The Hidden Life of Trees — Book Review

This book is fabulously written by Peter Wohlleben. He’s a careered forester and truly connected with his readers by his slow and immersive delivery of trees and their secret world.

To start, he slowed us all down with his decorative description and patient decorum. He taught us that trees lived lives at a span of thousands of years, in which case their life is slowed down and does not come to pass quite nearly as soon as humans or that of other mammalians walking this earth.

He reminded us of using the tree rings to denote the age of a tree. And then surprised us with an imaginative illustration of how trees communicate. Through their stems and trunk, there is no scientific evidence yet of nerves, albeit there is a stark resemblance in the way the tree adapts to new sensations and changes. They lean heavily on smells, their roots, and the sounds they broadcast. In fact, trees will give off sounds to broadcast their nurturing instincts and even release particles at the sign of danger to warn other trees of incoming threats like herbivores or critters eating away at their precious bark, trunk, or leaves — any vital part of their survival.

You quickly find out that all it takes is a gapping hole in its bark to expose its cambium and inner veins and now they’re vulnerable to infestation of fungi or unwanted guests. Some are in symbiosis, most are out to steal their nutrients and eventually suck them to death. In fact, much of its nutrients are designed to help keep it alive for many, many years to come. Those holes animals dig like woodpeckers encourage fungi growth in an unhealthy way for the tree, opening it up to further degradation, deprivation of nutrients, and eventually destruction.

If a tree is not able to upkeep in an healthy, consistent manner, it will have to grow itself to adapt to the conditions, either by stretching out roots, thickening bark, or shooting upwards faster than its neighbors.

It is ever a contest to compete for light and as they stretch upwards, they overtake their lower vegetation neighbours. Once they’ve gained supremacy of the canopy, they remain until one day their falter, and those little trees they’ve shielded now have an opportunity to claim the skies. If this opening, this moonglade, is not accessed by foragers and the tasty little trees and sweet saplings are not eaten up by then, they will compete for the light and eventually overtake the collapsing/dying tree and become the new ruler of that space, engulfing the rest into darkness once again.

Interestingly enough, in permafrost conditions, the constant shifting of soils actually cause trees to shift as well, creating what is known as ‘drunken forests’ in the taiga.

Another fact, chaffinches change songs when rain is imminent.

Aphids are out for leaves plant juices, they suck up all the sugar + protein in order to get the lesser protein content within, pooping out the remaining sugars which is invaluable to ants which harvest them right off their bums.

Honeybees will harvest aphid carbohydrates in order to make black forest nectar, which their black forest honey is a major delicacy.

Beech handle drenched soil conditions, can handle rapid growth and tend to overtake other trees. However, they are not as resilient in ideal mild dry conditions. Oaks are opposite, and although sport thick protective trunks, sturdy and stable, slow in growth, they cannot tolerate extreme conditions and fluctuations, which leave them open to infection should such a day come to pass.

Conifer needles like pine and walnut trees act as natural filters and cleaners of bacteria and other dirty biology.

The bark of silver birches do a similar function and have medicinal properties used by aboriginals. These birches’ bark have a compound called betulin for this medicine and it acts as a reflector of sunlight/heat to keep the tree from overheating, keeps the birch healthy from infection, and gives it its white color.

Quaking aspen make a distinct quaking sound in wind and is in fact multiple males growing in a bunch in a forest, and has a root system so vast, it overtakes land in clockwork time, and is essentially one big organism. However, their growth height is stunted and other tree species whom dwell under, younger, will soon over take them if the conditions are ripe.

Climate, wet/dry conditions of soil and weather shift and regulate tree growth and migration, as each tree species has relative and distinct characteristics and advantages that allow it to be successful in particular environments.

Katsuhiko Natsunaga of Hokkaido University researched and suggested to plant trees near natural waterways, as leaves fallen into rivers and lakes will leach acid and eventually flow to ocean where it will stimulate plankton growth.

Be sure to check out Healthy Harvest Forest Foundation

In winter, when trees are releasing less O2 and more CO2, the algal growth underneath balances this loss. However, despite operating in photosynthesis, once its sufficient, it may turn red sooner for the fall to avoid overproducing. Also, trees need sleep, they need a break from light. Those in cities have been known to suffer not just from being forced to grow unstable roots in a confined box area, unable to communicate with neighbouring trees to share nutrients — yes, trees share nutrients. In fact a tree stump in an old forest often leaks sap because other trees were still feeding it food to keep it alive.

The trees in cities will suffer from electric lights at night.

Dusty forests is often because the wrong trees were introduced to an environment unsuitable, and as a byproduct of its suffering, release dust. Healthy forests will not do this. Interestingly enough, the air you breathe is known to lower blood pressures, and some tree airs are more suitable for certain people than others. Be sure to try and find out which trees are suitable for you.

In conclusion, the most important takeaway from this former forest management staff is, management of forest is counterproductive to healthy forests. The best forests do well due to being completely undisturbed by human activity. Disturb less, and you’ll manage less, and leave no traces. And this slow and biodiverse, naturally regulated forest will healthy tree growth for the next eons of tree.

Thank you Mr. Wohlleben for this wonderful read.