The Hidden Life of Trees: The International Bestseller

If the carefully calibrated balance of energy for growth and defense gets thrown out of alignment, then a tree might get sick. This can happen, for example, when a neighboring tree dies. Suddenly, the crown gets more light, and now what the tree wants more than anything is more photosynthesis. That makes sense because a chance like this comes along

together, many trees create an ecosystem that moderates extremes of heat and cold, stores a great deal of water, and generates a great deal of humidity. And in this protected environment, trees can live to be very old. To get to this point, the community must remain intact no matter what. If every tree were looking out only for itself, then quite a

A break in its bark, then, is at least as uncomfortable for a tree as a wound in our skin is for us. And, therefore, the tree relies on mechanisms similar to the ones we use to stop this from happening.

And with that, we have arrived at the heart of tree school. Unfortunately, this is a place where a certain amount of physical punishment is still the order of the day, for Nature is a strict teacher. If a tree does not pay attention and do what it’s told, it will suffer. Splits in its wood, in its bark, in its extremely sensitive cambium (the life-