Reflections from Canoe Country: Paddling the Waters of the Adirondacks and Canada

When Christopher Angus and two friends were canoeing a stretch of the Grass River in the Adirondacks in 1986, they were cited by the Department of Environmental Conservation for trespassing on the timberlands of the Champion Paper Company. Amazed to find that the law protects corporate rather than environmental interests in a publicly owned state park, Angus joined the decades-long battle to reopen Adirondack waterways.

In this collection, Angus, a columnist and lifelong resident of the Adirondack region, writes with the discerning eye of a poet and the ear of a political commentator. He treats the reader to descriptions of his many canoeing experiences and to his thoughts on environmental protection. As Paul Jamieson writes in the Foreword,
＂Reading these short pieces in rhythmic sequence is like riding the waves in a kayak off the Nova Scotia coast.＂

Angus’s strong ties to Canada’s maritime provinces and to the St. Lawrence River expand the focus of the book to include the larger Northeastern wilderness. It is here, he maintains, in the most densely populated region of North America, that we will finally learn whether man can coexist with the natural world.

Christopher Angus has contributed articles to The New York Times, Albany-Times Union, Adirondack Life, Canoe, American Forests, and other publications. A columnist on environmental issues for Park newspapers, he is presently the book review editor for Adirondac magazine. He lives in Canton, New York.