Review by C.J. Bunce
Last month I reviewed The Hidden Life of Trees–A Graphic Adaptation here at borg, a graphic novel edition of world-renowned German tree expert Peter Wohlleben’s award-winning book, adapted by French writer Fred Bernard and French artist Benjamin Flao. Wohlleben has written several books on understanding trees and nature and the next we’re looking at is Forest Walking: Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North America, available here at Amazon, a recent American update to an earlier German book by the author. Written with research from his American colleague Jane Billinghurst, the book is an introduction to everything you’ll want to consider before heading out into the woods in the U.S. and Canada. What do you need to know? What should you wear? What animals do you want to keep an eye out for? And how can you make the experience more immersive for you alone, in a small group, or even get kids engaged?
Wohlleben has his own leasurely style, a sort of grandfatherly fellow who can pull into any discussion all the connective bits and pieces from the environment, from geology, from zoology, and from botany, discussing how everything on Planet Earth is related, dependent on every other thing. At times his manner may remind you of radio storyteller Paul Harvey, at other times his excitement is like a cartoon character, especially with his many humorous and practcial anecdotes from hiking partner Jane Billinghurst. Fans of Bill Bryson’s books will appreciate his ability to tie everything together.
As in The Hidden Life of Trees, Wohlleben shares his knowledge of the anatomy of trees, how trees in the forest differ from those in the city, and how insects, birds, and other critters create an eye-opening feast for the senses for human visitors. He doesn’t limit his discussion to sights and sounds, providing tools for using taste, smell, and touch to investigate everything around you on a trail hike or drive through a national park.
The book isn’t encyclopedic–it’s more of a conversation, so it’s intended by the authors to be a starting point only. Wohlleben provides warnings while also being more adventurous than the average naturalist. His section on avoiding ticks, and what to do when you fail at that, will be useful to anyone. In other sections, including the discussion of venturing into the forest after dark, hiking in the winter or a hot summer, or searching out animals, readers will need to do more research. Especially in the section about what you can and can’t eat in the forest, it’s tough to really home in on important details because the book doesn’t include any photographs. So don’t expect to use this book as your only guide for selecting nuts, berries, and mushrooms, or you may end up like Christopher McCandless in Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild.
Unlike some nature books, Wohlleben encourages taking a step or two off the path, to get your hands dirty, while also guarding against damaging or hurting nature or wildlife in the process. Three chapters provide practical steps to get cell phone-centered kids engaged in the wilderness experience.
Forest Walking is a good companion to either edition of The Hidden Life of Trees, which examined the natural beauty of trees and the woods and all the creatures that feed and depend upon trees (including humans), with information you’d find in a Natural Sciences textbook. This book is more a survey of experiences, and it’s left to the reader to choose what can be applied on your own journey. It parrots only some key features from his other book as they relate to Wohlleben’s history as a naturalist, as well as some of the science of trees and how they rely upon each other in the forest, but most of this book can’t be found in his earlier book. It is filled with many specific encounters he or Jane have had in named U.S. forests.
The author balances the zen of experiencing the forest with the science behind trees as communicators, and he provides the details behind trees adapting to their circumstances to warn other trees and wildlife, and use their own chemistry–and some things science simply can’t explain yet–to keep fallen and dead trees a part of the living community of a forest floor. It’s here where he only touches on what scientists may be able to learn about forests a hundred years from now, analyzing beetles, birds, earthworms, seeds, mosses, fungus, bark, scat, sticks, leaves or anything else you can find among the trees.
Count Forest Walking: Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North America as a good read as you begin your new year. It’s positive, insightful, and even motivational, providing the opportunity to plan what to do with your year once the snow and ice have gone. Maybe even a kayaking adventure through a nearby forest? Forest Walking: Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North America is available now from publisher Greystone Books here at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere.
