The power of trees: How ancient forests can save us if we let them By PeterWohlleben, Collingwood: Black Inc.2023. pp. 271. Vic. 9781760643621 (paperback), 9781743822869 (hardback)

This work is the sequel to Peter Wohlleben’s internationally best-selling book, The hidden life of trees (2015), which did so much to make its readers think of trees differently, using scientific discoveries to argue that each forest is a social network. In The power of trees, Wohlleben treads a similar path and provides a stronger critique of modern forestry and the pursuit of profit from commercial forestry to the exclusion of other considerations. This provocative book uses both Wohlleben’s own observations as a professional forester in the Eifel region of North Rhine-Westphalia and recent scientific analysis to advance arguments about the functioning of the communities of forest plants. He places special emphasis on how trees can adapt to climate change and berates contemporary forest managers for overlooking the growing amounts and variety of knowledge about how forests can adapt to changing conditions and regenerate. Many examples used throughout the book are drawn from his native Germany, but there are definite lessons to be learned in Australia, from whence I write and where the state of the national forests is parlous. The book is arranged into 26 chapters with a short introduction by the author and an afterword by Pierre Ibisch, professor of nature conservation at the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. There are three broad sections: The first is on “The wisdom of trees,” followed by “When forestry fails,” and the third on “Forests of the future.” In general terms, the first part enables Wohlleben to reiterate and elaborate on arguments first made in The hidden life of trees, but introducing more of his own observations of trees reacting to significant drought and heat events. The mid-section then tackles recently adopted forestry policies, partly in response to climate change. It exposes some of the contradictory arguments that seem to suggest nature is incapable of adapting to environmental changes. The shorter final part attempts to provide hope for the future, suggesting there are examples of forest management exemplifying Wohlleben’s thinking and rejecting what has become the standard response by many German policy-makers. Individual chapters are short, mostly 10 to 12 pages, which makes the book eminently readable and engaging. Despite Wohlleben’s proclivity for anthropomorphizing trees and forests, there is a strong scientific underpinning to the arguments presented, especially in section one, in which he presents a powerful case for trees behaving rather like extended social networks. They transmit signals to one another via underground root systems, so they can regulate water intake and, if needed, take drastic action to prevent changing environmental circumstances from causing lasting damage to the forest. He himself manages an ancient beech wood, making pertinent observations about how these trees respond to the various threats posed by human-induced climate change. He contrasts the trees’ own abilities to self-regulate in response to excessive heat and drought with the measures being widely adopted across German forests, which seem to consist of destructive felling rather than balanced conservation. Wohlleben’s views place him at odds with ideas emanating from commercial foresters and scholars in universities, about the abilities of human managers regarded as key to maintaining forests. There is a clear division between those who conceive of forests in terms of their capability of fulfilling multiple functions—of which commercial production of timber is just one of many possibilities—and those who approach forestry from a dominant productivist perspective. There are echoes here of differences of opinion involving farming, in which growing monocultures contrasts with farming in which diversification is pursued, including in terms of pro-environmental actions such as those supported in the European Union as part of its Green Deal. Indeed, he compares single-species plantings of fast-growing pines for timber with battery farming of chickens, with trees harvested (slaughtered) well before they reach maturity … just like the chickens! The book is replete with facts about forests and how they function, some of which give valuable insights into processes that most geographers would recognise, such as their cooling properties and impacts on precipitation. However, the wider significance of the book is its attempt to change how we think about trees. And here, particular kinds of academic readers may have a dilemma because the view being presented by the author is one that sits very firmly in the “deep green” camp of environmental management. Nature knows best, so leave it alone. For those working in forestry, this approach raises major problems about the future of commercial plantations. Wohlleben regards these as the antithesis of what he would like to see by way of the future for forestry. His future involves native species being allowed to re-establish themselves and act primarily to restore the planet’s “green lungs,” which he views as the best possible response to climate change. In this vision, there seems to be little room for commercial forestry as it is currently practiced. It is this position that seems to have most raised the ire of many German foresters. It is also in contrast to views among leading forestry scientists about human interventions to manage forests as the only way to render forests capable of withstanding climate change; such views seem to be fixed at the other end of the green spectrum. The impasse has an agricultural equivalent—between those who view cessation of human consumption of meat as a vital means to contribute to increasing greenhouse gas emissions and those who argue that livestock farming is vital to the economy and to society. There is no doubt that this powerful book should give all readers cause for thought and no doubt it will be another international bestseller. The intended readership is primarily a lay audience that will be influenced to help Wohlleben and his supporters challenge current conventional wisdom regarding forest management and commercial forestry. They are likely to come from within Germany but his arguments will resonate elsewhere, not least in Australia where we have lost over one fifth of our tree cover since 2000. Indeed, there should be much sympathy for his contention that we need to regard forests as our allies in tackling climate change. Doing so is well beyond the myopic view pursued by successive Australian federal and state governments that neither native forests nor high-quality agricultural lands need protection from developers or those pursuing plantation monocultures. Indeed, Australia has become a global hotspot for deforestation, in large part due to the huge forest clearances in Queensland: over 320,000 hectares in 2021–2022 alone. I can recommend this book to those who are happy to be exposed to different ways of looking at forests and who might wish to consider a blueprint for addressing climate change via enlisting the aid of native forests. It is written in a highly accessible fashion, with footnotes to contemporary scientific publications for those wishing to delve deeper. German forestry practice is relentlessly attacked in the book, but an alternative vision is presented clearly and with obvious passion, and both the attack and the vision can, I feel, be applied in some measure in an Australian context. Yet, we must not be blind to limitations in the vision presented. The “leave it to nature” approach advocated seems to preclude human input and there is little room given to commercial forestry to co-exist with restored native forests. Humankind will always need forest products, but we should consider how we can utilise some of Wohlleben’s thinking whilst still meeting that need. In Australia and comparable jurisdictions, I think that means much more care for existing native forests, providing more opportunity for forest recovery, and protection over a much wider area, whilst looking to manage commercial plantations sensibly. The outcome should be a reversal of the loss of native forests, with much stronger regulation on logging in these forests (Victoria and Western Australia have shown the way). The huge benefits for carbon storage by maintaining stands of mature native trees are emphasised by Wohlleben, and we should take note whilst enjoying his passionate advocacy for the power of trees.