The Heartbeat of Trees

Embracing Our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature

Peter Wohlleben, Jane Billinghurst

• Publisher: Greystone Books
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781771646895
• eBook ISBN:
  9781771646901
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Botany
• Index: Biological Sciences

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, THE HIDDEN LIFE OF TREES

A powerful return to the forest, where trees have heartbeats and roots are like brains that extend underground. Where the color green calms us, and the forest sharpens our senses.

In The Heartbeat of Trees, renowned forester Peter Wohlleben draws on new scientific discoveries to show how humans are deeply connected to the natural world.In an era of cell phone addiction, climate change, and urban life, many of us fear we've lost our connection to nature—but Peter Wohlleben is convinced that age-old ties linking humans to the forest remain alive and intact.

Drawing on science and cutting-edge research, The Heartbeat of Trees reveals the profound interactions humans can have with nature, exploring:

• the language of the forest
• the consciousness of plants
• and the eroding boundary between flora and fauna.

A perfect book to take with you into the woods, The Heartbeat of Trees shares how to see, feel, smell, hear, and even taste the forest.

Peter Wohlleben, renowned for his ability to write about trees in an engaging and moving way, reveals a wondrous cosmos where humans are a part of nature, and where conservation and environmental activism is not just about saving trees—it's about saving ourselves, too.

Praise for The Heartbeat of Trees

"As human beings, we're desperate to feel that we're not alone in the universe. And yet we are surrounded by an ongoing conversation that we can sense if, as Peter Wohlleben so movingly prescribes, we listen to the heartbeat of all life." —Richard Louv, author of Our Wild Calling a nd Last Child in the Woods

"Astonishment after astonishment—that is the great gift of The Heartbeat of Trees. It is both a celebration of the wonders of trees, and a howl of outrage at how recklessly we profane them." —Kathleen Dean Moore, author of Earth's Wild Music

"As Peter Wohlleben reminds us in The Heartbeat of Trees, trees are the vocabulary of nature as forests are the brainbank of a living planet. This was the codex of the ancient world, and it must be the fine focus of our future." —Dr. Diana Beresford-Kroeger, author of To Speak for the Trees and The Global Forest

"Peter Wohlleben knows the battle that lies before us: forging a closer relationship with nature before we destroy it. In The Heartbeat of Trees he takes us deep into the global forest to show us how." —Jim Robbins, author of The Man Who Planted Trees

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. Why Is the Forest Green?
• 2. Giving Your Hearing a Workout in Nature
• 3. Your Gut’s Amazing Sense of Smell
• 4. Nature Doesn’t Always Taste Good
• 5. Touch Helps Us Think
• 6. Training Your Sixth Sense
• 7. Fear in the Forest
• 8. We Are Better Than We Think
• 9. In Close Contact With Trees
• 10. In the Beginning Was Fire
• 11. Electric Trees
• 12. The Heartbeat of Trees
• 13. When Earthworms Travel
• 14. The Sacred Tree
• 15. The Disappearing Boundary Between Animals and Plants
• 16. The Language of the Forest
• 17. Diving Deep Into the Forest
• 18. First Aid From Nature’s Medicine Cabinet
• 19. When a Tree Needs a Doctor
• 20. Everything Under Control?
• 21. Our Longing for an Intact World
• 22. Learning From Children
• 23. The Paradox of City and Country Living
• 24. Trees, Too, Are Followers of Fashion
• 25. The Long, Hard Road Back
• 26. Confronting Climate Change
• 27. Good Things Take Time
• 28. In Search of Both the Future and the Past
• 29. Problems Highlighted by Białowieża
• 30. Hambi Is Here to Stay
• 31. Strengthening Our Bond With Nature
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index
• Copyright Page