Meet Peter Wohllenben, the German forest ranger and scientist who wants us  to know what’s happening all around us, beneath our feet and over miles of unseen connections between trees.

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries From a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben is creating quite a stir around the world as readers explore and learn about the interactivity and relationships between trees. Wohllenben, a German forester, talks about the remarkable ways trees talk and care for each other using an electrically-alive fungal root network sometimes called the “Wood Wide Web.”

Chapters like: Forest Etiquette, Tree School and United We Stand, Divided We Fall, provide a whole new perspective on the interconnectedness of living things. With a flurry of news stories and great “word of mouth,” The Hidden Life of Trees is leaping up bestseller lists across Europe and the US. Generally, we, as people, have been more inclined to recognize kinship with animals than with plants. We can view behaviors and interpret reactions as similar to our feelings of love, playfulness and mourning. Wohllenben seeks to persuade us that trees, too, are social beings, in constant communications with one another, caring for their sick and raising their young. Tress speak through scents and through electrical signals and chemical compounds shared through their vast network of roots that twine, unseen, with fungal networks below ground.

Intrigued? Hear about some of the research demonstrating communication and active support of each other by trees at this link.