The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries From a Secret World

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries From a Secret World




Audible Sample
Audible Sample

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries From a Secret World Audible Audiobook – Unabridged
Peter Wohlleben (Author), Mike Grady (Narrator), & 1 more
4.6 out of 5 stars 1,220 customer reviews





A forester's fascinating stories backed by the latest scientific research illustrate how trees nurture and talk to each other. Are trees social beings?

In this international best seller - which has sold more than 320,000 copies in Germany alone - 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 he has observed in his woodland. After you have heard The Hidden Life of Trees, a walk in the woods will never be the same again.

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Richard Reese (author of Understanding Sustainability)
5.0 out of 5 starsPerfect Excellent UnforgettableSeptember 26, 2016
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
As a young lad in Germany, Peter Wohlleben loved nature. He went to forestry school, and became a wood ranger. At this job, he was expected to produce as many high quality saw logs as possible, with maximum efficiency, by any means necessary. His tool kit included heavy machinery and pesticides. This was forest mining, an enterprise that ravaged the forest ecosystem and had no long-term future. He oversaw a plantation of trees lined up in straight rows, evenly spaced. It was a concentration camp for tree people.

Wohlleben is a smart and sensitive man, and over the course of decades he got to know the tree people very well. Eventually, his job became unbearable. Luckily, he made friends in the community of Hümmel, and was given permission to manage their forest in a less destructive manner. There is no more clear-cutting, and logs are removed by horse teams, not machines. In one portion of the forest, old trees are leased as living gravestones, where families can bury the ashes of kin. In this way, the forest generates income without murdering trees.

Wohlleben wrote The Hidden Life of Trees, a smash hit in Germany. It will be translated into 19 languages. The book is built on a foundation of reputable science, but it reads like grandpa chatting at fireside. He’s a gentle old storyteller explaining the wondrous magic of beautiful forests to befuddled space aliens from a crazy planet named Consume. He teaches readers about the family of life, a subject typically neglected in schools.

Evergreen trees have been around for 170 million years, and trees with leaves are 100 million years old. Until recently, trees lived very well without the assistance of a single professional forest manager. I’m serious! Forests are communities of tree people. Their root systems intermingle, allowing them to send nutrients to their hungry children, and to ailing neighbors. When a Douglas fir is struck by lightning, several of its close neighbors might also die, because of their underground connections. A tribe of tree people can create a beneficial local climate for the community.

Also underground are mycelium, the largest organisms yet discovered. One in Oregon weighs 660 tons, covers 2,000 acres (800 ha), and is 2,400 years old. They are fungi that send threads throughout the forest soil. The threads penetrate and wrap around tree roots. They provide trees with water, nitrogen, and phosphorus, in exchange for sugar and other carbohydrates. They discourage attacks from harmful fungi and bacteria, and they filter out heavy metals.

When a limb breaks off, unwelcome fungal spores arrive minutes later. If the tree can close off the open wound in less than five years, the fungi won’t survive. If the wound is too large, the fungi can cause destructive rot, possibly killing the tree. When a gang of badass beetles invades, the tree secretes toxic compounds, and sends warnings to other trees via scent messages, and underground electrical signals. Woodpeckers and friendly beetles attack the troublemakers.

Forests exist in a state of continuous change, but this is hard for us to see, because trees live much slower than we do. They almost appear to be frozen in time. Humans zoom through life like hamsters frantically galloping on treadmill, and we blink out in just a few decades. In Sweden, scientists studied a spruce that appeared to be about 500 years old. They were surprised to learn that it was growing from a root system that was 9,550 years old.

In Switzerland, construction workers uncovered stumps of trees that didn’t look very old. Scientists examined them and discovered that they belonged to pines that lived 14,000 years ago. Analyzing the rings of their trunks, they learned that the pines that survived a climate that warmed 42°F, and then cooled about the same amount — in a period of just 30 years! This is the equivalent of our worst-case projections today.

Dinosaurs still exist in the form of birds, winged creatures that can quickly escape from hostile conditions. Trees can’t fly, but they can migrate, slowly. When the climate cools, they move south. When it warms, they go north, like they are today — because of global warming, and because they continue to adapt to the end of the last ice age. A strong wind can carry winged seeds a mile. Birds can carry seeds several miles. A beech tree tribe can advance about a quarter mile per year (0.4 km).

Compared to trees, the human genome has little variation. We are like seven-point-something billion Barbie and Ken dolls. Tree genomes are extremely diverse, and this is key for their survival. Some trees are more drought tolerant, others are better with cold or moisture. So change that kills some is less likely to kill all. Wohlleben suspects that his beech forest will survive, as long as forest miners don’t wreck its soil or microclimate. (Far more questionable is the future of corn, wheat, and rice, whose genetic diversity has been sharply reduced by the seed sellers of industrial agriculture.)

Trees have amazing adaptations to avoid inbreeding. Winds and bees deliver pollen from distant trees. The ovaries of bird cherry trees reject pollen from male blossoms on the same tree. Willows have separate male trees and female trees. Spruces have male and female blossoms, but they open several days apart.

Boars and deer love to devour acorns and beechnuts. Feasting on nuts allows them to put on fat for the winter. To avoid turning these animals into habitual parasites, nuts are not produced every year. This limits the population of chubby nutters, and ensures that some seeds will survive and germinate. If a beech lives 400 years, it will drop 1.8 million nuts.

On deciduous trees, leaves are solar panels. They unfold in the spring, capture sunlight, and for several months manufacture sugar, cellulose, and other carbohydrates. When the tree can store no more sugar, or when the first hard frost arrives, the solar panels are no longer needed. Their chlorophyll is drained, and will be recycled next spring. Leaves fall to the ground and return to humus. The tree goes into hibernation, spending the winter surviving on stored sugar. Now, with bare branches, the tree is far less vulnerable to damage from strong winds, heavy wet snows, and ice storms.

In addition to rotting leaves, a wild forest also transforms fallen branches and trunks into carbon rich humus. Year after year, the topsoil becomes deeper, healthier, and more fertile. Tree plantations, on the other hand, send the trunks to saw mills. So, every year, tons of precious biomass are shipped away, to planet Consume. This depletes soil fertility, and encourages erosion. Plantation trees are more vulnerable to insects and diseases. Because their root systems never develop normally, the trees are more likely to blow down.

From cover to cover, the book presents fascinating observations. By the end, readers are likely to imagine that undisturbed forests are vastly more intelligent than severely disturbed communities of radicalized consumers. More and more, scientists are muttering and snarling, as the imaginary gulf between the plant and animal worlds fades away. Wohlleben is not a vegetarian, because experience has taught him that plants are no less alive, intelligent, and sacred than animals. It’s a wonderful book. I’m serious!

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REG
5.0 out of 5 starsTrees CommunicateJanuary 15, 2017
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Why people have to give a book one star only because it's "above their understanding" is beyond me. That one star should go to the reviewer, not to the book. Then, about five people gave this book rave reviews accompanied by two stars. ????? And then there were reviewers who first cited their multiple PhD's, BS's and Masters degrees, to show they are REAL scientists, and then went on to say that that is why they are all rattled and horrified by the simplicity and anthropomorphism of Wohlleben's approach.

Let's please grow up. A grey and dour, soulless "scientific" approach to a subject will not engage average mortals, and those are the ones who need to know. The wish for such an approach doesn't identify you as a scientist either; it identifies you as a grey and dour, soulless person with no interest in mystery. This book is not written for you.

This book is written for normal people, who are interested in trees and nature and not afraid of learning facts that upset their worldview, and who are willing to accept that there are things we cannot, yet or fully, explain. This relatively recent field, of the interconnectedness of trees and of the forest as a giant organism, is unbelievably interesting and will, no, must, have far reaching consequences for our thinking about the environment, and by extension for our thinking about ourselves. I am not a scientist, and I don't care for a purely scientific approach to life. I am also not afraid of anthropomorphism - it is a valuable tool for us humans (anthropoi) to understand the world around us. Already 2,500 years ago Protagoras revolutionized philosophical thinking by positing that "man is the measure of all things". For most of us, that will remain the norm for a long time to come.

Also, trees are not aliens, they are more like us than we think. There is a lot in the trees' behavior that they share with us. The need to survive powerfully and procreate is common between man and tree.

Wohlleben writes beautifully and lyrically. That is not a sin and doesn't take away from his being a consummate scientist. One can be a scientist and at the same time be in awe of mystery.

In a very recent interview with The Guardian, Wohlleben said "scientists over the last 200 years have taught us that nature works without soul.” This book successfully discredits that approach, which has been ready for the scrap heap for too long.

This is a terrific book that can be fascinating to scientists and non-scientists alike. It has enough footnotes to allow for wider study of the subject for the intellectually adventurous.

The collaboration of Wohlleben and Dr Suzanne Simard of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada has led to a TV documentary on the subject, "Intelligent Trees". The DVD is available on Amazon.

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Denzil
3.0 out of 5 starsInteresting, but difficult and frustrating to readDecember 18, 2017
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
I found plenty in this book to make me wonder and to see trees in a new light. The connections which “make fungi something like the forest Internet”. The various ways trees exchange vital nutrients with each other. The use of scent as communication. The innovative ways that trees defend their leaves from predation. The methods trees use to intercept water. All these and other learnings I appreciated.

However, I found the book heavy-going and frustrating and was relieved when I finally made it to the end.

Pseudoscience abounds. He presents interesting hypotheses but often doesn’t back them up with scientific evidence, merely talking about brain-like structures at root tips, and a mechanism to store memories and experiences. Some chapters seemed to come to an end before he could draw a conclusion. For example, he mentions three oaks that shed their leaves at slightly different times, seemingly because “the tree on the right is a bit more anxious than the others, or to put it more positively, more sensible.” He says that “recent research has discovered something that at least calls into question the effects of transpiration and the forces of cohesion,” but then fails to say what that research has discovered.

The author’s anthropomorphism is ubiquitous: Beeches harass other species, pines resent competitors, mother trees have buddies. And long parts of the book are boring. In many chapters he introduces a topic and then goes through the list of how it relates to different trees: the oak, the beech, the silver birch, the Douglas fir, the spruce etc. When this device happens repeatedly it gets rather tedious. And most examples are western European trees with brief forays into north America. I would have loved to read more about Asian or African trees.

The book does include gems of insight and knowledge. But for me, they are hidden amongst too much foliage.

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gt surber
5.0 out of 5 starsPresenting Trees as follow sentient purposeful beings very well doneSeptember 25, 2016
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Review The Hidden Life of Trees Peter Wohlleben


The Hidden Life of Trees” is an amazing book presenting trees as sentient, purposeful beings living in dynamic relationship with each other. This is a new aspect for most of us, but apparently has been part of the secret knowledge of foresters since the early 1990’s. Trees, have a sense of time, have memories, taste, smell, feel, explore, see, and hear, but not like we do. Trees even move, from generation to generation just not as individuals. Trees live on a much slower time platform than we do. This single fact has hidden the true life of the trees from us.

“The Hidden Life of Trees” is carefully and well presented with humor, with gentleness, with compassion, with joy, even with love. The book is not a scientific, heavy fact laden tome. It is a very readable presentation of the last two decades of research into the lives of our follow beings on Earth, the Trees. The author is a German forester, environmentalist who obviously cares very much for his topic of choice.

The book was originally published in German in 2015 as “Das geheime Leben der Baume.” The translation is beautiful prose. Granted many of the examples are of the Central European forest. But there are many examples from our US forests as well.

I recommend this book to any one with a love for trees. But be prepared to revise your view of trees from objects to follow beings here on Earth.

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Thomas H. Arthur
5.0 out of 5 starsI Think That I Shall Never See...October 15, 2016
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Loved the book. Live on a tree-filled island in the summer and have always "felt" the companionship of the trees but thought I was crazy. Not any more. Bought it for my four children because they will "know" those same trees too.

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Mr. C. Doyle
4.0 out of 5 starsThe excellent and the execrable.November 2, 2016
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The excellent
I heard Peter Wohlleben on a radio interview about this book, and found his discussion of tree communication, community and interactions with mushrooms, so interesting that I bought the book. What impressed me was that his answers were all scientific and to the point, though some of the questions were pretty whacky. The good part of his book is that Peter brings together in one place a really good look at forest ecology. He outlines how trees work in terms of light and water, their intricate relationship and co-dependence with the mushroom family. How they communicate, how they deal with pests and warn nearby trees of danger, how they even feed and support each other. He goes into soil ecology and also that of birds, animals and insects that live among and in the trees. I found that after reading this book, as I walked in the forest I started noticing things I had not before. That is all excellent
The execrable.
The style of the book is readable, but not elegant, and occasionally repetitive. But the problem with Peter’s style is that he loves trees so much he want them to be people, and his anthropomorphism can really grate. (I am not the only reviewer to note this problem.) When we talk of trees we look to ourselves to help our descriptions thus “parenting trees” is a fair metaphor. (It also works the other way when we consider our “roots” or our project “bears fruit”). But in this book metaphor morphs into reality and may have confused the author along with some of his readers. For example Peter seriously talks about trees feeling pain and trees having an emotional balance. These are very human characteristics and we share them with most animals as they are necessary to stop us killing ourselves as we learn to move about our environment and also to make choices. But it is hard to see how they would be of any advantage to a sessile tree with limited options, and so there is no obvious reason to think they would have evolved in plants. I can’t help feeling that in trying to humanize trees, the wonder of what they are and how they work becomes diminished. However, this is not to say don’t get this book, do! Just be forewarned to take the humanization as metaphor, not reality.

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glenn melton
5.0 out of 5 starsUnabatedly fascinatingOctober 29, 2016
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I waited for a long time for this book to be translated and I am just amazed at how it has changed my viewpoint. I worked at Weyerhaeuser for a couple of years and I don't think anyone there is aware of this information. I would recommend this to anyone interested in lifes' questions about trees being much more than a resource.

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Patrick F. Fields
3.0 out of 5 starsInteresting insights from a lifetime of detailed forest research in central EuropeJune 29, 2017
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A life time of professional observations about trees in Germany. There are some original observations and insights about trees here (especially relating to the carbon cycle, soils, and global warming) ... making it worth a read. However, Wohileben could benefit by learning general botany and plant physiology - he declares some things as simply unknown to science, when any basic botany text published in the last 20+ years has the answer, Also he needs to ease up on the anthropomorphisms (we have no clue how plants feel, but he tells you chapter by chapter how they do, and how they teach their seedlings, etc.). The book seller described the product fairly and delivered it within the time frame promised.

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David R. Risser
5.0 out of 5 starsFascinating BookNovember 28, 2016
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I picked this book up from my local library, and rapidly discovered that it was a remarkable book and a joy to read. From Peter Wohllenben’s discussion of the “Wood Wide Web”, to his explanations of the amazing processes of life, death, regeneration, and of course, communication, this book is truly a paradigm-smashing work of interest to anyone with an interest in trees, whether as a forester (as is the author), or as a landscaper, or anyone who just enjoys walks in the woods. It may strike some as odd, to discuss the “feelings” of trees, but after reading this book the reader can have no doubt trees can, indeed, feel, and they express those feelings in many different ways.

The author, Peter Wohlleben, is a German forester, and that may also seem an odd occupation for the author of a book about tree communication, but Wohlleben clearly has strong feelings for trees, and his work with trees has led to a much greater understanding of their “inner life” than is held by the casual tree observer. The book is beautifully written, and though translated from the original German, the descriptions of trees are truly enchanting. After reading this book, enchanted forests such as the ones in the Lord of the Rings, where the trees can see and hear and communicate with one another, do not seem so far-fetched.

As Wohlleben points out, trees are not well-understood by humans due to the fact that trees live on a completely different time scale than humans. Some trees may live over 100 times as long as the average human lifespan, and for them, transmitting information can occur very slowly, at 1/3 of an inch per second for the electrical impulses that pass through the roots of trees, versus milliseconds for the electrical impulses in humans and other animals. A human being can be born, live a long and full life, and die when old, while a tree that begins at the same time is still experiencing its childhood or early adolescence. But trees communicate in many different ways, not just by electrical impulses. They may use the senses of taste and smell by releasing chemicals into the air. This may be done to warn other nearby trees to be prepared for a pest invasion, or to attract other predators that will feed on particular leaf-eating insects that may have found a particular tree attractive.

Also of interest is Wohlleben’s description of trees as social beings, and he makes it clear that most trees require the presence of other trees of the same species to live a healthy and productive life. These trees, in a forest, provide nurturing of the young, and provide protections for one another. It is in the forest that tree communication is at its best. This book is truly enchanting, and will be loved and appreciated by anyone who enjoys a walk in the woods.

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Julia E. Hubbel
5.0 out of 5 starsBecoming a tree huggerAugust 27, 2017
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It's as simple as this. As a farm girl who grew up surrounded by forests, I already had a love affair of trees, without knowing why. After reading this magnificent book,I understood why, when I read of the cutting and burning of the world's great rainforests, I feel a rage and pain that is indescribable. I also understand why, after I planted a flaming maple sapling in my yard this spring, I named her Matilda, and had the compulsion to go out and wrap my arms around her in the early morning to encourage her growth. This book cements my commitment to being a true tree hugger but in the highest sense of the word. Now I understand why, and what's below the surface, what's going on way up high, and why we have such a huge responsibility to our friends in the "slow lane." As a result of this book, Matilda is getting a sister next year.

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