A striking collection of 90 photographs depicting the rugged grandeur of the Northwest Coast’s Great Bear Rainforest.
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This book is a celebration of both the most enigmatic and elusive species on our planet and its fragile wilderness home. It serves as a reminder of the rainforest’s vulnerability, highlighting the substantial progress conservationists and Indigenous leaders have made to protect one of the most biodiverse landscapes in the world.
—Jack Plant
Spirit of the Great Bear is an immersive journey through the vast wilderness habitat of the spirit bear, the rare white-furred variant of Kermode bears that has long featured in First Nations oral traditions. While much of Great Bear Rainforest is protected—it is the largest intact coastal temperate rainforest on Earth—today there are as few as 100 of the bears remaining, making it one of the world’s rarest animals.
Wildlife photographer and conservationist Jack Plant has spent the last decade exploring the rainforest in search of spirit bears and documenting the natural beauty of this coastal habitat, relying heavily on the guidance and traditional knowledge generously shared by the First Nations communities who have protected the region for thousands of years. Plant was adopted by Hereditary Chief Charlie Mason of Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation in the community of Klemtu.
Spirit of the Great Bear features photographic accounts of Plant’s wild and memorable encounters with the white bears, as well as with other extraordinary species found in the Great Bear Rainforest, including grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, orcas, and humpback whales.
The book examines the natural and human-caused threats to the rich biodiversity of the Rainforest while highlighting the substantial progress Indigenous leaders and conservationists have made to protect one of the most biodiverse landscapes in the world. It’s both a celebration of the spirit bear’s resilience and its wilderness home, and an urgent reminder of the need to protect this special and vulnerable ecosystem.
Stir: Summer Arts Guide
CNN.com: “‘You want to cry’: Photographer gains rare access to Canada’s ghostly spirit bears”
People.com: “Wildlife Photographer Captures Rare Images of Majestic Spirit Bears and Their Remote Rainforest Home”
Montecristo Magazine: “A Photographer’s Love Letter to the Great Bear Rainforest”
CBC North by Northwest: Photographer Jack Plant on Spirit of the Great Bear
The Squamish Chief: “Inside Spirit of the Great Bear, a photo journey”
Spirit of the Great Bear Exhibition & Book Signing with photographer Jack Plant
Wednesday, June 3 • 7 PM – 9 PM
Brackendale Art Gallery: Café & Culture Centre, 41950 Government Road
Squamish, BC
“When you turn the pages of this book, you will not only see stunning photographs—you will feel something ancient stirring. You will understand, in your bones, why this place must endure.”
—Paul Nicklen, author of Born to Ice
“Jack has put in one hell of a shift building this impressive collection, and the rewards are here for all to see.”
—David Yarrow, author of Storytelling Spirit
“Spirit of the Great Bear is a love letter carved from patience. Jack’s photographs from the Great Bear Rainforest remind us that beauty is a form of responsibility, and that to look closely at a fragile world is to vow, quietly but fiercely, to protect it.”
—Cristina Mittermeier, author of Hope
“Plant captures the magic, mystery, and majesty of the setting and its inhabitants; small wonder the spirit bears have featured forever in First Nations oral traditions. Through pictures and words, Plant conveys the breathtaking awe of this last bastion of wilderness.”
—Stir