Exclusive: National Geographic has greenlighted Barkskins, a scripted drama series based on the 2016 bestselling novel of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx which traces the story of America’s deforestation. The network has given a 10-episode to the project, which hails from Elwood Reid, Fox 21 Television Studios and Scott Rudin Productions.

Reid created the series and will serve as showrunner. He will executive produce along with Rudin, Eli Bush and Garrett Basch. The series is slated to go into production in 2019 and will premiere on National Geographic globally in 172 countries.

Called “a towering work of environmental fiction” and “a spectacular survey of America’s forests dramatized by a cast of well-hewn characters” by the Washington Post, Proulx’s Barkskins spans over 300 years. It chronicles the deforestation of the New World from the arrival of Europeans into the contemporary era of global warming...