Book Report: The Power of Trees

I started reading The Power of Trees (2021, English 2023), by Peter Wohlleben, the German forester who also wrote The Hidden Life of Trees, last year. I had to put it down, because it was so depressing. It sure sounds like Europe’s trees are messed up and not much hope is shared in this book.

So, what a great book to read during an election where the non-environmentally friendly folks won bigly? But I got through it. I learned why forestry, with its great fondness for monoculture and treating trees like products rather than fellow citizens of the planet, has led to massive death in forests and loss of uncountable other species that support trees (what lives in the earth and helps trees do their work).

Wohlleben shows how allowing natural forests to regenerate on their own and create old trees that are allowed to live on would help restore a healthy climate (trees cool it) and still provide for human needs, especially if we recycle old wood products rather than always making new ones.

You’ll learn a lot about the complex interrelationship between trees and the other life around them as well as lessons that apply to forests around the world.

I always feel drawn to helping woodlands, knowing how many mighty trees in Florida my grandfather sent to sawmills in the early twentieth century. As I have resolved to focus on doing something kind every day, I’m keeping the remaining native woodlands in mind.