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Local author’s new book focuses on the fight for environmental protection

November 20, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Joshua Drakes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

As Dufferin County continues its fight against encroaching developments, quarries, and pollution, local writer David E. Kendall is fighting back through literature.

A Dufferin local, Kendall has been in the fight his whole life. Having grown up on a farm, he has held nature particularly sacred throughout his life, and laments the damage being done throughout the county. He has channeled that frustration and protest into a brand new book, Scionwood Song.

“I was raised on a farm near Inglewood, so that area has always meant everything to me,” he said. “What’s happening in our (Dufferin County) area is, to put it mildly, unpleasant. We need to take better care of our home, because we need it to survive.”

The book is a fictional tale based on the real-world location of Belfountain and follows Song, a young woman who is a resident of the town. Born and raised around and within nature, she quickly comes to love it, from the smallest plants to the biggest trees. She inevitably becomes a conservation officer, devoting her life to protecting nature.

Her world came crashing down, however, when a massive industrial quarry moved into the region, threatening to uproot the environment and pollute the air and water.

Left with no other choice, she decides to fight back. Turning to nature as an ally, she enlists the endangered Jefferson Salamanders, as their habitat will be destroyed should this quarry take form.  

But more of nature has heard her call. The trees themselves begin to take a more active role in the fight. The book incorporates the idea of a “Gaia” planet, a world that is alive, can feel, and communicate. The trees, while initially playing a small role, will take a much more overt and active role as the stakes rise higher throughout the novel.

The book is based on the author’s long-lasting fight for environmental protection for small towns. A long-standing opponent of urban sprawl, he advocates for taller cities.

“The position that I have in my philosophy is densification, not amplification,” he said. “I want to see cities build taller, basically, and [Ontario Premier Doug] Ford has started that process with some zoning rules. I don’t want to see houses amplifying out into the fields, into the forests, and so on.”

Kendall said his book will be used to raise donations for organizations like the Bruce Trail Conservancy (BTC), which he already has a history of supporting. Money spent on the book, which sells for about $15, will be donated to the BTC and other environmental groups to help them continue to operate.

“The Bruce Trail originally ran through my farm, so when I was younger, I was helping to maintain the trail, cutting down trees and such,” he said. “I’ve already got a close relationship with them to begin with, and I’ve donated property to them. All proceeds of my book will be going back to them and conservation.”

For Kendall, this book merges his love for nature and conservation with his passion for writing – one that he hopes will inspire more people to protect the world around them.

For those looking to pick up a copy of Scionwood Song, copies are available at Booklore in Orangeville, Hannah’s of Erin, and the Royal Bank in Erin, as well as stores in Belfountain. Numbers are limited.

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