9 thoughts on “The Forest is Your Friend

  1. Stopping to consider a tree that rose up straight then curved like a question mark, Mr. Wohlleben said, however, that it was the untrained perspective of visitors he took on forest tours years ago to which he owed much insight.

    “For a forester, this tree is ugly, because it is crooked, which means you can’t get very much money for the wood,” he said. “It really surprised me, walking through the forest, when people called a tree like this one beautiful. They said, ‘My life hasn’t always run in a straight line, either.’ And I began to see things with new eyes.”

    1. [ it might actually be that the trees release a chemical that inhibits growth in their direction, and kill other plants trying to grow underneath the canopy ]

  2. Back in the Cold War I was doing work for the US Army in Germany, where we had 240,000 soldiers stationed (which seems incredible now). Anyway, they had to train on German land, and our guys would tell me, "You know, the Germans are really weird about trees. Everywhere we go in the training area, a German forestmeister follows behind, telling the American rep 'You owe us DM 400 for that bush, DM 800 for this tree.'"

    Seemed perfectly reasonable to me, but I'm weird too.

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