Wohlleben’s aim is to let us see the trees and forests around us not just as “lumber factories” but as wondrous organisms, as complex as any animal. He starts with wise words for those entering a forest: “Slow down, breathe deep and look around.” Not only is the air cleaner under trees, as their leaves filter out harmful pollutants, but pine forests release defensive compounds that kill germs: “Trees disinfect their surroundings.” Trees also release oxygen, so a walk in the woods is “like taking a shower in oxygen”. Wohlleben draws on decades of experience as a forester in Germany’s Eifel mountains for this eye-opening book. One of the world’s most venerable trees is a spruce in Sweden that is 9,500 years old. A ccording to Peter Wohlleben, we fail to understand trees because “they live on a different time scale” from us.
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