Hidden Life of Trees (Wohlleben)

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World
Peter Wohlleben, 2015 (2016, U.S. printing)
Greystone Books
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781771642484


Summary
Are trees social beings?

In this international bestseller, 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 learning about the complex life of trees, a walk in the woods will never be the same again. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—1964
• Where—Bonn, Germany
• Education—studied Forestry
• Currently—lives in Hummel, Germany

Peter Wohlleben is a German forest ranger and author, who has spent over twenty years working for the forestry commission in Germany before leaving to put his ideas of ecology into practice. He now runs an environmentally-friendly woodland in Germany, where he is working for the return of primeval forests. He is the author of numerous books about trees.

Wohlleben's love of the forest goes back to his childhood. He grew up in Bonn, Germany, in the 1960s and ’70s, raising spiders and turtles, and playing outside. When, as a teen, he was exposed to the sobering prospects for the world's ecological future, he decided his life's mission would be to help.

He studied forestry, and began working for the state forestry administration in Rhineland-Palatinate in 1987. Later, as a young forester in charge of a 3,000-odd acre woodlot in the Eifel region, about an hour outside Cologne, he felled old trees and sprayed logs with insecticides. But he did not feel good about it: "I thought, 'What am I doing? I'm making everything kaput.'"

His 2015 book, The Hidden Life of Trees became a surprise bestseller and is still at the top of the lists in Germany. The book has hit a nerve around the globe, as well, drawing attention of the importance of the world's forests. (Adapted from the publisher and the New York Times.)

Book Reviews
The matter-of-fact Mr. Wohlleben has delighted readers and talk-show audiences alike with the news—long known to biologists—that trees in the forest are social beings.
Sally McGrane - New York Times


[A] declaration of love and an engrossing primer on trees, brimming with facts and an unashamed awe for nature.
Andrea Wulf - Washington Post


[A] passionate and penetrating guide to the inner workings of each tree and every woodland.
Gerard Helferich - Wall Street Journal


The book is dreamy and strange; it tells about trees and their tightknit communities in the forest. The book is full of science. But it's written from the standpoint of a person who lives and works with trees in the forest rather than someone who studies them.… Wohlleben enumerates myriad ways in which trees actually communicate with each other. For example, when confronted with a parasite, some trees will emit [protective] chemicals…nearby trees, whose contact with the original tree is through…the tips of their roots, will then emit the chemical repellent in turn.
NPR.org


German forester Peter Wohlleben’s account of anthropomorphized trees…infuriates scientists and utterly charms everyone else who reads it.
Brian Bethune - Maclean's Magazine


Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees breaks entirely new ground…[Wohlleben] has listened to trees and decoded their language. Now he speaks for them.
Thomas Pakenham - New York Review of Books


[F]ascinating.… Wohlleben anthropomorphizes his subject, using such terms as friendship and parenting, which serves to make the technical information relatable, and he backs up his ideas with information from scientists. He even tackles the question of whether trees are intelligent.
Publishers Weekly


In this spirited exploration, [Wohlleben] guarantees that readers will never look at these life forms in quite the same way again.… [E]ven general readers will gain a rich appreciation of a forest's dynamism. —Kelsy Peterson, Forest Hill Coll., Melbourne, Australia
Library Journal

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for The Hidden Life of Trees…then take off on your own:

1. What struck you most—what did you find most interesting or surprising—in reading about the secret life of trees?

2. Talk about the ways trees form communities underground via the "woodwide web." Explain what Peter Wohlleben means when he talks about how "social" trees are.

3. Describe the parental behavior of trees…and the "childish" behavior of their offspring.

4. Do you think that Wohlleben over anthropomorphizes trees in his book—that he makes them, perhaps, too human? Or is that question in and of itself a reflection of our own anthropocentric attitudes that hinder any acceptance of other forms of "being."

5. (Follow-up to Question 4): Are trees "beings"? Actually, maybe start with a definition of the word being. What does Wohlleben think? What do you think?

6. (Follow-up to Question 4): How much of what Wohlleben writes about in The Hidden Life of Trees is based on scientific research?
 
(Questions issued by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution.)

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