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Peter Wohlleben: The Hidden Life of Trees (2016, Greystone Books) 4 stars

In The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben shares his deep love of woods …

The Hidden Life of Trees does exactly what the title said it would do: explain what we miss when we are moving too quickly to notice the lives of trees. Peter Wohlleben's experiences as a forester harvesting trees and as a conservationist of forests drives his tale that is "warmly avuncular, storybook simple, and heavily dusted with the glitter of wonderment" according to Robert Moor of the New Yorker.

Wohlleben explanation of reciprocal tree communities and the beech's rampage over other species brought wonder into an area that I had not through of much. His 30 years of experience that lead to a sustainable harvesting practice that involves removing individual trees with horses and mules. Robert Moor's article "The German Forester Who Wants the World to Idolize Trees", highlights some of the objections to the "fairy tales" in The Hidden Life of Trees.

Because I am the target audience of the book, non-experts that love nature, I can't really evaluate his claims. I can say that the experience was soothing, the audiobook reader's voice is addictive (Mike Grady), and I have been thinking about trees and identifying them more in my daily life. I'd imagine that this is largely what Wohlleben wanted.

The German Forester Who Wants the World to Idolize Trees by Robert Moor: www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-german-forester-who-wants-the-world-to-idolize-trees