Global BC TV News Report on Vancouver Tree Book
I’m always happy to talk to journalists — my peeps! — even when they come from TV Land. In this case the interview, to judge from behind the lines, went really well. Anyone bound by stereotypes of TV news reporters being superficial and lusting for blood and gory imagery should have seen Linda Aylesworth from Global ask about trees in Vancouver. Along with ace cameraman Sergio Magro, we spent at least 90 minutes in Stanley Park talking and shooting trees, all for a 2-minute report. How do you capture a big idea like saving the city with a book encouraging a healthy urban forest in just a couple of minutes? You don’t, ultimately, because the human brain needs more time and information to process fast moving words and pics into something like a conviction. But you can make a lot of progress in that short time if you do it well, and I thought they did, with a thoroughness that surprised me. Apart from my mug on the screen, I think the result is great and proof of their dedication to the craft. Oh, except for a glitch at the beginning of the on-air version where the graphic said it was a book for children. Which it is, if you count among children all the rest of us who still hope to capture the inner scientist and nature-loving affinity of youth.
Nice 
CBC’s Early Edition with Rick Cluff asked me in to the studio to talk about the urban forest and upcoming Tree Week events. And he was kind enough to give a prop to Vancouver Tree Book, calling it a “terrific little handbook to keep in your pocket when you’re walking around looking up.”