The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate

BOOK REVIEW

Communicating via a dark web, marching north at the rate of a quarter mile a year, releasing alarms when under attack, and throwing up extra shields to protect against invaders, these are a few of the survival techniques of trees.

The Hidden Life of Trees, a new book by German forester Peter Wohlleben, fills in many of the details you probably didn’t know about your quiet neighbors which, while casting a shadow on your garden, dropping leaves and needles on your roof, and blocking your views of the lake, are speaking to one another underground, sensing pain when damaged, emitting the essential oxygen you breathe, and providing housing for various creatures. Why, you might wonder, are folks so keen on chopping them down?