Boreal Wilderland: Art, Science, and Adventure in Earth’s Greatest Wilderness

From the Wilderness River Expedition Art Fellowship (WREAF) comes this visually spectacular celebration of the world’s largest - and most overlooked - terrestrial ecosystem with a foreword by Robert Bateman.

The boreal forest, a vast northern wilderness that encircles the globe, is three times the size of the Amazon, has the photosynthetic output of over a trillion trees, and is within a day’s drive of major urban centers such as New York City, Chicago, Vancouver, and Moscow, and within an hour of Montreal. Yet most people have no idea that wilderness on this scale still exists. In Boreal Wilderland, acclaimed wildlife and wilderness artist, expedition canoeist, and naturalist Rob Mullen presents a stunning, multifaceted portrait of this immense and breathtaking biome.

With vivid prose and stunning artwork, and a foreword by Robert Bateman, Boreal Wilderland reveals a place that is ecologically essential―the wilderness is critical to the planet’s climate, to wildlife, to freshwater systems. Home to hundreds of Indigenous communities since time immemorial, the boreal forest is also awe-inspiring in its beauty and scale. The three decades of paintings, sketches, and photographs by thirty artists, along with the firsthand stories represented here were inspired by twenty WREAF art expeditions, mostly by canoe, from Labrador to Alaska. Gruelling, mind-expanding, funny, and often dangerous, these journeys are the source of the book’s many adventure stories. Six experts offer a unique lens and scientific insight into this magnificent and vital ecosystem.

Boreal Wilderland is more than just a travelogue or an art book. It is an in-depth look at the forest’s natural and human history. This extraordinary volume offers a rich visual archive and a compelling call to see the boreal forest for what it truly the wild heart of our planet.