Years ago I went on a solo backpacking trip through Big Sur. It was during a time in the year when there were few other people to see or hear. When I got to camp, I was surrounded by the forest. It was just me and this vast surrounding living organism. All I heard was the wind blowing through the trees, the birds chirping in the distance, and the constant sound of the flowing river. I didn’t feel like I belonged. I felt like an outsider. I felt in a way like the forest was alive talking to itself, and I was there in its way. Since that trip I’ve always wondered if there was more to the forest, to the trees than I knew.
Get the Book – The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World :
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Music Credits:
Nujabes – Prayer
Script:
Last year a man named Peter Wohlleben wrote a book about trees. Thrilling stuff, huh? Well actually it turned out to be pretty thought inspiring. The book? The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World. Wohlleben worked as forester somewhere in Germany who one day 20 years ago woke up to the fact that trees are just more than lumber. This change happened when he was working with tourists who seemed to always find the most crooked and gnarled trees to be most interesting, which he previously dismissed because they were essentially worthless. This reminds me of the Taoist idea that a crooked tree, which is useless for timber, will live long, while on the other hand the lives of the trees that are useful to people are cut short. After Wohlleben’s realization he began studying the forest and working toward making the lumber plantation he was working on more natural and wild with much success.
Through his research Wohlleben’s findings suggest that trees have a much more sophisticated way of life than we may imagine.
First trees live in communities, much like how humans do. One day Wohlleben was walking around the forest and found the remains of an ancient tree stump that had been cut down several hundred years ago. But the thing was, it wasn’t dead. The surrounding trees had been providing nutrients to it in order for it to survive. You see, there are advantages for trees to work in communities – together they can create their own local climate to protect themselves from the wind and weather – in such a protected environment where trees are moderating extreme heat and cold, and storing water thus creating humidity, trees can live to be hundred if not thousands of years old. But to do this, trees have to work together and reciprocate their needs, much like human friends do.
Trees also communicate with one another. Decades ago in the African savannah, giraffes began eating the leaves of the iconic acacia trees which we all probably know best from the Lion King. Anyways, the trees didn’t like this very much and very quickly began releasing the chemical ethylene into the air to warn their nearby friends. Immediately, all the surrounding trees followed suit and the giraffes moved on. The same thing happens in nearly all forests and tree communities. This is not the only way trees communicate with one another. They also use something called the “Wood Wide Web” – an underground fungal network that is yet to be completely understood which trees use to send warning signals to one another about droughts, insects and other dangers. One of these networks in Oregon is estimated to weigh 660 tons, to cover 2,000 acres, and is 2,400 years old. The relationship is also reciprocal – while the fungus provides trees with much needed nutrients and protect them from harmful fungi and bacteria, trees provide the fungus with sugar and other nutrients.
So, what do you think? Do trees have feelings? Comment below and if you’re interested in the topic, pick up a copy of Wohlleben’s book by clicking the link below.
