Listen to the trees

In most of his previous books, German forester Peter Wohlleben amazed us with his insights into how trees think, feel, nurture their young and communicate with each other. Now in The Power of Trees (2023), he focuses on what trees can teach human beings.

When it comes to saving the planet, trees know best, he argues. To a large extent, he says, climate change has resulted from cutting down so many forests around the world, whether to clear fields for agriculture or to provide lumber for construction or wood for fires. With fewer mature trees, the climate has turned warmer and dryer, for forests both cool the air and help manufacture rain. When you are in your own backyard on a hot summer day, you prefer to stand or sit under a tree because it's cooler there. Multiply that by thousands of trees, and this cooling effect impacts a large area.

Planting young trees doesn't make up for clear-cutting mature trees. It can take hundreds of years for younger trees to do the work of older ones. But rarely are they even given the chance to do that, for the forest industry needs their lumber before they have a chance to mature. And to make it worse, the industry tends to replace old forests with trees that grow fast but are not necessarily suited for the climate or soil. Better to plant trees that grow naturally in the area, Wohlleben argues.

Meanwhile, the heavy machinery used to clear forests compacts the soil so severely that young trees cannot develop the root structure they need for a long, healthy life. Trees actually grow best, he says, in the shade of other trees, not out in the open. Too much sun too early leads to a shorter lifespan for trees. Young trees out in the open also provide easy meals for deer.

His solution to the climate problem is simply to let trees do their thing. Let them grow naturally and spread their seeds naturally. Yet this isn't really so simple. Virtually every building that goes up means trees must come down. And so many buildings require large amounts of wood for their construction. Most other foresters work more for the timber industry than for the trees or for the environment, he argues.

Wohlleben doesn't exactly stand alone with these opinions. Even so, among his fellows, he often feels more like a single tree out in the open than part of a forest.