One of my favorite places in the world has always been California's most remote regions, far away from the crowds and traffic, the foggy Northwesternmost coast of Eureka and Arcata and Crescent City. Redwood country. It's a long ways from anywhere – five, six hours at least from San Francisco along some really winding roads. The chilly damp, grey-skied and very green forests aren't for everyone, but every time I've visited friends and vacationed there, I feel like I'm visiting somewhere I belong.
Part of that big appeal is the redwoods, utterly epic giants of trees that are so big they become your environment rather than just part of it. You can walk through a redwood forest and not even see the tops of most of the trees. It's a cool place, full of much mystery, and so Richard Preston's great book The Wild Trees is like a travelogue of another planet – the world that exists on top of the redwoods. A few years back Preston wrote a fascinating New Yorker article following those who explored the redwood canopy – 200, 300 feet above the ground, where unknown to science until only a few years ago, entire ecosystems had formed in the crowns of redwoods. There are epiphytes (plants growing on the redwoods), soil formed over decades, species of animals unknown to science, and much more. Preston later expanded that article into this deeply evocative book.
The Wild Trees is a must for anyone interested in how much we still don't know about the natural world. He digs into the stories of those spellbound by the redwoods, a handful of dreamers, botanists and adventurers who've been scaling the redwoods, searching for their secrets. Gradually folks like Humboldt University professor Stephen Sillett realize just how little anyone knows about the inaccesible peaks of tall trees, and that hidden in the foggy remote canyons of Northwestern Cailfornia are trees that are the tallest in the world.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Boston.com. Nice work!
2 - M. D. Vaden of Oregon
The book is both informational and enjoyable.
My only dissappointment was the lack of photos.
I have made images available of some of the most significan trees mentioned in the book, including the Lost Monarch and Iluvar...
As your wrote, the trees are big enough to become an environment. And I feel that Preston is very adept at introducing truth to it's absolute limits - virtually to the brink of crossing to fiction, but NOT.
There is a fine line between fact and fiction, and Preston does remain in the realm of fact. But his story telling does arouse emotions. And in a couple of sections, I think that the story is riding on the line between fact and fiction.
On only one aspect do I challenge Preston, and that's on page 82 of his book where he says that Taylor discovered Atlas Grove.
I've been through the whole grove, and found over 100 markings within the grove, including a name not lost to time, showing that SOME partial significance of the grove was recognized almost as far back as World War II. The name is within public record.
But don't let that pop your bubble of belief. At least 99% of the book is factual and accurate. And I think Preston did a good job of sorting and organizing facts.
My mother, who is near 90 years old, also enjoyed the book, and finished in 4 days. She is from the same city in Canada that Marie Antoinne (Sillett's second wife in the book) is from.
3 - fred lewis
the book has inspired me to visit america [south african]
4 - Margi Keys
I could hardly put the book down. How thrilling, how fabulous, and yes, how daring. Thanks you Richard Preston.