Harley Rustad

On the left: a photograph of small, transparent eels in a net. On the right: text that reads “Priced at thousands of dollars per kilogram, baby eels have set off a global frenzy. Inside the fight over Canada’s most valuable fish”

Elvers—transparent baby eels—are now Canada’s most valuable fish. In 2022, 7,557 kilograms of elvers generated $39 million in revenue. Journalist Yuan Wang details how skyrocketing prices have turned the rivers of Nova Scotia into fierce battlegrounds: https://ow.ly/NvGB50Yhnlf

If a Tree Falls, by Rosa Lyster The trial of the Sycamore Gap killers

I'll be thinking about this piece, coming back to it again and again, for years.
harpers.org/archive/2026...

What’s a Walrus? A Beast, Actually | The Walrus Journalism may be in a state of emergency, but we’re still giving readers answers

“Last November, we received a letter from a grade five student in New Kent, Virginia, asking for advice. The child wanted information on how to ‘save the walrus from extinction.’ He meant the wrinkled, tusked-and-whiskered mammal, not this organization.”
thewalrus.ca/whats-a-walr...

On the left: Illustration of a tabletop with a bowl of cereal, keys, a plant, a coffee cup, a tea bag, and other assorted clutter. On the right: text that reads “How to keep your house clean. Your kids are sticky. Your partner leaves their shoes by the door. It’s fine.”

We’ve been sold the lie that a perfect home equals a perfect life. Journalist Courtney Shea asks why mess feels like failure—and who benefits from the pressure to keep things tidy—in this sharp takedown of stress-cleaning culture. thewalrus.ca/how-to-keep-your...

Applications for the 2026 Wilderness Writing Residency are due very soon!

Ten days. Six writers. Your own cabin in Port Renfrew, British Columbia.
www.portrenfrewwritersretreat.com

On the left: a photo illustration of a man reading a newspaper against a yellow background. On the right: text that reads “2025: The stories that surprised us. These are the articles that our editors can’t stop thinking about”

From the publishing industry’s gambling problem to the World Sauna Championships, here are nine stories from 2025 that our editors can’t stop thinking about: thewalrus.ca/2025-surprising-...

On the left: an illustration by John Konrad of Canadian prime minister Mark Carney depicted in a Rorschach test. On the right: text that reads “No matter which way you look at it, Carney has abandoned climate. It’s one thing to make compromises in times of national crisis. It’s another to twist the math on emissions.”

Mark Carney has long been promising to make Canada an energy superpower. But what happens when “clean” energy growth is pursued alongside fossil fuel expansion? @arnokopecky.bsky.social reports on how the country’s climate ambitions have given way to politics: thewalrus.ca/no-matter-which-...

What I Want the Animals in My Home to Know | The Walrus A love letter to the robins, rabbits, squirrels, and mice who live with us

"There are so many ways in," opens Charlie Foran in this lovely essay on the creatures and critters that live in our homes, alongside us. No infestations here.
thewalrus.ca/what-i-want-...

Port Renfrew Writers Retreat A writing retreat and residency space in Port Renfrew, British Columbia

The Wilderness Writing Residency is back for 2026!

Ten days. Six writers. Cabins in Port Renfrew, British Columbia. Writing about the natural world. Led by two faculty editors: award-winning authors Harley Rustad and Kate Harris.

Applications are now open!

www.portrenfrewwritersretreat.com

HARLEY RUSTAD — Book: Big Lonely Doug Big Lonely Doug: The Story of One of Canada’s Last Great Trees

I wrote the book about this tree!
www.harleyrustad.com/books/big-lo...

Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era | The Local A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.

"Every media era gets the fabulists it deserves." Brilliant essay/investigation by @nickhunebrown.bsky.social into journalism scammers in the age of AI.
thelocal.to/investigatin...

“Will our November issue create aftershocks? Maybe,” writes The Walrus editor-in-chief @cstarnino.bsky.social. “Each story asks the same question about power: who wields it, who keeps score, and who lives with the consequences?” thewalrus.ca/you-cant-always-...

“The greatest danger to our future is apathy.”
RIP Jane Goodall, 1934–2025
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/o...

The Truth of Reconciliation | The Walrus The TRC report, released in 2015, laid out ninety-four clear Calls to Action. Ten years later, Indigenous writers reflect on what has and hasn’t been achieved

It was very special to work with six brilliant, thoughtful Indigenous writers — Michelle Good, Julian Brave NoiseCat, Eva Jewell, Janelle Lapointe, Anna McKenzie and Riley Yesno — on this series about truth and reconciliation, in print & online for @thewalrus.ca. thewalrus.ca/truth-and-re...

The Great French Fry Mystery: My dogged attempt to solve a baffling fast food whodunit - Toronto Life When an A&W takeout bag appeared on my neighbour’s porch in the middle of the night—followed by another, then another—I became obsessed with solving a fast...

I tumbled down a rabbit hole trying to figure out why bags of A&W fries kept being delivered in the middle of the night for days and days to my neighbour's porch—and stumbled into all the markings of an international scam. My latest for @torontolifemag.bsky.social
torontolife.com/deep-dives/t...

The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem | The Walrus Companies keep betting on the next bestseller. Literature is poorer for it

I spent the summer reporting this essay on why it seems harder than ever to sell a book right now—especially if it isn't a debut and comes with the dreaded "sales track." I'm grateful to the writers, agents, editors, publishers & experts who spoke to me for this piece: thewalrus.ca/the-publishi...

Have we been measuring mountains all wrong? A new method for quantifying grandeur is reshuffling the pecking order of the planet’s most impressive peaks. Turns out Everest has steep competition.

Have we been measuring mountains all wrong? Is it not height that is important but...grandeur?
www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/ar...

They sting. They swarm. They spoil our picnics. But what if the insect we most hate to encounter outdoors is also one of nature’s unsung heroes? Here, The Walrus contributing writer @arnokopecky.bsky.social makes the case for the wasp. thewalrus.ca/in-defence-of-wa...

Lately, The Walrus contributing writer @michellecyca.com has been trying to make life harder for her children. Or rather, she’s trying to stop making it easier. Here, Cyca considers how obstacle parenting could help raise more resilient kids: thewalrus.ca/my-job-as-a-pare...

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks for picking my French fry mystery!

🍟🍟🍟🍟🍟

The Great French Fry Mystery: My dogged attempt to solve a baffling fast food whodunit - Toronto Life When an A&W takeout bag appeared on my neighbour’s porch in the middle of the night—followed by another, then another—I became obsessed with solving a fast...

"By the time the fourth A&W bag materialized on her porch, she had gone from being curious about what she’d viewed as random littering to frustrated to shaken by the invasion of her privacy."

@harleyrustad.com @torontolifemag.bsky.social

torontolife.com/deep-dives/t...

@longreads.com @thesundaylongread.bsky.social

The Great French Fry Mystery: My dogged attempt to solve a baffling fast food whodunit - Toronto Life When an A&W takeout bag appeared on my neighbour’s porch in the middle of the night—followed by another, then another—I became obsessed with solving a fast...

There's some incredible investigative journalism happening these days and I'm over here digging into why bags of A&W fries kept mysteriously appearing on my neighbour's porch in the middle of the night for days and days and days...
torontolife.com/deep-dives/t...

The Great French Fry Mystery: My dogged attempt to solve a baffling fast food whodunit - Toronto Life When an A&W takeout bag appeared on my neighbour’s porch in the middle of the night—followed by another, then another—I became obsessed with solving a fast...

I tumbled down a rabbit hole trying to figure out why bags of A&W fries kept being delivered in the middle of the night for days and days to my neighbour's porch—and stumbled into all the markings of an international scam. My latest for @torontolifemag.bsky.social
torontolife.com/deep-dives/t...

Peter Wohlleben - The Hidden Life of Trees Are trees social beings? In The Hidden Life of Trees forester and author Peter Wohlleben convincingly makes the case that, yes, the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration that he has observed in his woodland.

Harley Rustad - Big Lonely Doug On a cool morning in the winter of 2011, a logger named Dennis Cronin was walking through a stand of old-growth forest near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island. He came across a massive Douglas fir the height of a twenty-storey building. Instead of allowing the tree to be felled, he tied a ribbon around the trunk, bearing the words "Leave Tree." The forest was cut but the tree was saved. The solitary Douglas fir, soon known as Big Lonely Doug, controversially became the symbol of environmental activists and their fight to protect the region's dwindling old-growth forests.

Jon Krakauer - Into the Wild In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. This is the unforgettable story of how Christopher Johnson McCandless came to die.

How One Company Maintained a Monopoly on U.S. Fire Retardant

How one company lobbied, undercut rivals, and built a monopoly on fire retardant in the US. As demand increased, so too did its prices. The US Forest Service has called the reliance on a single company a "massive risk."
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/b...

Journalist missing in Norwegian wilderness found in good health Alec Luhn set out on trek in Folgefonna national park last week and was reported missing on Monday

Alec Luhn has been found alive after going missing in the Norwegian mountains.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...