The Hidden Life of Trees - Peter Wohlleben

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I did find this book very easy to read, without much dense content at all and very bite-sized sections. There were lots of interesting facts. Although, I do wish I knew which ones were certain or had solid theories, and which ones were closer to hypotheses.Some of them do sound kind of far fetched, but I don't know much about the research.

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I've heard of the wood wide web before and it sounds fascinating. I'm not sure if I like the way the trees are presented as 'talking' to each other when they send signals, but it fits the forest fairy-tale vibe I think. I found it interesting how the author states that most CO2 is locked in the ecosystem forever. It makes me wonder how the balance of nutrients and such in our environment is made. It's also very interesting that trees act as almost waypoints to get water inland. Another very valuable functions for trees, and makes it even more unfortunate how much human like to build cities on coasts, destroying these waypoints. Feels like in the idea of a biopunk world there would be forests called "waypoints" that work to bring water to inland.

It was well said at the end, that only those who know the intricacies of tree life will be able to take care of them. And shockingly the implications of this issue extend widely, with the way we manage our forests everywhere. I really hope our world's trees will get a better life in the future, and I resonate with Peter's claim that they should not be treated as mere objects,commodities.

I've learned a lot about life from this book, the many unexpected ways in which the life of trees relates to the life of us. Some of my favorite facts from this book include how presence in healthy forests boosts our circulatory, pulmonary, and immune health, how trees keep our air clean, how they utilize many pathways of communication (scent-mail), that water moves in the tree as fast as third of an inch per second, the demonstration of their learning and memory capacity, and now I also know if I ever have to survive in the wild that I can eat cambium. I'm sure there's many more that I am not recalling right now but it was very informative and I am grateful to my friend who nominated this book.