Category: Non-Fiction; Rating: 3 out of 5; Tags: Biology, Environment, Forests, Nature, Trees
Lavishly illustrated with beautiful colour photographs, The Hidden Life of Trees shares the author’s love of trees and forests. A former forester, he now runs an environmentally friendly forest and advocates for the return of large, old forests.
Forests are not simply collections of trees. In a group, trees behave differently. They communicate with one another through airborne chemicals, and share nutrients via interconnected root systems. Fungi connect trees with thin, underground filaments, transmitting information from tree to tree and helping the trees absorb water and nutrients. By sharing nutrients, trees support weaker members of the forest, providing all with protection from wind and hot sun. Seedlings grow more slowly in a forest, where they are deprived of the light required for fast growth. Slow growth when young helps a tree live longer, making their wood more dense and resistant to insects, fungi and wind.
The benefits of forests go beyond providing homes for animals and peaceful places for people. Forests moderate the climate on a continental scale, as long as there are intact coastal forests and a network of forests into the interior. They absorb CO2, and trees grow fastest when they’re old. Old forests are healthier – the understory is cool and moist, the soil is deep and rich.
If we want the world to remain a place in which we enjoy living, we should let our forests grow large and old.
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