The Power of Trees: How Ancient Forests Can Save Us if We Let Them

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars | 96 ratings

Price: 23.85

Last update: 09-12-2024


About this item

“Another love letter from Wohlleben to the green world… makes the case for how we should allow forests throughout the world to regrow and in the process help heal not only the climate but us, as well.”—Lydia Millet, Oprah Daily

An illuminating manifesto on ancient forests: how they adapt to climate change by passing their wisdom through generations, and why our future lies in protecting them.

In his beloved book The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben revealed astonishing discoveries about the social networks of trees and how they communicate. Now, in The Power of Trees, he turns to their future, with a searing critique of forestry management, tree planting, and the exploitation of old growth forests.

As human-caused climate change devastates the planet, forests play a critical role in keeping it habitable. While politicians and business leaders would have us believe that cutting down forests can be offset by mass tree planting, Wohlleben offers a warning: many tree planting campaigns lead to ecological disaster. Not only are these trees more susceptible to disease, flooding, fires, and landslides, we need to understand that forests are more than simply a collection of trees. Instead, they are ecosystems that consist of thousands of species, from animals to fungi and bacteria. The way to save trees, and ourselves? Step aside and let forests—which are naturally better equipped to face environmental challenges—heal themselves.

With the warmth and wonder familiar to listeners from his previous books, Wohlleben also shares emerging scientific research about how forests shape climates both locally and across continents; that trees adapt to changing environmental conditions through passing knowledge down to their offspring; and how old growth may in fact have the most survival strategies for climate change.

At the heart of The Power of Trees lies Wohlleben’s passionate plea: that our survival is dependent on trusting ancient forests, and allowing them to thrive.

Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute.


Top reviews from the United States

Michael Boyajian
5.0 out of 5 stars Time for new forestry
Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2024
The author recommends a less human intrusive approach to saving our forests. Sort of like what former New York State governor George Pataki did in the 1990s when he purchased a million acres from the lumber companies and added them to the Adirondack Forest Preserve that is protected by the New York State Constitution as Forever Wild. A slam dunk.
Leah G
5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone should read this book!
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2024
Everyone needs to read this book so they can learn the latest in forestry research, which says that trees and the forest floors are interconnected sentient beings who raise and care for their young, just as we do. Peter and Suzanne Simard are proving what indigenous peoples have always known...we are all connected and the fate of one effects the lives of all others. The only way to save our planet is to see things this way and to act accordingly.
Hewster
4.0 out of 5 stars A nice follow up
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2023
Continues the authors' compelling premise of interconnected forest ecology. But the writing style is more preachy and less specific than the first book. Basic conclusion...stop managing forests like crops. They will do far better for them and us, forming their own productive and earth protecting ecosystems.
Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Good info
Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2023
Well done by an experienced pro
CS
5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautifully Written, Passionate and Moving Plea for the Future of our Planet
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2023
Several years ago I read Peter Wohllenben’s ’The Secret Life of Trees’ and enjoyed reading his thoughts on trees, and their ‘secret life.’ Where I live now is even more surrounded by trees than the house I grew up in, or any of the places I’ve lived since, and there are paths adjacent to my backyard where my neighbors and I like to take our dogs for walks when the weather is right. Every once in a while, since I read ’The Secret Life of Trees’, walking on what is now a path made by my neighbor and I, I’d think about that book. When I saw he had this new book, I knew I wanted to read it.

This is broken down into four parts, counting the Introduction. Part I is The Wisdom of Trees, Part II is When Forestry Fails, and Part III is Forests of the Future, which is followed by an Afterword. What he shares in 280 pages is a clarion call for protecting our planet, a message for all of us to pay attention to how much of the planet is already being destroyed.

’The future of forests and the future of humanity are inextricably entwined. I’m not saying this for dramatic effect; it is simply a fact. As bleak and frightening as these words sound, they actually offer a great deal of hope. Trees are so adept at creating communities that many of them can cope with the current level of climate change. They are also our best option for removing greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere, doing so much more efficiently than any technological fix we could ever come up with. They also markedly cool climates locally and significantly increase rainfall.’

While this is technically non-fiction and scientific, the way he writes isn’t dry or boring, he writes as though he’s writing to an old friend about those he loves and his concern of whether or not they will be able to pull through some event that has their life and those they love in danger. There are moments when he shares how they can adapt during droughts, to a point, rearranging their timelines of dropping leaves, etc., to suit the ‘new’ climate in order to better prepare for the new state of affairs.

There’s a focus on our need to protect the old-growth forests, as well as the damage done by planting the wrong trees when a forest is essentially destroyed by machines used to remove the original trees, machines that were also damaging the soil in the process.

A beautifully written, passionate and moving plea for the future of our planet.

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Greystone Books
KH
3.0 out of 5 stars Good but very "this way or the highway"
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2023
I really wanted to like this book, and there are some good points and observations made by the author on why old growth forests are so important for the environment as well as some of the pitfalls that modern day tree replantings make. However, I felt like there he would often follow up his proposed solution to a problem just described but in a very narrow minded way where it's his way to combat climate change through native forests or the highway. For example, we should stop burning wood and stop eating meat in order to help reduce our carbon footprint. I take issue with the stop eating meat part for climate purposes since there are farms out there that are actually producing carbon sinks with their land by using cattle and other livestock animals to aid the land. So I take issue with some of the author's blanket statements since they don't feel very well thought out or at least consider the other side.
RBCSR
4.0 out of 5 stars Barking Up The Wrong Tree
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2023
If only fifty percent of the information presented in this book is accurate, then mankind will need to let nature repair what it has damaged before it is too late.
Samira P.
4.0 out of 5 stars Good
Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2023
Not as good as Braiding Sweetgrass, but still a very interesting read.

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