Books for Earth Day 2025
Books that talk about the state of the environment and how we live in the natural world have long been one my favourite things to read and I particularly enjoy them when they have unique points of view and are connected to very specific places in the world. For Earth Day I thought I’d take a moment and round up some of the great nature-themed books we’ve published over the years that are unapologetically local, and which showcase parts of Canada that you might not have encountered before.
Yardwork and Daylighting Chedoke
I have to start with a book that I’ve loved for a long time – Yardwork: A Biography of an Urban Place, by Daniel Coleman. This is an elegantly written book that delves deeply into the history and environment of the city of Hamilton, from its polluted harbour to the deer that partake freely of the author’s garden. It’s a wonderful book to read if you’ve ever wondered how to really put down roots somewhere. I’ve always loved how this book makes people think entirely differently about Hamilton, which is a city with exceptional beauty and environmental degradation. A companion to this would be John Terpstra’s Daylighting Chedoke: Exploring Hamilton’s Hidden Creek, which follows the path of the Chedoke Creek across Hamilton’s physical and historical landscape and dreams of what it would be like if the waters of the creek saw daylight again.
Treed and Fungal
If you’re from the middle of the country, I mean the real middle, you want to read about Winnipeg and the areas around it. Ariel Gordon’s Treed: Walking in Canada’s Urban Forests and Fungal: Foraging in the Urban Forest, part of what we’re calling her Urban Forest series, delve deep into the landscape and history of Winnipeg, with many a walk in the Assiniboine Forest, through the city’s parks and along its rivers. These books are filled with great essays that can make you feel like you’re walking alongside Ariel, with her pointing out mushrooms and connecting you with the trees around you, while still being aware of the wider issues that endanger our natural places. Particularly our urban ones.
Revery and Field Notes
If we go a bit further north and west, into the edge of the boreal forest, we can reach for books by Jenna Butler and Kit Dobson. Revery: A Year of Bees is Butler’s Governor General’s Award–nominated collection, which is set in her off-grid northern farm, Larch Grove Farm. It details the year through the workings of the farm, in particular through the beehives she keeps, while also weaving through questions of the environment, of health and of healing. Dobson’s book Field Notes on Listening ranges over a bit more of the province of Alberta, but is focused on the area around the Athabasca River where his grandparents originally farmed. This collection of short meditations touches on how we live in the places we call home. How we interact with them and how they shape us.
We have other books that talk about the environment, both as works of fiction and as poetry, but these books are connected strongly to specific places in our Canadian landscape and I think they offer a good place to ground yourself in our chaotic world.
Happy Reading,
Noelle
