Praise for the ghost forest

“Groundbreaking ... an epic tale of corruption and deception, perpetrated on a mass scale for nearly a century.” The Atlantic

"The book triumphs ... urgently of the moment. ... Greg King is an authoritative guide for this journey. ... The Ghost Forest may eventually read as a prequel to the ghost planet." Science

One of "10 books to add to your reading list this June." "How many people who travel to see California’s coniferous giants know why they’re still standing? King, a journalist and dedicated redwood activist… considers the ecosystem itself and how it affects its surroundings, using his lifelong love of these mighty ‘ghosts’ to bring them to life."  Los Angeles Times

"Greg King is an excellent writer. … This is a big book, and an important one." National Parks Traveler

“Deeply researched and compellingly written." Times Literary Supplement

"The most captivating book I have read this year." Scott Brown, antiquarian bookseller

"A celebrated activist for the California redwoods holds nothing back in this indictment of the organizations to blame for cutting down almost the entire redwood forest in the name of economic growth." Saturday Evening Post

“Haunting … [a] wholly engrossing, urgent account of redwood preservation.” Kirkus, starred review

"King’s dogged research turns up … a sobering accounting of the forces environmentalists are up against.” Publishers Weekly, starred review

One of five "best books on the hidden costs of city-building." Gray Brechin, Shepherd.

One of six "favorite books for plant enthusiasts. A shocking and entirely unexpected story. King, with his generations-long connection to the redwood forests, is the perfect person to tell the tale." Amy Stewart, The Week.

A "must-read" book. Next Big Idea Club.

“A well-documented history of the California Redwood forest from the time of statehood to the present… Anyone interested in environmental history should have this on their bookshelf.” Plant Science Bulletin (p. 108).

Greg King "is the sole person who could have researched and written this definitive history. ... The story King tells is personal, riveting, and blunt." Environmental History. 

"Likely to become a classic. ... For anyone concerned with the environment and its defense, this book is an essential read." North Coast Journal

“[A] passionate book. … King’s engaging narrative exposes the maneuvering of lumber companies that plundered redwood forests for decades. …” Library Journal, starred review

“Haunting and inspiring … vivid storytelling and meticulous research offer readers a profound understanding of the forces behind the decimation of these ancient ecosystems and the valiant efforts to protect what remains.” Arlington Magazine

“A classic tale of David meeting Goliath … will likely become a fast favorite for anyone interested in the fate of trees.” Cascadia Daily News 

“The Ghost Forest is the book I’ve long wished someone  would write, and Greg King has done it luminously well. He tells the  epic story of the destruction of 96 percent of the primeval redwoods in  California—including the criminal and bankrupt horrors of ‘liquidation  logging’ done in the 1980s and 90s by corporate raider Charles Hurwitz  and the Maxxam Corporation. And he tells the story of activists and  protesting tree climbers (including himself) who put their lives on the  line to save the Headwaters Forest Reserve, a jewel of the redwood  realm.”—Richard Preston, author of The Wild Trees and The Hot Zone

“The farther I traveled into The Ghost Forest the more  convinced I became I was reading an epic. It is encyclopedic in  historical knowledge and detail, deeply felt in its love of redwood  country, and fierce in its passion for saving the last remnants of old  growth forest from rapacious and unconstrained capitalism.”—Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain and The Trackers

“Ghost Forest is a haunting requiem for one of Earth’s  magnificent forests. Human survival has rested on our ability to  recognize opportunity by exploiting the planet’s abundance. Once armed  with fossil fuels and machines, we have felled entire ecosystems to  serve our limitless demands. King’s feelings of awe, humility, and love  before giant redwoods are needed to slake our drawdown of the rest of  nature.”—David Suzuki, OBE, international climate activist and author of Tree: A Life Story

“The Ghost Forest is long overdue. The book is a page‑turner,  a calibrated adventure of the highest sort. At last we have a  comprehensive accounting of the entire ancient redwood ecosystem that  once stood, who cut it down, and who stepped up to save these fabulous  trees—a story necessarily written by the most committed of redwood  defenders. I have followed Greg King’s work since 1987, just after he  left a successful career as a journalist to lead an audacious fight for  the last redwoods. Yet it is this journalist’s eye for detail, and for  the complex history of redwood logging and protection, that makes The Ghost Forest such an important contributor to the canon of American conservation.”—Yvon Chouinard, founder, Patagonia, Inc. 

“The Ghost Forest is a tale both infuriating and inspiring. It covers the destruction of California’s redwood forests, told from a perspective that could not be more up close and personal. From its gripping opening scene of activist vs logger, to its unfolding story of the magnificent trees themselves, the book rushes with the energy of a river in spring. All of us who care about the future of human existence on the planet, and who want to understand the ways in which that future can be compromised, need to read this story.”—Bruce Cockburn, International music star, author of Rumours of Glory

“Writing about redwoods is hard because of the ancient forest’s unimaginable grandeur, in space and time, and because of the sickening violence and waste of its almost complete destruction in less than two centuries. Greg King has written about it exceptionally well, and with good cause. Having grown up in the “Redwood Empire,” he has spent much of his life exploring the forest, on the ground and in libraries. He knows the tangled politics of forest destruction and protection in great detail from personal participation and observation. He has risked his life more than once to find and help save significant “last stands” like the Headwaters Forest. And he writes about it all with poetic fervor, scientific precision, political wisdom, and a droll, self‑deprecating sense of humor that brings the adventuresome days of Earth First! and tree‑sits to life with a clarity that is in wonderfully refreshing contrast to the muddle of mass media coverage.” —David Rains Wallace, author of The Klamath Knot

“King is an American hero. And he has written a heroic book—a book befitting the California redwoods, which are the tallest, the oldest, and arguably the most magnificent creatures on the planet. The Ghost Forest is a stunning work: beautifully written, exquisitely researched, compelling, funny, angry, poetic, cynical, idealistic, and always fascinating. King’s important reinterpretation of the history of the Save‑the‑Redwoods League reads like a detective novel. We are all in King’s debt for having the courage to tell his story, and to tell it so beautifully.”—Jonathan Spiro, author of Defending the Master Race

“In this combination of memoir and investigative report, King, veteran of the Northern California timber wars, evokes the spirit of the long‑gone fog shrouded giants that fell to axe and saw. He paints a picture both inspiring and disturbing of the heroic forest defenders, the intractable timber beasts, and the nefarious opportunists that played the two sides against each other for their own profit. He takes us on one final journey across the sacred ground where the great booming forests once stood and are now lost forever.”—Will Russell, professor of environmental studies, San Jose State University

“This book is the story of one man’s fight to save the planet’s tallest trees. As a young man, King risked everything to stop logging companies from hacking down the last big California redwoods. The Ghost Forest brilliantly recounts his odyssey to make sense of the millennial mystery and modern history of the great forest. It’s an unforgettable story, and one more necessary than ever with the future of the earth itself under threat.”—Orin Starn, professor of history, Duke University, and author of Ishi’s Brain

“The Ghost Forest captures the adventure and dangers of early redwood exploration and the evolution of a modern preservationist from an insider’s perspective. Here Greg King explores threatened historic redwood groves which had never been seen before, and brings to life untold stories of the fight to preserve these last forests.”—Erv Peterson, Professor Emeritus, Environmental Studies, Sonoma State University

Appearances and articles by Greg King here.