that. For the first handful of years into his work, Grant was able to manage the ideological tension of his job in the logging industry and like, his feelings about what was happening. He was having this like heart and what is it? The head and the heart kind of struggle. Yeah, it kept him up at night, but he was able to manage it for, for a long time. But as time went on, he started to become completely overwhelmed by the impact that his Work was having on the forest that he loved so dearly. He watched on horrified as whole sections of the forest were. Were completely gutted. The logging industry's ideas of infinite lumber felt like this distant myth to Grant, who saw a very finite world being methodically stripped and destroyed in front of his eyes. So he's like, okay, and on in one year. The logging industry is like, saying all this stuff of like, oh, it's fine, and we have this infinite amount of resources and it's all good. And then he is physically in the forest and seeing that it's. It's in fact, not all good and that no one is raising the alarm at all at this point in time.

[Danielle]

Well, he's also there for. You've said years at this point. So this narrative that the trees grow, the trees grow back, and this is an infinite resource, he's seeing firsthand. Like, I logged this five years ago and it looks exactly the same.

[Cassie]

Right? It's just. Yeah. And it's also. There's something to be said about. He is so steeped in a community that every other person is a logger. Every other person's family has been in logging here for the. For generations. It's just like, what you do and you don't question it really. Like, it's just the way it is.

[Danielle]

And I mean, when you look at it, too, logging offers resources and an important resource for a lot of different things and a lot of different people. So you can look at it and be like, this is. I'm doing something good, I'm doing something beneficial. I'm outdoors. But then there's a point where it's like, okay, where. When did this change where it was something sustainable to something detrimental and super valid.

[Cassie]

Totally valid point. I mean, here I am, there's wood all around me. There's wood around you. Paper, you know.

[Danielle]

You know. Yeah. There's just so many things that we utilize that we need wood for. But as with everything and anything, when you're using the resources that the world provides you, you can't strip them of their existence. You have to find a way to do it where you can utilize it for years. And so it's not just your generation that gets them, but for.

[Cassie]

Yeah.

[Danielle]

Hopefully the rest of the world's life.

[Cassie]

Yeah. I will say off the bat here, there was nothing done in a sustainable way up until this point here in this part of the world.

[Danielle]

He's the first person to be like, wait a minute, this isn't.

[Cassie]

He's among the first.

[Danielle]

Okay, for sure. Because there's clearly people who are protesting if they're asking to save the golden spruce, but.

[Cassie]

And yeah, we'll get into it a little bit more as the episode goes on, but primarily the Haida people that have already had so much ripped away from them and taken away from them. And now that doesn't surprise me at all.

[Danielle]

Especially when you take a community of people who are so ingrained and intertwined with nature and the world to be the first ones to raise the flag and be like, hey, what you're doing is wrong and you can't do this to the planet. You're really harming the earth.

[Cassie]

Yeah. And not only that, but it's something I don't even really touch too, too much on in the episode. But if you are read the book by John Valiant, the Golden Spruce. He spends pretty much the first, I would say almost half of the book talking about the history of logging in general and then more specifically in Haida Gwaii, and then also talking about the devastation that I touched on regarding what happened to the people there. Not only because of logging. That came secondary. First it was like overfishing and then the otter industry and Peltier and like, just one resource extraction to another over the centuries that European settlers are like, okay, well, this is what we can take from you. Okay, that's depleted. Now we're gonna go on to something else. Oh, that's depleted. Okay, now we're gonna take this from you. And then. So it's kind of like this snowball effect and like, they're getting more and more upset because, yeah, to your point, we want to do this in a sustainable way. They have a completely different relationship to the land and resources than the Western world does. And that's talked a lot about as well. But it's a lot more than that. It's, like, so deeply rooted.

[Danielle]

It's like this is the cherry on top of a way larger problem that's been going on for a long time.

[Cassie]

Yep, exactly. But going back to Grant, so, yeah, he's seeing all this unfold in front of him. He's getting really fed up, and he's becoming outraged, for lack of a better word. He's not only sad, he's frustrated, he's mad. He feels like he's just. Just alone in seeing what's happening. And I had to write, kind of go off to the side for a second. There is one quote that I love so much, and it reminds me so much of Grant, now that I know Grant's story, and it's A quote by Aldo Leopold. And I think a lot of people have either heard this or can relate to this in some way, especially our listeners. And it goes like this. One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to the layman. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not wish to be told otherwise. So.

[Danielle]

Oof. Heavy.

[Cassie]

Deep.

[Danielle]

Yeah, it's really deep.

[Cassie]

So part of Grant's job was not only to go out and find these different logging routes and options and where they could lay roads and which trees are the best to harvest, but he also had to write reports about the different areas that he surveyed. And his concern grew for the forest the more and more that he did. So he started to begin to use his reports as a way of conveying that concern, because he would write, like, in the margins of like, hey, maybe we shouldn't go here because of this, or like, we need to avoid this area, or let's seek alternative options here. And then he started to criticize logging methods and began pointing out parts of the forest that he believed should be spared altogether. So he started using it the opposite.

[Danielle]

Of what he was employed to do. He was supposed to find the spots that they were supposedly not able to go to and bring them there. And now he's like, wait a minute, maybe we shouldn't go here.

[Cassie]

And a lot of people, a lot of his co workers, reflect back and think, like, there's probably an untold amount of times that he never reported good spots to log because he didn't want to tell anybody about them and he wanted to spare them all together. His environmental concerns were not amusing to his supervisors, and his criticisms of the company cost him both promotions and the respect of some of his co workers. Eventually, Grant grew so frustrated with the lack of receptiveness amongst his peers that he quit and started his own business, focusing on salvaging trees that had fallen due to various beetle infestations, attempting to adopt a more sustainable approach to forestry and logging than was the status quo at the time. Because again, he's not anti logging, which is a really big distinction to make. Like, he is not anti logging altogether. This is his livelihood. It's what he knows. It's what his family had done, it's what all of his friends had done. And like you said, he. It's a resource. It's not like we're never going to log anything. He just was frustrated at the way in which it was being done. So he was seeking this alternative like hey, maybe there's a better way to do this.

[Danielle]

Right.

[Cassie]

And no one's doing it, so let me try.

[Danielle]

Right. And like you said, this is his livelihood. So if he's seeing that these mass forests are being destroyed and now they're having trouble finding places to log, that's also his livelihood. If they get rid of everything that exists, this, how is he going to work anymore? Yeah, what are they going to do? So I feel like it's so multifaceted where there's so many reasons to be concerned with what they're doing.

[Cassie]

So he works really hard at this job, his new operation, like he was a one man show. He, he didn't have any employees, it was just him. And ultimately he couldn't keep up his business, he couldn't keep it afloat. Especially in an industry that wasn't in the business of forward thinking forestry like just plain and simple. In this way Grant was way ahead of his time considering conservation as a part of forestry wouldn't become a common practice for decades. Brian Tremblay, a man who had known Grant since they were young, recalled, quote, he was on his own trajectory. He was talking environment and proper forest management before anybody. And while Grant was outspoken about his beliefs, he wasn't alone in this type of heartbreak. In the documentary Hadwin's judgment, which I, I think I use your Vimeo account to. So if you see that on there, that was me. One of Grant's oldest friends and fellow logger reflected on one particular day at work after a 15 hour shift. And this is like a seasoned, you know, I, he had been doing this for 30 plus years, it's status quo type of day. But for some reason it just like he had a really day of reflection and really was paying attention to what he was doing more so than going through the motions. And he said that he went home to his wife and said I heard the trees cry today.

[Danielle]

That's really sad.

[Cassie]

Yeah.

[Danielle]

You know at the beginning of this episode you really made me feel like I was not going to like Grant at all. And now the more you're talking about him I'm like wait a minute, I thought he was the villain of the story and now you're making me like him. So I'm a little confused.

[Cassie]

He's a confusing guy and I tried to do that intentionally because I have mixed feelings about Him. And I think everyone who already knows his story does. And I think people who are learning about him now towards the end of this, you'll probably also feel the same.

[Danielle]

Okay.

[Cassie]

And we can talk about it a little bit more, because what he did wasn't great, but I can see why. And his intentions behind it.

[Danielle]

He had, like, a reason.

[Cassie]

Yeah. In 1987, something significantly shifted in Grant. He was doing contract and freelance work for timber companies, but in between jobs, he would escape away for chunks of time. A week or so, 10 days or so. And this was not anything new for him. Wandering into the wilderness as a way to retreat from the world and the. The horrors that he had to bear witness to and had a hand in was not. Not something that was abnormal for him. But this time he was gone for about 10 days. And when he returned, his friends and family noticed something about him that had shifted. Like, fundamentally, like there was something that they could. They couldn't quite put their finger on it, but everyone sensed that something was a little off about him. Whether it was something in his eyes or the way that he moved in the world or how he behaved, he was still Grant. But something had shifted. He was nearing the end of his rope with his resentment for the men at the heads of large logging companies, many of which had. He was very. He was very passionate about this point. Too many of these people making these decisions would have no way and no knowledge of getting around the forest themselves because they're hardly in it. They're making decisions from behind a desk in the city, not.

[Danielle]

Oh, right. Having really experienced on the front line, seeing what's happening.

[Cassie]

Yep. Grant later revealed that during his 10 day retreat, he had some sort of vision or revelation, one that not only strengthened his conviction that, that logging was corrupt, but now he felt personally called by some sort of higher power to put an end to the logging industry's destruction. And right now it needs to be mentioned that Grant was also struggling with his mental health. Members of his family dealt with significant mental illnesses, and his brother's battle with paranoid schizophrenia was so extreme that it ultimately led to death by suicide. So he. This is something that he's grappled with on and off for years in different. In different forms.

[Danielle]

And does he have schizophrenia too?

[Cassie]

He was not diagnosed with schizophrenia, but he definitely had his, his struggles. Okay, for sure. And throughout his life, he struggled, like I said, with similar demons. And he began to experience episodes of paranoia in the early 1990s, right around this, this same time of this revelation of like, I'm now personally responsible or called to do something to put an end to this gotcha. Following this revelation, he began sending angry letters criticizing the logging industry to a variety of different political figures. In a letter to a provincial Supreme Court judge, he wrote in part, quote, the forest industry in British Columbia appears to be one example of remote controlled terrorism on this planet, with professionals leading the way in severe symptoms of denial that there is any problem. And that's just an excerpt of that, but you get the gist, yeah. Grant may have felt alone in his anger, especially in a family of loggers, in a community that made its wealth from the logging industry, and with most of his friends, fellow loggers. But he wasn't alone. Environmental groups like Greenpeace, founded In the early 1970s in nearby Vancouver, were protesting the logging industry's destructive practices, even going so far as to engage in radical acts of protest, like climbing aboard ships, transporting timber and chaining themselves to the logs. And the Haida community itself had also been fighting really hard against logging and were no strangers to the fight to protect their lands. Kind of like we talked about before, where much of the western worldview, especially then, saw land as a resource, many indigenous communities demonstrated a much more reciprocal relationship with nature. The Haida principle of Yagudang translates to respect for all living things, things. And they see all life forms as interconnected and interdependent. This sort of web of life, rather than a hierarchy, another integral part of their culture, teaches reciprocity, that if you take something from a plant or another species, you should give something in return to thank and support the life of that species. So in their worldview, humans are not separate from nature, but inherently and inescapably a part of it. Just this strand in a larger web web. Whereas the logging industry functioned in a very anthropocentric way, a human centered worldview where humans are considered the most important and valuable beings, often viewing other beings as a resource for human needs. Like, okay, well, this is benefiting me. So that's the most important, like, what is good for me, what's bad for me, what do I like, what don't I like? And then acting in accordance to that.

[Danielle]

I think that that's a really common view. It's hard, I think, because there are so many people in the world, and it just feels like the world kind of revolves around people. I think that that gets lost a lot where it's like, how are we going to benefit people? How are we going to take care of people? And that can be something that is because we genuinely care about our loved ones. Like, this is totally off subject, kind of. But when we look at medicine and we're practicing on living animals, you know, at the end of the day, people are like, it's worth it because my loved one has cancer, my loved one has, has. Needs a kidney transplant. And you know, it's such a double edged sword because it's like, yes, that is true, but at the same time it's harmful. And it's like you kind of weigh the pros and cons. So I feel like that argument with the lumber industry, there's so much of that throughout the world of is it more beneficial or is it more harmful? And you kind of have to weigh and decide what is worth it and what's not.

[Cassie]

It's so. It's such a layered conversation. And one that is. Is, I think one that's one of the most divisive conversations you can have, but I think also one of the most important ones. And people would hate to see me on a dating app. It'd be like, do you live as an anthropocenter? Do you have an anthropocentric worldview or not? And tell me the pros and cons, right or left? But yeah, no, I mean, I thought about it when I sent you that article the other day about them talking about reentering, introducing mountain lions into Vermont. And I just thought immediately I was like, yeah, that's great. That's so cool. And I know there's gonna be a lot. It's the same thing with reintroducing anything. Grizzlies in Washington, wolves in Colorado, mountain lions here in New England. It's the same conversation of like, you know, people are at the center of it, like, is it gonna be good or bad for us and what harm will it do to us? And you know, it's all about how that decision will affect us, even though we're kind of righting a wrong that people have done in the past. Like, we caused the local extinction of all of those animals in all of those areas.

[Danielle]

Yeah. I mean, I'm not gonna lie. When I first read it, my first thought was, oh, well, I have to be more careful with my dogs outside. Oh, well, I need to be more mindful while I'm hiking if we do that. And then not in like a bad way. It was just a question that I first thought of in my head was like, okay, how will this affect me having this here? And I think that that's a really common question to ask.

[Cassie]

It's in human nature. I mean, you know, it's just recognizing that and knowing when it's like, okay, all of my decisions are being made about me and how it could benefit me versus I am just one part of this larger system. And I need to take that into account. Because if that. If other things are suffering for my benefit, that's. And on a huge scale.

[Danielle]

Yeah.

[Cassie]

And for everybody, like, that's the problem.

[Danielle]

Right. My second thought. I love that you said. Because my second thought was we have so much roadkill all over the road. There's. So there's no large predators here, except for we have bears, we have some bobcats, coyotes, small things like that. But every season from now until, I want to say, usually, like end of June, our roads are just littered with roadkill because. Because there's nothing predating on them. And, you know, mountain lions did were here, and some argue that they're still around and we just don't know it. Occasionally we see things that pop up that are like, think I saw a mountain lion. And whether or not it is is up for debate. But that was my second thought was, wait, does our. Does our environment really need it? And I read the article and it was talking about how much healthier Vermont's forests would be. And it's like, oh, can I be more careful when I'm outside hiking? Can I be more careful with the dogs leave? Yeah, those are small things, but those.

[Cassie]

Are small concessions to make for a greater good, you know. But in this, like, anthropocentric view point, it's kind of like, well, no, I don't want to do that. And they're not here and they haven't.

[Danielle]

Been here will affect you and what you need to do to mitigate it or change. And I feel like it's very natural for your first response to be like, wait a minute. How is this going to affect my life?

[Cassie]

Definitely, for sure. Okay, well, kind of like bring it back here to the other side of the coin. The Haida people, because that's what we were originally talking about, function largely in a kincentric way, which is this broader perspective that emphasizes interconnectedness and mutual respect between all living beings viewing the natural world as a network of relatives to be cared for. So to say that they were appalled at this decimation of their land would be an understatement. In the 70s and 80s, they carried out a series of different campaigns against the logging industry, including intercepting timber, carrying ships, blockading logging roads, petitioning, and taking legal actions. Their efforts were incredibly Successful and were foundational in establishing the southern third of Haida Gwaii as a protected National Reserve in 1987, Grant's efforts ramped up as well. He wrote prolifically to. To anyone and everyone that had any sort of power. So at first it was just like politicians and things like that. And now he's like, okay, if you have a voice and people pay attention to you, I'm writing to you. So we got politicians, everyone from the media, newspapers, radio, whatever, police officers, doctors, and he even wrote to the queen. Anyone that he thought would pay attention to his pleas and who in their respective position could enact any sort of conversation or Change. Change. By 1993, he. So I kind of glazed over his family life. He did get married and he had three children, but by 1993, he had separated from his wife, and his wife retained custody of his three children. And his episodes of paranoia increased in occurrence and severity. One of those episodes compelled him to seek refuge on a remote island off the coast of Alaska. He rented a kayak, which was damaged in the water, and he wound up living off the land for 12 days before he was rescued by the Coast Guard. Later that summer, he was stopped at the United states border with 3, 000 hypodermic needles in the trunk of his car. He somehow smoothed things over with the customs agents, and he made his way to Washington, D.C. where he distributed the needles on the streets along with condoms, presenting himself as an advocate of. Of needle exchange and safe sex. A short time after that, with 2, 000 needles still remaining, he caught a plane to Moscow, where he continued eastward don children's hospitals as he went. He was arrested by the police in Siberia, but apparently gave quite the shining interview, and he parted on good terms with them and made his way back to Canada.

[Danielle]

What year was this again?

[Cassie]

This was 1993 that this was happening. He was sent to a hospital for extensive psychiatric evaluations by several different doctors following this whole chapter of his. And although all of them found evidence of quote, unquote paranoid reactions, they all agreed that he was mentally competent. And he. That was it. That was kind of the end of that. He continued his letter writing to the media and politicians, criticizing the logging industry, while simultaneously trying to gain employment in the same profession, which was a problem. He was repeatedly rejected, likely due to a combination of his mental state and his brutal honesty. For example, he was applying for a job and his cover letter said in part, part, quote, I do not like clear cutting and my philosophical differences with the forest industry run steep. If you are prepared to try a gentler approach to forestry with less short term profit? I may be able to help. I am not familiar with new buzzwords such as forest renewal. All of forestry and most of the forests appear to be in need of renewing in some form or another.

[Danielle]

And these are logging jobs?

[Cassie]

Yeah. Yes.

[Danielle]

He's like, I don't like logging, but.

[Cassie]

I'm good at it.

[Danielle]

But I'm good at it. And if you want to do it in a way that's going to make you less money in the short term.

[Cassie]

I can help you. Yeah. So they're like, they're like, pass.

[Danielle]

Absolutely not. This is the worst cover letter I've ever read.

[Cassie]

Yeah, right. Fast forward to 1996. Grant was living out of a hotel in Whitehorse. He had long lived his life by the beat of his own drum and had a pretty small circle of friends. Like, he was known, people knew who he was, and he was pleasant to a lot of people and most people. But as far as, like, true friendships he had, he didn't have many. But he made an unlikely friend in an elderly woman named Cora Gray, and they began spending time together. She described him as intense, tense and sporadic while she was measured and calm. And that fall, Cora watched as her friend began to do some increasingly strange things. He had begun swimming in the river, a bold choice, to say the least for anyone in northern Canada in December, on a day when the air temperature was minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Cora watched with concern as Grant climbed across the Snowy river bank and descended into the freezing water. And when he got out, she asked him, why are you torturing yourself? To which he replied, shaking off the icicles that had formed on his eyebrows and in his hair.

[Danielle]

I'm training the first cold plunge he knew. He knew all along he was in.

[Cassie]

Top physical condition, that's for sure. Cora didn't want to think about what her erratic friend might have meant by this ominous statement and began getting an unsettling feeling about the man that she had let into her life. Life. In January of 1997, Grant traveled to Haida Guai. His strange and mysterious actions continued, and this time it was clear that they were part of a larger plan. He checked into the Golden Spruce Motel and began to give away almost all of his belongings. He told the motel's owner's daughter to take whatever she wanted because he would be burning the rest. He also made comments about his thoughts on the, quote, incestuous breed of insidious manipulators that ran big companies and made Mention that he thought terrorism was the most effective way to create change. Red flag. Bold red. Such a red flag. Yeah. All of this combined. Yes. It's going from I get it to this is bad and we need to reel it back.

[Danielle]

In his defense, it sounds like he's been voicing his concerns for years at this point and not a single person has agreed or believed him.

[Cassie]

That's valid.

[Danielle]

That would also make me very upset and angry and feel very, I guess, hopeless.

[Cassie]

Yes. And voiceless. Very hopeless. So here he is, getting rid of most of his things. Selling things off, plainly giving away like clearly he's not going to have plans to be around to need them. But he did buy a select arrangement of new items at this time. Specifically a gas can, falling wedges, and a chainsaw. Most murderers would have to be discreet when buying tools to commit their crime. But Grant was in the business of killing trees. He could buy these things in plain sight. I mean, a chainsaw in logging country is not going to raise any eyebrows or ruffle any feathers at all. So here we are. On the night of January 20, 1997. Under the COVID of darkness, Grant Hadwin made his way to the head of the macmillan Bloedel Golden Spruce Trail trail. He wandered through the dark forest carrying his chainsaw, falling wedges, gas and oil in a garbage bag at his side. And when he reached the Yakoon river, he took a moment to assess his next move. The river is 60ft wide and temperatures dipped to 30 degrees that evening. Swimming 60ft against a strong current in freezing conditions in the dead of night is not for the faint of heart. But this was Grant Hadwin and he had been training as if performing choreography that he knew by heart. He slipped into the page pitch black river and began to swim. Towing his inflated garbage bag of tools behind him, Grant swam through the darkness until he reached the opposite bank of the river where he would end a generations old life drenched in freezing river water. He walked up to the base of the tree. Kid kiosk presided over the river in darkness as it had for almost 300 years. For one more moment, the tree defied the odds. Strong and tall in all of the miracles that allowed it to exist. And as Grant tilted his head towards the sky, taking in the sight of the tree's golden needles towering far above his head, he eyed it carefully and thought deeply about it. And it struck him as deeply hypocritical that logging companies were willing to spare this one tree when they ruthlessly killed all of the others. Then he took out his chainsaw. He made a series of calculated cuts into the base of the golden spruce so that it remained standing, but was completely destabilized. The base of the golden spruce was about 7ft in diameter, and the chainsaw that Grant was using only had a 25 inch bar. In order to take down the golden giant, he had to know its weak spots. And he did. But even still, the job took hours. He used what's called a Humboldt Undercut, where a 45 degree wedge is removed from the trunk, as well as a series of smaller cuts called cookies. When he finished his work, the tree was still standing, but it was teetering on the brink of collapse. Collapse. And this was done with all the intention. Like he did not want to fell this tree right now. He did not want to cut this tree down. He wanted it to be weakened. And he knew that it was going to fall and fall soon, but he wanted it to stay standing while he was there. He knew exactly what cuts to make so he can control the direction of the golden spruce's fall. And he engineered the cut so that the tree would fall towards the river, but not at that moment. Moment. One last time. His deep knowledge of the forest helped him destroy it. Kid Chaos who had withstood storms and settlers and logging companies would now be subjected to the next strong wind. Just like when lightning strikes, there's this brief moment between when the bolt strikes the earth and when we hear this thunderous boom that it creates the destruction that had already been set in motion but can't be stopped or reversed. And for a lingering moment, everything is still. As the sun began to rise and Grant made his way back to the mainland. The golden spruce stood on the banks of the river as it always had, golden branches outstretched towards the gray sky. And Grant had checked into the Moby Dick Inn. And in that still moment, that in between time, he so perfectly calculated. During that time, he faxed out letters to Greenpeace, Prince Rupert's Daily News and the Vancouver sun, and to the Haida Nation explaining why he did what he did. An attempt at justifying his crime. So he was buying himself time in that in between moment of shit's about to go down. And this letter is lengthy, so I'm just going to read an excerpt. Okay, but it says, quote, I didn't enjoy butchering this magnificent old plant, but you apparently need a message and a wake up call that even a university trained professional should be able to understand. I meant no disrespect to act to, most of which to the Haida People by my actions or to the natural environment of Haida Gwaii. I do, however, mean this action to be an expression of my rage and hatred towards university trained professionals and their extremist supporters whose ideas, ethics, denials, part truths, attitudes, etc, appear to be responsible for most of the abominations towards amateur life on this planet. The next day, the golden spruce fell onto the banks of the Yakoon river. And the grief that rippled through the Haida community was profound. Grant was clearly desperate to disrupt one cycle of violence, you know, in his mind, this perpetual decimation of the forests. But, and albeit perhaps unintentionally, like he did say, he doesn't mean disrespect or harm to the environment or to the Haida people, but he participated in another cycle of violence, and that was the cycle of violence against the Haida people. Whether or not he intended to.

[Danielle]

I mean, he can say it wasn't intentional to harm them, but he knew that it would. And also he took the tree that most them that meant the most to them. I mean, that tree didn't mean anything to the logging company. It only meant something to these people. And he clearly acknowledged in that letter, I didn't, didn't mean any harm. My intention isn't to hurt you. But by saying that, he's acknowledging that he knew it would.

[Cassie]

Yes. The death of the golden spruce was as visceral and devastating as if a human had died. Some felt guilty that they had not protected the tree better. And the council of the Haida nation actually issued a press release following Kid Kia is falling. And part of it read quote, the Haida people are saddened and angered by the destruction of Kid Kios. The loss of Kid Kios is a deliberate violation of our cultural history. Our oral traditions about Kid Qias predate written history. We declare to the world that the Haida nation takes full ownership of the remains of Kid Kios and that it is declared off limits to everyone. The Haida expect that justice will prevail and that the person responsible for this act of destruction will be punished. And it didn't take long for Grant Hadwin to be arrested, mostly because he wasn't running. And he had, in essence, pointed this like bright neon sign directly to him.

[Danielle]

Yeah, he told everyone it was him.

[Cassie]

He told everybody he was charged with criminal mischief and the illegal cutting of timber and was ordered to appear in court in Masset, which was a village on the island of Haida Gwai. Grant did not want to take a ferry or any public means of Transportation to get to the island as he feared for his life life, Believing that he would be attacked by locals who were angry at him for chopping down the golden spruce, which was justified based on the response of the community. I mean, people were. Will. Were saying, I'm gonna kill him. Like, not just the Haida people, but there were. So this tree was like. I didn't even mention it, but it was a huge tourist attraction. Like there were buses of visitors going to see it. Like there was this interpretive trail to it.

[Danielle]

Kind of like General Sherman and sequoia.

[Cassie]

Yes, it was like this huge like, like tourist attraction. Obviously the logging industry used it as this. Like, look how good we are for saving us.

[Danielle]

Yeah, we care about forest, we care about the planet.

[Cassie]

And then obviously to the Haida people, we already know how important it was to them. So it's like all around this beloved tree and, you know, so for him to cut it down and then admit to it, like watching. Scared. He was really scared, as he should be. So he comes up with a plan because he wants to go to court. He has every intention of going, but he didn't want to get there just as. As normal. So he comes up with this plan that was not less dangerous in any way. He decided to kayak across the Heckett Strait, which is a terrifying body of water that separates Haida Gwaii from the mainland of British Columbia. Even the most experienced boatsmen shiver at the thought of braving the Heckett Strait. And most never even try. And body of water has winds that have been said to lift 400lb boats out of the water. And during winter storms, the waves can tower 30 to 60ft tall. And we're in the winter, we're in January. Just as a reminder, he's just like.

[Danielle]

I would rather take my chance with this body of water than I would with people.

[Cassie]

Yep, Weather systems are at war there. And rip tides, waves, and winds pose a series of death threats that to anyone who tries to cross. But he, he wanted to take his chances with them versus with the public who were calling for his head. And once Grant made his mind up to do something, there was no use in arguing with him. So people were just like, as long as you get there, whatever, we don't care. Sure, go for it. On February 11, 1997, he set out to cross the fourth most dangerous body of water in the world in his kayak.

[Danielle]

Perfect.

[Cassie]

And in typical Grant style dress code fashion, he paddled into the frostbite inducing conditions wearing only a raincoat and dishwashing. Gloves as a protective outer layer.

[Danielle]

Does he have pants on?

[Cassie]

Well, yes, but. Okay, no pants, actually, boxers only. He paddled out onto the straight as a storm raged over the already deadly waters and forced him to turn around because it was just way too much. It was way too cold. Cold. So the next morning he showed back up to the store where he had rented the kayak from, and he was searching for some better gear. He purchased warmer clothing, emergency flares, and a chart of the straight, and even spoke to the store clerk about his plans. And the store clerk actually reviewed the map with him in the moment. And he was like, okay, this is my plan. This is where I'm going. This is how I'm gonna do it. And she was like, no, that's a recipe for disaster. So they actually went over a different, different course for him to take that was going to be slightly safer and more sheltered from the winds and things like that. So they go over that in detail. And then the following day, February 13, he set out again to cross the Heckett Street. Five days later, at a courthouse in Massett, a huge crowd gathered and assembled to witness Grant Hadwin's trial. The courthouse was absolutely packed, overflowing to the brim with people crammed in, craning their necks for a chance to see Grant Hadwin's fate determined. People were sardined into the courtroom and those who couldn't get into the small room piled into the hallway. The waiting room waited outside. Like anywhere there was space, there was somebody, there was a body. The crowd included loggers, fishermen, Haida elders, the media, and other members of the local community. And differing as all these groups were, they were brought together by their anger, their shock, and the pure bewilderment they had towards the man who had chopped down the golden spirit, Bruce. At 9:30 in the morning, the judge called out Grant's name. Everyone looked around, holding their breath as they waited for this mysterious man to just to appear. But Grant Hadwin did not step forward. At 10am the judge called his name again. But once more, Grant did not appear. Not then or ever again.

[Danielle]

Wait, what?

[Cassie]

After he kayaked out into the hecket straight five days earlier, Grant had disappeared.

[Danielle]

Stop. I was not expecting this. For some reason I thought he was going to court. I'm thrown. I'm mind blown.

[Cassie]

Okay, well, let's talk about it.

[Danielle]

So what I wanted at first explanation for everything.

[Cassie]

So too did everyone, right? That, and that's part of the frustration with this. If like, it's just like this big collective like and Then what? That's it? Like, what do you mean?

[Danielle]

Yeah, I was not that. That just blew my mind. I had no idea that that's where this story was going.

[Cassie]

So at first when nobody heard from him, his ex wife and others like that were close to him were not that worried or concerned. Like, yeah, it's kind of concerning that you didn't show up to your court date. But that aside, like he goes off and does things all the time, like that's just kind of his thing. So they weren't concerned for his well being, I guess I should say. But as time went on, it became clear that this wasn't like the other times that he had disappeared. He didn't come running out of the woods with a mountain goat or pull himself out of his truck bed after a bad binge. He didn't emerge from a snowbank, you know, like he had just vanished. The Canadian Coast Guard began their search for him on March 1, scanning across the vast stretches of ocean and islands where he could be or where his body could be or some semblance of him, whether it be his belongings or his kayak. And that went on for months, Months. But it was ultimately unsuccessful. It wasn't until June when a marine biologist named Scott Walker stumbled across something strange on Mary island, an uninhabited island 70 miles north of where Grant launched his kayak to go to court that day. And while at first he was confused at what he was looking at, it ultimately became pretty clear that what Walker had come across was what remained of Grant's last known possession. Large pieces of his kayak were found. But a few things were odd about the wreck. And despite the fact that Grant had been missing for months at this point, his gear, that had presumably been exposed to the harsh elements for all that time as well, was in remarkably good condition. His sleeping bag had no tears. His life jacket looked crisp and brand new. Even his cook stove looked like it could have been used right then and there. Kind of like it had just been grabbed off the shelf and placed on the ground versus being washed and tumbled in the water and in the elements for however many months now. So four, three or four months in short, it seemed as though the wreck had happened very recently. And most curiously was Hadwin's axe, which was found far above the high tide line. It was hard to imagine such a heavy object making its way that far up the beach, unless it was carried there by a human or a large animal. We got the Haida blackbeard there that we all know and love, right?

[Danielle]

Right.

[Cassie]

So something could that could not be ruled out. But it's just curious. That coupled with all the other parts of this wreck just seems odd. And another mysterious fact was that Grant bought $300 worth of groceries before setting out for Masset via kayak, which is a huge amount of food for someone who only intended to be out kayaking for a few days to attend a court date date. Investigators poured over the wreck and the possibilities of what unfolded. They thought it was possible that Grant had staged the wreck, but many other options were equally as plausible. He could have capsized, been killed out in the water, or been hit by a bigger boat on his way. Or he could have started over somewhere. Grant Hadwin was as confounding in his absence as he was when he stood in front of everyone. And searching for him was like chasing a mirage through a desert. Because as as h it happens with missing persons, there's reports of people seeing them all over the map. People were were claiming to see him in Bella Bella, which is a remote indigenous community. While others thought they spotted him in a tiny community at the US Canadian border. And others swore that they saw someone who looked just like him boarding a ferry in Alaska. Like all of these sightings of people claiming to have seen him all around the area and beyond were popping up, up and none of them came to be anything. They turned up empty. Some cannot accept the fact that he would have run or ended his own life intentionally. The most obvious explanation for his disappearance is that somewhere along the route Grant died in the incredibly dangerous waters and waves and his kayak and body were just no match for the heck it straight and the storm that was raging out there and the elements that that part of the world delves out. But for some authorities, they are really hesitant to accept that, especially given Grant's history as a person, his abilities, his knowledge and combined with what they found, they're just like this doesn't add up. And that was nearly 30 years ago now. And even though he's been missing for decades, his case does remain open. Most people would have been declared dead a long time ago. But authorities and those that knew him and agreed Grant had one could survive in conditions that would kill most other people agree that in that way he was kind of like kid kios. A few years after Grant disappeared, a similar crime to the one he committed unfolded in California. From 1997 to 1999, environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill lived high in the branches of Luna, a 1500 year old redwood tree as an act of environmental protest to protect the tree from Being cut down. Down. As we know if you listen to Cassie's episode, however long ago, years ago now, Julia did succeed. And the Pacific Lumber Company agreed to spare the tree and a small area around it from their usual practice of demolition. But the tree that Julia fought so hard to defend almost came tumbling down because of the actions of a singular person. In the year 2000, someone made a nearly deadly cut into the base of the tree. Tree. Unlike the golden spruce, the tree was able to be saved from falling down with metal beams now supporting its aged, old life. And it is theorized that the person that cut into Luna was someone similar to Grant, a logger pushed to the edge of. With anger and outrage at the logging industry's ruthless destruction and their willingness to protect a select few trees while they bring the rest to the ground without mercy. The person who cut into the base of Luna was never caught.

[Danielle]

Are you suggesting. I was. Grant.

[Cassie]

Just saying. Just putting it out there. How to think about it.

[Danielle]

Grant be.

[Cassie]

Now, that was in 2000. So that happened in the year 2000. And this whole Golden Spruce thing happened in 1997. You're gonna just make some calculated cuts that's going to bring this tree down, but not immediately. Sounds familiar.

[Danielle]

Well, with Luna, I remember researching it. It looks like whoever went there was trying to cut the tree down as a whole, just like, going through it. And Luna is so big that they.

[Cassie]

They couldn't do it.

[Danielle]

That they couldn't do it. And then they ended up putting these big, like, iron staples to hold the tree to grow back together. So. But an interesting.

[Cassie]

Similar. Similar, similar.

[Danielle]

Similar for sure.

[Cassie]

After Grant chopped down the golden spruce, people didn't want to give up on preserving the tree's life. And I know I said that the Haida nation were like, it's ours. Don't think about it. We have complete ownership. And so I don't know, like, the. The processes of, like, how they came to this decision, but just know that it went through, like, a bunch of legal things.

[Danielle]

Okay.

[Cassie]

And ultimately, 80 pieces of the tree's golden branches were clipped and brought to a forestry resource research station in hopes of growing a new golden spruce. A couple of clippings taken from the golden spruce have since been replanted, one of which was planted right next to the stump of kid kios. Haida elders held a private ceremony as the cutting was placed in the earth on the edge of the Yakun River. But one detail would stand out to anyone looking at the tiny branches that were returned to the riverbank. The needles on the propagated tree didn't have the same golden color as kid kiosk did, and its branches blended right in with the forest around it. The small tree's needles were green. While some of the replanted seedlings do share their parent plant's golden color, they are still in relative infancy, and the odds of them growing into the towering height and symmetry of kid kiosk are very slim. So it seems like you can't recreate a miracle in that way. The golden spruce was caught in this tug of war, a high level game that ultimately ended its life. It was sacred to the Haida people, a contentious symbol in the logging industry and at the heart of many environmental debates. It became a symbol for how we should protect the sacred species that we share the earth with. To the Haida, the golden spruce was family. To the logging industry, it was like a kid that they begrudgingly agreed to babysit. To Grant Hadwin, the golden spruce was a pawn in a game of chess. And despite his intentions, his divisive move didn't win the game or even make the point that he was so desperate to get across. Cross. Grant Hadwin added a chapter to the story of the golden spruce, one that appears in many stories. The part where a white man comes and destroys what is sacred with the idea that he knows what is best. The golden spruce will forever be a part of the Haida people's history. And its stump on the banks of the Yakoon river reminds us of something that Grant, the Haida people, and many loggers would agree upon. Even the oldest and most powerful forms of life here on earth are not invincible. Destruction cannot be reversed. And if we want our forest to stretch on forever, we must care for them today. And that is the story of the golden spruce, Kid Kios and Grant Hadwin.

[Danielle]

Wow. That story leaves me with so many questions, and it's so frustrating because I know I. I don't know to target the golden spruce. I get it. Was this statement, but the only. He wasn't harming the industry. He was going towards. And. And it seems like he knew that the only people who really, truly cared about this tree were gonna be the ones who were the most affected. And. And then to disappear and not even face the music of what happened. And, you know, I thought that he died at sea immediately was my thought. But then as soon as you said the amount of groceries he bought, it made me question.

[Cassie]

I know.

[Danielle]

What do you think? Think?

[Cassie]

I don't know. I think part of me is like, I think that while he was a little fearful of, oh, okay, let me back up. I think that he knew it was going to piss a lot of people off. But for him, what he thought his message was going to be was worth that. And the message of, like, you know, why this one? Why protect this one tree when look at all around you and every. What everybody else, all the other trees that are suffering and, you know, whatever that point of, like, the hypocrisy of it, I think he was thinking was really going to be. Shine through. And I think that he wasn't prepared for the backlash that he got. Whether or not that seems unbelievable to us, like, looking at it now, like, I think truly in the moment, he was like, okay, I know people are going to be pissed, but they're going to get it like this. How can you not get it?

[Danielle]

And then no one got it.

[Cassie]

And then no one got it. So when he realized that. That I think that he was prepared to go to court because I think he wanted that. That opportunity to elaborate on why he did what he did. Like, this is my opportunity. In front of everyone, all eyes are on me. I have everyone's attention. And I want to say what I've been trying to say for the last 20 years of my life. Like, I think he would have used that as an opportunity to say something more directly.

[Danielle]

He didn't disappear on purpose.

[Cassie]

Yeah, I don't think he did. And I think that, like, okay, preparing 300 worth of groceries. Like, he knows things can go wrong. He could have been delayed. He could have got caught somewhere. Like, he wanted supplies. Like. But then again, he was selling off all his stuff. He's like, I'm not gonna be here. But maybe he thought he was going to go to jail. Like, he didn't need this stuff anymore. He's going to prison or he's gonna be. I don't know.

[Danielle]

He thought he was putting out a statement, Like, I don't know. There are so many things. Yeah, I think it could have gone either way. And I totally see your side of. He felt like this was going to be his moment to explain what he did. But also, I kind of feel like his letter was his moment to explain what he did. And then maybe when he got this backlash of no one was really understanding the message he was sending, he found a way out where, you know, he was like, yeah, I'm totally coming to court. Don't worry, I'll be there. I'll definitely be there.

[Cassie]

You'll see me there. And nowhere else.

[Danielle]

Yeah, it's like, it kind of moves suspicion of him trying to run.

[Cassie]

It's like, I will be there.

[Danielle]

I want to face. I want to talk to you guys. It kind of almost feels like this perfect storm of like, okay, now's my time to run because everyone's expecting me to do this and everyone's expecting me there and. And people aren't going to be shocked if I don't make it. And you know, like, it just out.

[Cassie]

Of character to me especially because like, I mean, I read the book, I watched his documentary that interviewed pretty much every. Like, it interviewed a few of his old co workers, his old friends, people he worked for, like community members, like people who had real life experience with him. Like, it just seems out of character for him to dip out after that. That. But I mean, who knows? Like, that's definitely a possibility. And for him to. I mean, it's a pretty big thought that he could still be out there.

[Danielle]

Like, how old would he be today?

[Cassie]

So he was 47 when he did that. When he. In 1997, he was 47.

[Danielle]

Okay.

[Cassie]

So it seems like really simple math we should be able to do on top of our head.

[Danielle]

So plus 47. So he would be 75 years old today.

[Cassie]

Yeah. And also, I mean, again, I didn't talk about it a lot, but he was separated from his wife, but he had three kids. And he was a good dad, like to his kids by, you know, he wasn't a. He did some things and he struggled with his mental health, but he was.

[Danielle]

There for his children.

[Cassie]

He loved his kids. So like, I don't know if he would just totally abandon all three of them.

[Danielle]

And you know, sometimes the most simple explanation is the explanation. He crossed the fourth dangerous body of water in the world and didn't make it. You know, that's not right, not plausible. But I mean that sounds.

[Cassie]

Or, or maybe he did make it. He made it to some island, one of the smaller islands out there and held up there for a while. Like that it would explain the condition of his gear and everything. Like, maybe he was scared and was just buying time and was like just living out there on his own or he got stranded and then. Or he died some other way. Like, I don't think it's either he died on his way to court or he started a new life. Like, I think there's an in between there that is definitely something to consider, but I do think he is gone. Like, I don't think that he's living.

[Danielle]

In St. Pete right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is really heartbreaking. That he didn't go to that court date because I would be really interested what other people had to say, say what would have come, what his punishment would have been. And I think that you made a really good point at the end of that story, saying this is just another example of a white man doing something detrimental to an indigenous community and then not having to pay any. Any price for that. So.

[Cassie]

And people are still really upset about that, you know, like, of course. And some people, like in. Again, in the documentary, some of the people who were interviewed were of the Haida Nation said, like, you know, I. I get it, but like, what the hell? Or just straight up, like what you.

[Danielle]

Were trying to do, but you didn't do that.

[Cassie]

You missed the mark. And. Yeah, I don't know, it's just such a. I really loved this story because there is no clear, like, he's a villain or a hero. You know, there's like. There's so many pieces of, like, that's messed up. But I also get it. I can see your frustration. But also that's not the way to, like, his. His comment about terrorism is the best way to enact change, like, straight to. To jail. Like, that's not okay.

[Danielle]

That's not. And I get. I get not the terrorism part, but I get wanting to make a bold statement and to get people's attention on something. And sometimes doing something bold is what helps with change. But to speak about terrorism in that way is not. No, absolutely not. And also, what he did was devastating to a lot of people. It wasn't. It was just. It was really reckless and careless, and I don't think it was thought. Thought out very well. And also your point at the end where there's this other. Where they have a piece of that tree growing again, but it will never be the same and it will never be that tree. And it. It lost, like, the world lost the magic of something special because of what he did. And the world will never get that back.

[Cassie]

Yep, one in a billion. And just to wrap it up, I didn't write anything extensively on it because I knew this episode was already going to be kind of long as it is. But again, the documentary, which is called Hadwin's Judgment, does have. I forget his name, but he's awesome. He's a forest ecologist and he is interviewed throughout about, like, you know, why Grant was justified in the horrors that he was seeing about the logging practices that were in place at the time and how. How devastatingly awful they are to the forest and how we've learned over time that you can't just clear cut a swath of area and then be like, oh, but we're planting trees there again. So in 50 years it's going to regenerate. Like, that's not. Now that we have studied the forests for so long now we understand that it's so much more complex than that. And they're so interconnected in ways that you can't just plop a seed down and call it good. Like it's never going to. It's not going to be the same. So he talks a lot about that and then he talks about towards the end how there are responsible forestry practices now that are being put into practice more and more often by more and more companies in more and more places that are a more responsible way of extracting timber. And how he ended it with, you know, he was walking through this part of this area that had been logged, but it is in no way a clear cut. And he says, like, this is something that Grant Hadwin would have been happy to see because this is, is responsible forestry and forest and responsible logging. And it's possible. And with our knowledge, we know what can be done and how to do it. And it's now just like we have to do it.

[Danielle]

Yeah.

[Cassie]

It's not the simplest, it's not the cheapest, it's not quick and dirty, but it's the most responsible.

[Danielle]

Yeah. So, yeah. Wow.

[Cassie]

Okay. That's it.

[Danielle]

Thank you for telling that story. I love a tree episode and it was very thought provoking and I, I had never heard it before, so I'm glad.

[Cassie]

Oh, and I'm wearing my. I wore my little National Forest foundation bandana today.

[Danielle]

How that's very fitting.

[Cassie]

I took it off. Chaska was wearing it.

[Danielle]

I'm like, there's Chaska hair all over it. But I will be wearing it today.

[Cassie]

Don't look too closely. But yeah. So just wanted to show them some love and we did it, a fundraiser for them and they sent us both some thank you stuff and this is one of it.

[Danielle]

So, yeah, it's very nice.

[Cassie]

Cool. All right, well, thank you everyone for listening. Definitely go check out the golden spruce or Hadwin's judgment if you want to know more. And we will see you next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view, but watch your back. Bye. Bye. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you love National Park After Dark and want to hear hear exclusive bonus stories, join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Patreon subscribers have access to our national park after Dark Book Club, live streams, Discord, and much more. If you prefer to watch our episodes, video episodes are now available on YouTube. If you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe on your favorite listening platform. And to follow along with all our adventures. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Facebook, TikTok and X@ National Park After Dark.