Scaling Tall Timber

Recently injured in a vehicular crash that killed his girlfriend, a young forester is assigned to a new job in a remote area of northwestern Montana.  He is befriended by an alcoholic logging truck driver, whose efforts to help enable both to grow into recovery helped in no small way by two women who guide them into recovery.  Centered on the western logging industry, the story focuses on events that bring sudden change to an ideologically resistant area and men's unwilling involvement.  Upon arriving, he confronts his hard-driving boss rebelliously, but soon learns that finding what he's looking for will require a major effort on his part. The locals, a hard-working, hard-living, idiosyncratic lot take on the task of educating their new co-worker in ways he could never have imagined. Learning lessons that teach him about surviving the horrific, he finds himself melding into the eclectic area when changing times force the locals to rely on his assistance.  Just as he becomes attached to his new surroundings and the quirky inhabitants, new technology threatens his job followed by news of a hydroelectric dam construction effort planned a short way downstream that will destroy the entire valley.