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Tree: A Life Story (Hardcover)

~ David Suzuki (Author), Wayne Grady (Author), Robert Bateman (Illustrator) "A lightning bolt illuminates the sky, striking the highest point of the forested ridge..." (more)
Key Phrases: canopy mats, defoliating insects, seed cones, North America, Pacific Northwest, Coast Salish (more...)

4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Visitors to the Pacific Northwest often find themselves awed by the size of the trees, especially the grand and ubiquitous "Douglas-fir." In this slight, lovely book, environmentalist Suzuki (The Sacred Balance) and Grady (The Bone Museum) tell the tale of one Douglas-fir tree that lived for more than five centuries ("Around the time its seed was soaking in the sunshine... the Aztec Empire was building its capital city"). Woven into the narrative is a history of botany, the study of which developed during the tree’s life (a digression about the Big Bang and the formation of organic molecules feels unnecessary, though). Facts about the species awe: old Douglas-firs can have 12-inch thick fireproof bark, and it can take 36 hours for water to get from the roots to the canopy. "If left alone," write the authors, "our tree would grow forever." Bateman’s misty drawings offer portraits of the tree’s companions—woodpeckers, eagles, mice, ferns—whose lives are more fleeting. Suzuki and Grady lament the loss of old-growth forests and their biodiversity, showing how each tree is part of a massive, interconnected web of organisms including fungi, birds and insects. This book is both a touching look at a single tree and an articulate testimony to nature’s cyclic power. 13 b&w illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Trees are among the oldest living organisms on the planet; the oldest tree in North America, a bristlecone pine, may be 4,600 years old. Suzuki and Grady's engaging "biography" covers 700 years in the life of a Pacific Northwest Douglas fir. Each stage in the tree's life is placed not only within the context of history but also an ecological context. When the tree is 15 years old at the end of the Middle Ages, for example, the authors discuss Gutenberg and his printing press, as well as the Douglas fir's primitive form of pollination, by wind, which evolved before there were flying insects. The tree coexists with the pileated woodpecker, the painted suillus mushroom, the lungless salamander, and the bald eagle. After its seven centuries of life, the tree falls to the forest floor to serve as a "nurse log" to young hemlock trees. This happy melding of history, natural history, and biography is further enhanced by Robert Bateman's fine illustrations to create an instructive and graceful look at the interconnectedness of life. Rebecca Maksel
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Greystone Books (September 16, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1553650166
ISBN-13: 978-1553650164
Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #90,958 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories: (What's this?)
#15 in Books > Outdoors & Nature > Plants > Trees > Seed-Bearing Plants
#98 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Ecology

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More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's David T. Suzuki Page

Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
A lightning bolt illuminates the sky, striking the highest point of the forested ridge. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
canopy mats, defoliating insects, seed cones, female cones

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
North America, Pacific Northwest, Coast Salish, John Muir, British Columbia, The Origin of Species

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Concordance | Text Stats

Citations (learn more)

This book cites 29 books:

The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin on page 25, page 125, and page 131
On the Origin of Species (Penguin Classics) by Charles Darwin on page 25, page 125, and page 131
The Origin Of Species: 150th Anniversary Edition by Charles Darwin on page 25, page 125, and page 131
Landscape And Memory by Simon Schama on page 164, and Back Matter
The Hidden Forest: The Biography of an Ecosystem by Jon R. Luoma on page 56, and Back Matter

See all 29 books this book cites

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	74% buy the item featured on this page: Tree: A Life Story 4.6 out of 5 stars (11) $13.60
	10% buy The Tree: A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter 4.1 out of 5 stars (15)
	6% buy The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature 5.0 out of 5 stars (2) $12.21
	5% buy Wisdom of the Elders: Sacred Native Stories of Nature 4.3 out of 5 stars (3) $17.10

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews

5 star:		(9)
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3 star:		(2)
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4.6 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A View of Just One Tree, the Doug Fir, October 19, 2004

By	John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Who could possibly have thought that a book about a tree could be so fascinating? The authors say they could have used any tree, an oak in England, a Banyon in India, but they picked a local tree, the Douglas Fir. I was attracted to this because my hundred year old house is made of Douglas Fir. And on a recent visit to Mt. St. Helens I was exposed to the absolute devestation caused by the eruption - 25,000 acres flattened, literally millions of trees blown down.

At one of the visitor centers on the road up to Mt. St. Helens there is a museum operated by one of the big logging companies. To no surprise they are talking about how much better their forests are under their careful management practices. And at a first glance, this makes sense. The trees are bigger, straighter. But where is the ecological balance, the bio-diversity - it's gone.

Like anything else, there are two sides to a story. We want wood for the next house we build. And it has to come from somewhere. But after reading this book, you'll never think of a tree in the same light.

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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book that Salutes Life, February 5, 2005

By	Stephen Pletko "Uncle Stevie" (London, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

+++++

This easy-to-read book, by zoologist, geneticist, environmentalist, TV host, & author David Suzuki and author & translator Wayne Grady is advertised to be a biography of one tree, a Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziessi). This story connects us to other times in history and to all parts of the world. However, this story can be thought of as the story of all trees as well as all life throughout Earth.

This book explores the many mechanisms by which the tree is able to thrive for centuries while remaining rooted in one spot. It also looks at the tree's complex relationships with other organisms in its community, from such things as lichens, ferns, mosses, and fungi to other trees to such things as woodpeckers, squirrels, owls, cougars, bears, termites, ants, salamanders, and salmon. In addition, this book shows how a tree connects us to the atmosphere, the soil, and the world's oceans, as well as linking us all the way back to the universe's origins.

Examples of other topics covered include the history of botany, insect, bird, and mammal portraits, genetics, anatomy, nomenclature and taxonomy, climate, chemistry, biochemistry, and environmental issues. The amazing thing about this book is that these topics and others are combined in such a way as to make the main narrative extremely interesting and never dull. The authors say this more eloquently: "In this book, we have tried to restore a layperson's sense of wonder and questioning and added the kind of information acquired by scientists."

I was surprised to learn that "after [a] millennia of study, there is still much about a tree we do not know." This book definitely tells the reader what is known not only about a tree but about life as well.

Finally, there are over a dozen black and white illustrations in this book. They were created by internationally known wildlife artist Robert Bateman. These illustrations add another dimension to this book.

In conclusion, this is a book that has richly detailed text that's augmented by evocative original art. The final result "is a revelation, a salute to life itself."

(first published 2004; acknowledgements; introduction; 5 chapters; main narrative 180 pages; references; index)

+++++

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Informative Read!, February 25, 2005

By	Dan Goldman "Dan Goldman" (Toronto) - See all my reviews

It seems fitting that on the same day I received an e-mail
regarding Kimberly-Clark's indiscriminate use of old growth
forests to produce Kleenex tissues I finished reading "Tree:
A Life Story," a new book by acclaimed geneticist and
environmentalist Dr. David Suzuki, and nature writer Wayne
Grady. The book focuses on the life of a Douglas-fir, to
illustrate plant evolution, biology, and the interdependence
of organisms. Throughout the chronological account of the
tree's life, the authors interweave short biographies of
noted botanists and their historical roles in helping us to
further understand and appreciate life and death in the
forest. The book is also interspersed with drawings by
well-known nature artist, Robert Bateman.

The authors allude to the story of Genesis to depict the
first days of life: "In the beginning," early forms of
bacteria, and algae gradually made their move from the ocean
to land's rocky surface. These life forms evolved into
mosses and then into plants such as ferns. Competition for
sunlight caused these ferns to thicken their stems and grow
taller; these plants evolved into trees.

Our main character is born around 1400, into favorable
conditions created by a recent all-consuming fire. Through
the tree's 500 year lifespan, we gain further insight into
scientific concepts presented in earlier chapters. We learn
that various fungi, which grow on the tree's roots, are
capable of extracting a thousand times more water from the
soil than the root itself. The fungi supply the tree with
nutrients and water and, in turn, receive sugars produced
through photosynthesis (the process whereby light energy is
used to transform carbon into nutrients) in the tree's
canopy. This is just one example of many where the
interdependence of organisms is illustrated.

The authors expand on the theory that a tree is forever
"part dying and part being born," which was originally
stated by Theophrastus, otherwise known as the "father of
botany." A student of Plato and Aristotle's, and one of the
first field scientists to present extensive data on plants,
Theophrastuses theory is illustrated in the following ways:
our tree's core is made of dead wood; over the years, new
layers of wood will grow around the "heartwood" core. When
our Douglas-fir finally dies, it stands as a "snag" for
about 60 years and becomes home for a range of species, such
as flying squirrels and spotted owls. In the end, when the
trunk falls to the forest floor, it serves as a nursery for
seedlings; even in death, it possesses life-sustaining
qualities.

A true testament to the book's overall success is that the
lyrical way in which the science was conveyed whetted my
appetite to revisit "Tree," in order to fully absorb all of
its vital information. At times, however, the abundance of
technical terms slowed my reading pace considerably. A short
glossary would help the scientifically unfamiliar reader to
carry concepts and terms from chapter to chapter.

It's no accident that the authors chose a Douglas-fir -the
most important old growth species in the forest industry
today- as their main character. Though several lines
protesting the industry's indiscriminate harvesting of these
trees are present, they are never preachy. The book relies,
instead, on supported evidence of how life depends on life,
and that blind destruction of such forests will eventually
lead to our own demise. On a personal note, I'm grateful to
the authors for providing me with the scientific knowledge
and the emotional charge needed to write my letter to the
Kimberly Clark Corporation.

Dan Goldman, Reviewer For Bookpleasures

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Mesmerizing....
I wasn't sure what to expect when I spotted this book about trees at the local library. As curious as any future-environmentalist/botanist, I couldn't help but peruse the... Read more

Published 7 months ago by Vanessa Chavez

3.0 out of 5 stars Bait and switch
Do book ideas come with statutes of limitations? If so, I hope the one on "Tree" expires quickly. What a wonderful idea, to biography the life of a single tree - and how these... Read more

Published 16 months ago by racapowski

5.0 out of 5 stars You can't see the tree for the forest
It's a busy living, being a tree. With our puny life spans and lack of attention we tend to miss that fact. Read more

Published 22 months ago by Stephen A. Haines

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!
I read this book initially because I wanted a primer in how a forest works. This slim, beautifully-written book gave me what I was after, but also much more. Read more

Published on September 7, 2007 by Dylan Horrocks

5.0 out of 5 stars How organisms and species cooperate to survive
Like the other reviewers of this book, I found it a delightful, informative, but troubling experience. Read more

Published on April 19, 2007 by Damon D. Hickey

5.0 out of 5 stars where was suzuki when i was failing high school science?
i was a terrible science student in high school. i could never wrap my head around how microorganisms affected my world outside the classroom. Read more

Published on March 26, 2005 by culture vulture

3.0 out of 5 stars Tree: A critique
This book is a biography of a Douglas Fir on the west coast of British Columbia

It has a great deal of information about the coastal forest and in particular about the Douglas... Read more

Published on January 16, 2005 by William

5.0 out of 5 stars Issues of strip-logging, conservation, and natural history
David Suzuki and Wayne Grady join forces in Tree: A Life Story to chronicle the life of a giant Douglas fir tree in the Pacific Northwest, from its birth in the year Edward I... Read more

Published on November 10, 2004 by Midwest Book Review

› See all 11 customer reviews...

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