The Hidden Life of Trees

[William Warren]

#6146

Just received my copy yesterday written by Peter Wohlleben a German forester. Just part way in I can tell you that I’ll never look at plants or trees the same again. Interesting perspective on trees and something to think about while waiting in our tree stands this season for a chance at a deer or other game animal with bow and arrow in hand.

We benefit in so many ways from trees but clearly our view of them is clouded by dominionist thought processes that command us to “subdue” the Earth and are ingrained in our culture.

My bows and arrows are either all wood or contain wood. All were once part of living trees. This fact was one of the the things that attracted me to archery so long ago. Shooting a bow and being in the woods just seems so much more natural to me. And now going forward, I have a new perspective and mindfulness of the wooden objects in my possession and the trees I hunt among.

Good Hunting all! Go stand in the old growth forest and be still and quiet!

Duncan

[David Coulter]

#51598

Thank you for this post. What a great reminder. I’m going to look up that book now. Thanks for the heads up. best, david

[Stephen Graf]

#51769

Me too!

One of the reasons I started shooting the Norway Spruce arrows that come out of Germany was to support their much more healthy attitude towards the land.

Aldo Leopold spent time in Germany learning sustainable forestry.

I’ve always felt trees have spirit, and personality. You can see it in how they’ve solved the problems of growing of their particular piece of the land.

[Ralph]

#57765

Good thinkin!!!!!!!!!

I like it all.

Thanks, Ralph….

[William Warren]

#58557

Yes, the Germans are changing their forestry practices to lower impact methods. Horses instead of heavy machinery. Less cutting of competitive growth. Read an article about this last year that lead me to this book.

Enjoying the book so far. (I’m a slow reader, reading in short stints throughout the day) The concept that trees can feel pain when deprived of water or that they can voice this pain is a tough one for me but then who knows what is beyond our hearing range. You have to read it with an open mind. Other concepts such as fungi being intertwined with the root systems of trees is something I can accept because I have seen it when digging around large trees and roots. The premise is that this fungi provides a means of communication between trees in exchange for food in the form of sugar made by the tree through photosynthesis. Gee, this sounds alot like Verizon taking my money for a phone and cable service. 😯

Anyway hope you enjoy it too.

Duncan

[Stephen Graf]

#62597

Soil science has advanced quite a bit in recent years…

The symbiotic relationship between fungi and plants is starting to get mapped out pretty well. Fungi mycelia can spread out really far from a plant (tree or otherwise) and bring all sorts of organic and inorganic nutrients to the plant. In exchange the plant provides sugars which are the result of photosynthesis, a capability that fungus does not have.

Dirt is not just a media for roots, it is a living biome at least as complex as the world we live in. What’s more is that while the soil really doesn’t need us to survive, we cannot survive without it.

So the next time somebody calls you a dirty old man 😯 you can say thank-you with confidence 🙄 😀

[Col Mike]

#11505

Check this Ted Talk out http://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_simard_how_trees_talk_to_each_other

[Stephen Graf]

#30629

Thanks Mike, that was a really good talk! This understanding has been slowly developing for 20 or 30 years now.

Hopefully we can learn to live more gently, and less blindly, on our pale blue dot before it’s too late.

In the end though, the universe will go on no matter what these greedy little bald monkeys do to this rock 😯

[Col Mike]

#34493

Steve Graf wrote: Thanks Mike, that was a really good talk! This understanding has been slowly developing for 20 or 30 years now.

Hopefully we can learn to live more gently, and less blindly, on our pale blue dot before it’s too late.

In the end though, the universe will go on no matter what these greedy little bald monkeys do to this rock 😯

Steve

I think you mean it has been slowly “re” developing over the past few decades, at least our Pleistocene ancestors knew as my beloved mentor Uncle Lewie–who tapped me on the shoulder one beautiful fall evening in the U P of MI and whispered “son if you listen well the trees will talk and the critters will tell you where the deer are” heck all I wanted to do at 14 was kill a deer. I think in this age–one must age and have the time and wisdom to slow down and listen and see.

Your last statement is so true, when you consider that all the galaxies, stars, planets,aliens, us, all that we can see make up about 1% of the universe, in essence we are nothing but a speck of cosmic pollution, if it all went away the universe wouldn’t even notice that I shot my bow today-Mom!

😀

Mike

[Ralph]

#42278

I wonder what my cedar shafts were thinking when…………..

[paleoman]

#47481

I’m a Forester by education and somewhat by profession. Traditional Forestry is a great idea dried out to lifelessness by the scientific method and industry. Useful I guess, but empty calories for the spirit. What do I know, really? Not much!

[Stephen Graf]

#52524

paleoman wrote: I’m a Forester by education and somewhat by profession. Traditional Forestry is a great idea dried out to lifelessness by the scientific method and industry. Useful I guess, but empty calories for the spirit. What do I know, really? Not much!

I was sad to see you include the scientific method in your list of desiccants.

To me, the Scientific Method has been the greatest single tool we have had to lift ourselves out of ignorance, disease, and superstition (still a long way to go on the last one 🙄 )

If only we could realize that greed is not a virtue. It’s always dangerous to distill a problem down to its core ingredient. But it seems to me that if there is a single agent responsible for wilting our world, it’s greed.

[paleoman]

#55208

Steve – I have to clarify….what I meant was more the dryness of the scientific literature I remember reading. It sucked the life and beauty and appreciation for that right out…as for the method I can’t think of anything better.

[Ralph]

#11588

I guess I’m lost on “Traditional Forestry” other than it’s been the tradition of mankind to cut down all they needed and all they wanted for profit (greed) and when that was gone move on to start chopping in another place or perish as it seems the people and culture did on Easter Island when they ran out of trees.

Granted in modern times in this country attempts at conserving and regrowing our forests have been and are being made. Which is a good deal but other parts of the world just flat don’t give a s***.

The wood cutters are trying to feed their families on their pittance of salary from the profit of a tree whilst the middle men and big wheels are getting rich.

Cutting the forests down is just a form of self apocalyptic behavior, among the others, we humans, the smart ones, seem so happy to endorse around the world.

This old elm went down at the archery range recently, I just discovered it today. It died from natural causes, drought, wind and age.

I wasn’t trying to be a smarta** on my earlier post either.

I don’t think a tree is communicating with me other than through the spirit of the forest which I hopefully can be attuned to, either consciously or subconsciously or both.

Plants and animals are all part of a great big ‘ONE’ with us. One big collective “Spirit”.

The spirit of the earth is always speaking but how often are we listening!!!!!!!!!? How often too feel the embrace?

My arrows hold the spirit of the forest as hopefully does the “myself” in this tale.

Just me rattling,

Ralph

[paleoman]

#13143

Well said Ralph. It always was, historically anyway, extractive “management” as you say. Too often we extract and tear apart the fabric of things only to be surprised and depressed we

are left with nothing…my experience anyway but having the luxury to bi$ch @ it is questionable sentiment I suppose.

[Stephen Graf]

#41913

Saw this interesting review on the book this morning:

http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/09/23/494989594/a-web-of-trees-and-their-hidden-lives

The review mentions Michael Pollen, another of my favorite writers…

[William Warren]

#24694

Steve Graf wrote: Saw this interesting review on the book this morning:

http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/09/23/494989594/a-web-of-trees-and-their-hidden-lives

The review mentions Michael Pollen, another of my favorite writers…

I read NPR but I somehow missed this one. Thanks for posting this.

Duncan

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