The Power of Trees

Gretchen Daily

• Publisher: Trinity University Press
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781595341723
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Environmental Conservation & Protection
• Index: Biological Sciences

Intimate in size yet quietly breathtaking in scope, this graceful gift book will forever change how you think, and how you feel, about trees. In poetically sparse scientific observations, renowned conservation biologist Gretchen Daily narrates the evolution, impact, and natural wonder of trees. Alongside photographs by Chuck Katz, the text and images form a quiet and moving meditation on The Power of Trees. Twenty-six duotone black and white photographs illustrate the development of trees: how trunks were formed, what tree rings tell us about human societies, and how trees define the future of humanity. Pictures of trees threading through the landscape - dotting mountainsides, braiding along the sides of glassine rivers - bear witness to the lyrical force and clarity of Daily's observations.Recreating the authors’ hike together through the landscape of the Skagit River in Washington State, the balletic movement between Daily’s commentary and Katz’s vision reaches out to readers, inviting them to enjoy the landscape through a scientific understanding of trees. At once emotional and intellectual, The Power of Trees is the first collection of nature photographs that invites the reader to not only delight in the gorgeous play between light and shadow, but also the fascinating natural mechanisms that create such striking natural beauty.An ecologist by training, Gretchen Daily is an internationally acclaimed conservancy advocate and scholar. Her role as a National Trustee for The Nature Conservancy will feature prominently in the national marketing campaign to bridge the gap between scientific educators and the general nature reader.

Trees live on through sound . . .

Trees live on through sound as well. People have long debated whether and why the instruments produced by master violin makers of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries have superior tonal qualities compared to those of today. Antonio Stradivari, the most celebrated violin maker, produced instruments from trees grown in the middle of the Little Ice Age, a period of longer winters and cooler summers—and thus used wood with slower, more even growth. These climate conditions, combined with the exceptional growing conditions in the southern Italian Alps where the wood was taken from, have not recurred since Stradivari’s “golden period.”

As Earth’s forests change, so do her chemistry and climate. The Little Ice Age (ca. 1550–1850) may have been triggered in part by the regrowth of forest on abandoned farmland, following the arrival of Europeans in the Americas and the resulting decimation of native peoples. Since the Industrial Revolution, a substantial portion of the increase in the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere now warming the planet results from deforestation by human hands. Today many forests are again recovering and are absorbing 25 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from human activity.

Trees have shaped human beings in profound ways. Living in trees for 80 million years or so, our ancestors acquired exceptional hand-eye coordination and dexterity. When the climate dried and they came down into the savannah—on their way to becoming uniquely human, walking upright and with hands free—they were primed to do the most human of things: to invent.

Trees fueled human discovery, literally. In the early days, after our African ancestors first mastered fire, burning wood unlocked cold northern environments and rich food resources inaccessible before cooking. By supplying the wood for primitive stoves, trees may have powered the evolution of large, calorie-hungry hominid brains. Humanity’s unique social system is thought to have evolved around the earliest of those hearths. Wood propelled societies from the Stone Age into the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, when ores were smelted for the production of tools, weapons, and artifacts that marked increasingly complex cultures. Later the Age of Discovery was launched with fine-timbered ships that opened vast frontiers of knowledge and global exchange.

. . . trees define our lives

In modern times, people are just beginning to appreciate the many benefits of trees. Some insights seem small—like the recent finding that tropical rainforest can boost coffee yield by 20 percent and its quality by ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Trees seem so still . . .
• . . . the essence of life is renewal
• Some trees can talk to one another . . .
• . . . trees depend on intimate partnerships . . .
• . . . trees became trees several times over
• How far can trees push the limits?
• Heartwood is . . . as strong as steel
• . . . the tree keeps growing . . .
• Tree rings let us
• read into the past like the pages of a book . . .
• . . . trees’ life processes might possibly go on
• forever . . .
• Trees live on through sound . . .
• . . . trees define our lives
• Acknowledgments
• Copyright
• About the Author