{from}I just finished reading The Wild Trees by Richard Preston, and it was so much better than I expected. My aunt lent this book to me, and I willingly took it, since she's given me so many good book recommendations in the past. But when I read the sidebar, I felt a bit unenthusiastic. Essentially, this is a book about the handful of people in the world who climb redwood trees. If you look closely at the cover of the book above, you will see two people climbing up the tree. Before starting, I didn't understand how anyone could write three hundred pages about people who climb trees and not make it boring. But it was really quite captivating.
Climbing redwood trees is a skill, and a dangerous hobby. The people that Preston writes about use modified versions of rock climbing gear to ascend the 350-foot-tall redwoods in the Pacific Northwest. Did you ever climb trees when you were younger? My brothers and I would sometimes climb to the tops of the fir trees in our yard, which were 30-40 feet tall, and it was always very easy because the branches were so close together. Not so in a redwood tree. The lowest branch in a redwood may be at 150 feet, so these climbers have to shoot fishing line over the lowest solid branch with an arrow (which sometimes takes dozens of tries), and then use the fishing line to pull tactical rope (the kind used by the military) over the branch. Then they climb, using multiple ropes, hooks, and special clips. It can take hours to climb to the top of a redwood. These are not the trees of your childhood.
What I found truly fascinating was all of the different wildlife that can be found up in redwood trees. There are dozens - possibly hundreds - of different epiphytes. Epiphytes are plants that grow on other plants. Moss is the most commonly-known epiphyte. But in redwood trees, there are other trees that grow out of them. Imagine that: an ash tree growing out of a redwood a few hundred feet up in the air. Huckleberry bushes have been found on redwoods, as have ferns and lichen. And that's not all that lives in redwoods - salamanders have been found living hundreds of feet up, as have voles (relatives of the mole), and small sea creatures that live in pockets of water that redwoods collect.
In Preston's note at the beginning of the book he wrote, "So many incredible things happen in our world that are never noticed, so many stories never get told. My goal is to reveal people and realms that nobody had ever imagined." In that, I think he was very successful. The number of people who climb redwoods is minuscule, but they have discovered a wealth of treasures up in the air that no one else would have known about but for Preston's book.
Climbing redwood trees is a skill, and a dangerous hobby. The people that Preston writes about use modified versions of rock climbing gear to ascend the 350-foot-tall redwoods in the Pacific Northwest. Did you ever climb trees when you were younger? My brothers and I would sometimes climb to the tops of the fir trees in our yard, which were 30-40 feet tall, and it was always very easy because the branches were so close together. Not so in a redwood tree. The lowest branch in a redwood may be at 150 feet, so these climbers have to shoot fishing line over the lowest solid branch with an arrow (which sometimes takes dozens of tries), and then use the fishing line to pull tactical rope (the kind used by the military) over the branch. Then they climb, using multiple ropes, hooks, and special clips. It can take hours to climb to the top of a redwood. These are not the trees of your childhood.
What I found truly fascinating was all of the different wildlife that can be found up in redwood trees. There are dozens - possibly hundreds - of different epiphytes. Epiphytes are plants that grow on other plants. Moss is the most commonly-known epiphyte. But in redwood trees, there are other trees that grow out of them. Imagine that: an ash tree growing out of a redwood a few hundred feet up in the air. Huckleberry bushes have been found on redwoods, as have ferns and lichen. And that's not all that lives in redwoods - salamanders have been found living hundreds of feet up, as have voles (relatives of the mole), and small sea creatures that live in pockets of water that redwoods collect.
In Preston's note at the beginning of the book he wrote, "So many incredible things happen in our world that are never noticed, so many stories never get told. My goal is to reveal people and realms that nobody had ever imagined." In that, I think he was very successful. The number of people who climb redwoods is minuscule, but they have discovered a wealth of treasures up in the air that no one else would have known about but for Preston's book.
thanks for the recommendation! I've been looking for a new book to read and I have a long drive ahead of me this weekend (where I'll hopefully be in the passenger seat!)
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