The Trees in My Forest [Paperback]

Bernd Heinrich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 9, 1998

Winner of the
New England Book Award Best
Nonfiction Award
and the Franklin Fairbanks
Award of the Fairbanks Museum

In a book destined to become a classic, biologist and acclaimed nature writer Bernd Heinrich takes readers on an eye-opening journey through the hidden life of a forest.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Zoologist Heinrich (A Year in the Maine Woods, LJ 10/1/94) lives in a 300-acre Vermont forest, of which he intended to sell parcels when he bought it 20 years ago. Instead he found his old interest in forestry reawakened, and he renewed his lifelong love affair with trees. Lucky for readers that he did?this book is a gentle reminder of the grand adventure in nature, not just in exotic locales. Heinrich creates detailed portraits of his forest's life, from sex among the trees to ants herding aphids to a history of the majestic white pine, giving readers the full view of life in a healthy forest ecosystem. Heinrich has the ability to engage the reader instantly and to transform common settings into meaningful and educational experiences. Highly recommended for all natural history collections.?Randy Dykhuis, Michigan Lib. Consortium, Lansing
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

This lyrical testament to the stunning complexity of the natural world also documents one man's bid to make a difference on his own little patch of land. Heinrich (One Man's Owl, 1987, etc.) bought 300 acres of logged-over Maine woods in 1975 and set out to restore its ecological diversity. A professor of biology at the University of Vermont, he uses the farm as retreat, classroom, and research lab. Heinrich is a detective in the woods. He infers from the presence of pin cherries the location of old pastures and dates a 19th- century forest fire by examining growth rings and charcoal deposits. His scientific method is wide-ranging and inclusive, drawing on engineering, mathematics, zoology, biochemistry, forestry, and economics, encompassing both micro and macro views. For the former he scrutinizes saplings under a microscope and details the biochemical process by which trees manufacture wood. The big picture spurs musings on the vast interconnectedness of nature as he traces the mind-bogglingly complicated symbiotic relationships among plants, animals, and natural forces like wind and sunlight. Heinrich uses simple sketches to illustrate his explanations of the ingenious design, growth strategies, and reproductive methods employed by trees in their quest for survival. In his ultimate goal of creating a forest, a place of ``habitat complexity'' vastly different from the sterile monocultures planted by paper companies in the name of sustainable forestry, he succeeds admirably. It's a pleasant surprise, then, to learn that in the end Heinrich does well by doing good: Not only is he rewarded with a diverse plant and wildlife population, he also reaps a cash profit from responsible logging. Heinrich tells us more about trees than we'd ever dream of wondering, yet manages to transform the esoterica into a fascinating tribute to nature's superior design. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (September 9, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060929421
• ISBN-13: 978-0060929428
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,045 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #17 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Agricultural Sciences > Forestry
  • #33 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Natural History
  • #39 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Plants > Trees

More About the Author

Bernd Heinrich is a biologist and author of numerous books on the natural world. He lives in Richmond, VT, and in a cabin in the forests of western Maine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Trees are people too!, October 11, 2004

By 

Arthur Digbee (Indianapolis, IN, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Trees in My Forest (Paperback)

If you love books about wild animals and wish that someone would write about trees, this book is for you. Heinrich takes you to his forest in Maine and explores the trees in it. Some have personalities, and they live as part of a community of trees, animals and sometimes people.

Heinrich writes well, as readers of his other books know. Again, his natural curiosity shines through, as does his storytelling and teaching abilities.

The book includes a wonderful set of drawings by Heinrich. Unfortunately, most of them aren't discussed in the text so it's hard to know what to make of them.

Much as I enjoyed the book, I wish that Heinrich had spent some time on tree identification. It would be much easier for me to observe the trees in my forest -- if I had a forest -- if I knew all their names.

Those criticisms aside, this was a thoroughly enjoyable book. I also came away with an understanding of how a true forest differs from the monoculture tree farms that are taking over parts of our country. While he walks us through his experiences trying to maintain a forest, he also provides lessons in sustainable forestry.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The real meaning of "ecology", February 1, 2008

By 

Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Trees in My Forest (Paperback)

Bernd Heinrich's abilities in acute perception are well portrayed in this book. He possesses extensive scientific training and research in natural conditions - having published on bees, ravens and geese. This account ties much of that research to a wider view of those animals' home territories. It's a study of the patches of woods surrounding his home. What trees are growing there, and why? Which animals and birds are attracted to the area, and what keeps them away? What's the value of a forest fire, and is "machine logging" more destructive to the forest environment than the more traditional felling and dragging? All these and more questions are addressed here with deep insight and related with Heinrich's fine expressive powers. It may not be too much to say that if you own but one book on trees and forest environments, this is the one to have.

Raised in rural Maine, Heinrich returned in 1977 and restored a 122-hectare bush near his early home. Heinrich describes himself as "partly arboreal", but adds to that a weighty talent for patience. As he has demonstrated in other books, he can sit for hours observing birds and insects. Trees require a different sort of patience; one that needs the additional dedication to record changes over lengthy time periods. He studies their growth and how they spread their offspring around the land. Which trees are shade-tolerant and which need extensive sunlight? Which ones encourage certain insects or birds, and how. Which ones attract them and how? He describes the way trees draw water from the ground - a molecule at a time at the leaf end, not "pumped" from below. Consider the evolutionary steps that led a species of pine to retain its seeds until very special conditions ensue. The cone housing them pops open and disperses them only when the temperature reaches 60 degrees - heat that can only be generated by a forest fire.

We all abhor the destructive force of a forest fire, but that's only because we fail to consider the forest from the tree's longer perspective. As trees die and fall, new patches of soil are exposed to the sun, bringing in species competing for resources. Fire is the only way to cleanse the forest floor and eliminate some trees shading others. As recovery species emerge, moose and other browser species again populate the forest. More birds and small mammals also arrive, extending the diversity but also acting as tree predators. Heinrich's account of how trees control predation is enlightening. One is tempted to ask whether a tree "thinks". As he makes clear, however, the control is part of the co-evolutionary process of a tree and its environment.

Logging is another intrusion on forests and Heinrich is scathing at how the industry handles the forest. Centred on the ubiquitous white pine, lumbering his area goes back to the early colonial period. At one time Bangor, Maine, was the greatest lumber shipping port in the world - in thirty years its population jumped from 277 to over fourteen thousand. "Clear-cutting" does more than just remove trees. It destroys the foundation of mycorrhizal fungi that are part of the tree's nutritional network. The replacement of felled trees by plantations of single types denies the development of the proper ecological balance a true forest requires to flourish. The next generation of trees is shorter and less robust than those first taken. On the other hand, Heinrich notes the differing impact on the forest when trees are felled and removed by horse, dragged out on a skid or both felled and removed by a huge mechanism. The giant "cutter-buncher" was the least environmentally damaging!

Heinrich's prose style, which, translated into classroom lectures surely keeps attendance high, gives the reader a sense of being right in company during his wanderings and watchings. Under his deft touch, the word "ecology" rises above the status of "environmentalist" buzzword. Without ever using the term, he demonstrates the importance of understanding the interacting of all the parts of a forest, from microbes to arboreal giants. The reader isn't overwhelmed by technicalities, but the science of his account permeates every page. Add to that expressive ability, the detailed drawings, images of trees and their components, capped by sweeping aerial photographs all provide the panorama a forest requires to tell its story completely. Heinrich provides the narrative, but it's the forest itself dictating the account. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'll never look at a tree the same way again, August 26, 2000

By 

Sean M. Gallagher (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Trees in My Forest (Paperback)

Heinrich is a wonderful writer; while his work may lack the scientific vigor of a true academic text, this is natural science on a personal level. He brings his personal passion for the natural world to his writing, and the result is a really engaging work that will appeal to any lay person interested in the natural world. When I was done with the book, I wanted to run off and buy a dozen acres or so of Maine forest myself.

This book is a good place to start with Heinrich's overall works--he takes a similar, personal approach to the natural sciences with his "Mind of the Raven" and "One Man's Owl."