After watching the Discovery Channel series, Planet Earth (probably the best television I have seen to date), I was inspired to read something concerning our natural world. Enter The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston.
Contents:
1: Vertical Eden
2: The Fall of Telperion
3: The Opening of the Labyrinth
4: Love in Zeus
5: Into the Deep Canopy
This is the story of some very special, passionate, dedicated, crazy scientists (and those in their circle). They are botanists, but of a very specific variety; these people study giant trees: redwoods, sequoias, and mountain ash. In the case of the redwood, they study trees over 350 feet tall (106.68 meters). Giants. Trees that were growing in California and Oregon before Christ.
The story centers on one specific scientist, Steve Sillett. Bouncing around, with no real plan, he finds himself in a redwood forest. Impulsively, he decides to free climb the giant tree. As he moves up the tree (with no ropes, safety gear, or spotter) he discovers an ecosystem that very few, if any, people have ever seen, let alone studied. It is a life altering moment. He heads to college with a purpose, he will be a botanist, studying these giants of the forest. Along the way, he meets Michael Taylor, a bagger at a small grocery. Michael feels the need to find the tallest tree. In fact, in his free time, Michael is bushwhacking through the redwood forests, cataloging his discoveries. Together, Michael and Steve make a formidable team. Add to this team other botanists and tree climbers and you have an amazing group of people dedicated to researching the canopy of the giant trees. And not just redwoods. Steve, and members of his group, travel to Australia to study the mountain ash, the giant of the southern hemisphere, but "small" compared to the redwood. To actually live the story, Richard Preston takes up tree climbing (trained professionally) and takes to the air with Sillett and Company. The book leads up to the discovery of the tallest tree on the planet, a 379.1 foot (115.5m) tall redwood named Hyperion (all of the trees, once discovered, are named by the person that made the discovery - in this case Michael Taylor, who realized a life long dream of finding the tallest tree).
Trees, you say? Boring, you say? I tell you that you have to read this book. It is probably the best book I have read this year. All of the people in this book have baggage. They are complex people, that understand the forest, the big trees. Even Michael Taylor, who shows Sillett the biggest of the big trees, has a fear of heights. He never goes up into one of his discoveries. Steve ruins a marriage because of his drive to study the redwoods. Maria Antoine, a botanist that studies lichens in the tall trees, has problems with her family. And there are more examples. And the trees? I am fascinated by redwoods. To think that these trees, living in inaccessible parts of California and Oregon (did you know that those areas are actually rainforests?) were living and growing around the time of the Roman Empire is amazing. That's right, these trees are thousands of years old. Time to them is nothing. To learn about a very unique ecosystem living in the canopies of these trees is incredible. Salamanders, lichens, other trees, never knowing that there is a forest floor. Hundreds of feet in the air. Unbelievable. I wasn't too happy with Preston going climbing in the trees, nor with Sillett taking him up when a weather front was coming. That didn't strike me as "safe." But on the other hand, a first person account of an actual climb proved that what these scientists accomplish is nothing short of unimaginable. Finally, the illustrations in this book are works of art. Preston did a great thing by having Andrew Joslin create them. I don't know how Joslin did them, but you are treated to wonderful illustrations; they add immensely to the story.
One year, when COMMON was in San Francisco, my wife and I visited the Muir Woods National Monument. While those trees are big, they are small as compared to the ones described in the book. I remember seeing the trees, but I don't think that I appreciated them. After reading this book, I want to see those trees again. And I hope that Tom and Bruce appreciate what they have, in their backyards. I am jealous that they are so close to these unique trees (much closer than I).
An excellent book on the tallest living things on the face of the planet.
Technorati tag: Richard Preston book review Wild Trees
Comment posted by Hardwood Swinger07/29/2007 11:51:11 PM
Won't deny that this little man has achieved moderate goals involving large trees. What Richard Preston doesn't tell you is that Steve Sillett has some very unconventional beliefs regarding sex, religion, the Holocaust, and the American family. I'm not saying he's freaky or dangerous, but I have known Dr. Sillett for several years and he is well off the beaten path as they say. All this media attention seems to have gone to his head. His new wife seems tolerant of his eccentricities & seems to be a stabilizing influence. I wouldn't mind a girl who'd do it 300 feet above her classmates either! Maybe in time his personality will become less grating, condescending, and obnoxious. Enjoy the book but take it with a grain of salt, he knows his trees but he's no man's hero.
Comment posted by Gregg Eldred07/30/2007 11:01:45 AM
Homepage: http://www.ns-tech.com/blog/geldred.nsf
@1 - Since you, too, have read the book, you know that there is very little about Steve Sillett the man. It centers on his quest for the big tree. Perhaps there is a reason for that - if Preston included his beliefs, you would not be very sympathetic to his cause. I don't know the man, only from what I have read in this book.
Thanks for the comments.
Comment posted by M. D. Vaden of Oregon01/30/2008 01:46:43 PM
Homepage: http://www.mdvaden.com
Actually, since I've been in the green trade / educational field for near 30 years, and now as an arborist, I'd disagree with the comments about Dr. Sillett as a "little" man. Not to say that he's great, either - but when someone in our niche perseveres with enough commitment to attain a Ph.d., that's an achievement head-and-shoulders above many. So I'd say let's refer to him as "a man".
I found the information about the trees, forests and climbing safety issues to be among the most interesting in the book.
After many hikes and exploring deep within Jedediah Smith Redwoods, I've also had a chance to see the Grove of Titans. If my name or site hyperlinks right, you may find a page about those giant redwoods stored there as well.
Even though they are giants, I don't find them to be more special as individuals, than the entire forest as a whole. Most people, from the forest floor, would not notice much difference at all, other than the massive trunks. And you need to be fairly close to tell how big the trunks are.
Comment posted by Gregg Eldred02/01/2008 10:27:52 AM
Homepage: http://www.ns-tech.com/blog/geldred.nsf
@M.D. - I am still telling people about this book, I liked it so much.
Thanks for the comments. And the link; this is an impressive post:
http://www.mdvaden.com/grove_of_titans.shtml
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