Hidden Life of Trees (Wohlleben) - Author Bio

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.)