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 is: the wild heart of our planet. “This is a truly remarkable book about one of the most important―and little known―landscapes on planet Earth. It’s not an overstatement to say that much of our planet’s future depends on what happens in this terrain, and it’s never been more powerfully depicted than in these pages.” ―Bill McKibben, author of Here Comes the Sun “Multiple decades in the making, Rob Mullen and his colleagues present a comprehensive and visually extravagant ode to the most extensive and still intact forest/water ecosystem on our planet. This book also is the most exhilarating expression of art, science, dramatic storytelling, cultural integration, and conservation values that I have ever encountered.” ―John W. Fitzpatrick, PhD, director emeritus of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology “ Boreal Wilderland is a marvel that more than matches the scale and grandeur of the immense and rugged land it explores through magnificent art and thoughtful words. The boreal, the world’s largest intact forest and the beating heart of the North, comes alive in this gorgeous book.” ―Scott Weidensaul, author of The Return of the Oystercatcher “Spectacular photos and paintings; riveting expedition tales. Unlike most coffee-table books, this is one you WILL want to read! No one writes books like this anymore. The stories really set this book above the coffee-table crowd.” ―Cliff Jacobson, leading canoeing writer and winner of the American Canoe Association’s Legends of Paddling Award “Rob Mullen’s Boreal Wilderland is a masterful blend of camera and canvas, and science and resourcefulness, encompassing our rich boreal treasure. To be in a canoe charged by a grizzly while ready to fire upon him and to then photograph his sudden retreat is the full measure of one who treasures our boreal bounty with a highly earned respect.” ―Michael Peake, award-winning photojournalist and former governor of the Hide-Away Canoe Club Rob Mullen founded the Wilderness River Expedition Art Fellowship, which aims to expand environmental education and awareness of the boreal forest by providing artists with firsthand experience of wilderness on self-supported canoe expeditions. As a nationally known, award-winning wildlife and wilderness artist, Mullen combines his bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Vermont and years of backcountry experience to pursue his passions of art, adventure, and conservation. He has spent decades canoeing remote northern rivers, including over twenty wilderness art expeditions with artist/researcher crews. Mullen has coordinated many of these expeditions with the Smithsonian Institution Arctic Studies Center, conservation NGOs, outdoor corporations, and provincial tourism agencies. He lives in West Bolton, Vermont, on an old hill farm with his wife, father, three rescue dogs, and a stray cat who won't leave.