Nick Raeside discusses his first book, a memoir, Slashburner: Hot Times in the British Columbia Woods, recounting his many years in the forest industry, with Joseph Planta.

Slashburner: Hot Times in the British Columbia Woods by Nick Raeside (Harbour Publishing, 2020). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Slashburner

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

One of the more entertaining and fascinating memoirs out now is the one from Nick Raeside. In Slashburner: Hot Times in the British Columbia Woods, he takes us to his many years in the logging industry. The book is replete with funny anecdotes and delightful, sometimes hair-raising stories from the 1970s to the 1990s in BC’s forests. They provide a history of what logging was like then, as well as marvelous insight into the kinds of people who did this backbreaking, risky work. Slash is debris left behind in the forest after logging. Slashburning is controlled burning so that the ground could be ready for replanting. The challenge when dealing with stuff that’s flammable is that it can get out of control, that’s why we’re all contending with wildfire smoke, because sometimes the burns get out of control. Though, I should add a lot of the smoke that’s wafted northward here in BC might have had to do with weather or human folly. Nick’s book has terrific characters, including him. There are also thirty colour photographs, proving it all happened. Nick Raeside has worked various jobs in the woods including forest firefighter, land surveyor’s chainman, forestry official, and slashburner. This is his first book, published by Harbour. He joins me from Nanoose Bay, BC. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Nick Raeside; Mr. Raeside, good morning.

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