In the early 1990s, ancient temperate rainforests on Vancouver Island became the stage for mass blockades against clearcut logging in Nuučaańuł territory. Until the more recent struggles at Fairy Creek, Clayoquot Sound hosted the largest act of civil disobedience in Canada. National news coverage at the time showed mothers with their babies, grandparents, business people, and many other unlikely activists standing on the logging road or locked to makeshift structures, risking arrest to defend these rare, evolved ecosystems. Christine Lowther was arrested in 1992 for lying across the Clayoquot Arm bridge while MacMillan Bloedel fallers tried to drive to work with their chainsaws. Blockade is her gripping, first-hand account of the joys, struggles, and victories of this historic movement.

Drawing from her daily journals recorded at the time, Lowther recounts the vibrant and tense atmosphere of confronting police and loggers with nonviolent civil disobedience. She vividly describes creative direct actions—themed blockades, lock-downs, nighttime barricade building, occupations of ancient trees and government offices. Blockade contemplates the stark realities of the movement, including threats of police violence and the disturbing collusion between the RCMP and extraction corporations. Despite the powderkeg atmosphere, Lowther found wonder by kayaking the inlets and settling down to life in unceded Tlaoquiaht territory where she still gratefully resides.

Blockade is a celebration of resilience and a powerful account of successful environmental activism. It highlights the continuing threat to old-growth forests, with a nod to Fairy Creek, and commends the June 18, 2024 announcement of 76,000 hectares of new conservancies in Clayoquot (Tlaoquiaht) Sound, nearly doubling the protected temperate rainforest within this iconic region.

Thrilling, evocative, and necessary, Christine Lowther’s Blockade showcases the need to defend remnant intact crucial ecosystems hand in hand with the Indigenous peoples whose ancestral gardens these lands are. It is a rallying cry of hope for all those who stand up for the natural world and a roadmap for future generations of defenders.

Christine Lowther has been a lifelong activist and a resident of Clayoquot Sound since 1992. She is the co-editor of two collections of essays, Living Artfully: Reflections from the Far West Coast (The Key Publishing House, 2012) and Writing the West Coast: In Love with Place (Ronsdale Press, 2008), and the author of three books of poetry, My Nature (Leaf Press, 2010), Half-Blood Poems (Zossima Press, 2011) and New Power (Broken Jaw Press, 1999). Most recently, several of her poems appear in Force Field: 77 Women Poets of British Columbia (Mother Tongue, 2013).

Christine Lowther's profile page

“There are many who act without thinking and others who think without acting. Christine Lowther, the Tofino poet, essayist and lyrical conscience of the magical natural biosphere in which she lives, is among that rarity, one of the few who think and then act upon their conviction that justice requires them to act. Blockade, a chronicle of more than thirty years of fighting the good fight to save the ancient and endangered rainforest and its inhabitants from the chainsaw, the developer and the distant investor is a testament to love—and a fierce and brave love it is. From the Clayoquot Sound protest that resulted in the largest mass trials for civil disobedience in Canadian history to the present actions at Fairy Creek, her story is the story of an awakening and a challenge to the next generation—does it want to preserve towering cathedrals of cedar and fir, or does it want them turned into two-by-fours and toilet paper?”

—Stephen Hume, journalist and author

“True grit, passion, and a high tolerance for personal discomfort—those are just some of the qualities of forest defenders who literally put their bodies on the line to save our ancient forests. Christine Lowther’s intimate, unflinching account of her time on the frontlines of the War in the Woods reminds us, per Gorky, that the ‘madness of the brave is the wisdom of life.’ And that when it comes to saving what we love, ‘Direct action gets the goods.’”

—Ian Gill, author, bookseller and conservationist

“Christine Lowther’s recounting of experiences during the iconic logging blockades holds wisdom for us all, especially in an era where the social-ecological-climatic crisis is signalling us to radicalize ourselves. Blockade instills a reverence for the ecosystems and inhabitants of the temperate rainforest and sparks our embers of courage to act.”

—Lilly Woodbury, Surfrider Foundation Canada

"To be invited to enter her intimate life, to share the truth of her personal experiences, to see the details of a young activist's day by day struggles and delights is no small privilege. How many of us sitting watching the television news as it flits from story to story, know what it's like to actually be where the events are happening? Chris takes us into the forest, into the magic and the songs of resistance and the moment by moment journey of those who care enough to live their hope."

—from the foreword by Joy Kogawa