The Secret Wisdom of Nature: Trees, Animals, and the Extraordinary Balance of All Living Things; Stories from Science and Observation (The Mysteries of Nature Trilogy, Book 3)

A great read. This talks a lot about how one species going away or overpopulating can have a lot of ripple effects elsewhere. It also has a lot of cool factoids and trivia about nature and its species.

The Secret Wisdom of Nature is the third in author Wohlleben's trilogy. The first dealt with trees and the second with animals. Both were marvelous in the way science and Wohlleben's anecdotes were interwoven into enjoyable and easy to read text. That's nothing to say of his great knowledge, much learned by first hand observation, of our physical world. Secret Wisdom is written in the same manner with the same surprising facts, e.g. killing wolves in Yellowstone caused erosion along riverbanks. Huh!? Yes it's true. On page 167 the author writes, "Does that sound complicated? I think so too."The real emphasis on the third book is the effect people have had on the environment and surprisingly it seems that even actions meant to help often have deleterious effects. Germans have made an effort to feed roe deer helping them make it through hard winters. Now there are more deer than ever and of course the effect on woodlands is not the best as the browsers are doing what they do best.There's a dark side to human activity as well. It seems our success as a species is based in part on our ability and willingness to kill anything that flies, swims, crawls, or walks. But putting that aside our complete domination of the planet, even when well intentioned, can have unintended consequences. Let me add a personal note. This winter was very cold with record setting snow. We decided to feed wild turkeys to get them though the winter. The 105 turkeys are doing fine but they have scared off the crows, blue jays, and woodpeckers. By helping one specie we have probably hurt others. This is much of what Wohlleben writes.Same size book as first two with same paper and same size print. Maybe not as good as first two books (they were really ,really good) but I'm still glad I bought it. Recommended.

Often, I had to ask myself "What is he trying to say?" Even so , this book grabbed my attention. If you like nature, if you are used to many hours just observing the world, you will enjoy this book. If you don't, you still may enjoy it because of all the wonderful details in here.

My doctoral work is in Ataachment and Logic: the necessary and sufficient conditions for the mind. In human beings, left and right hemispheres specialize in one or the other. But the rettina of the eye, which many species have, regardless of varieties of brain structure and function, is part of the brain that migrated to its location, the eye, a very long time ago. Stephen Suomi's work with monkey mothers and babies makes it immensely clear that retina to retina, brain to brain contact, is the most powerful experience in a baby's life. These books connect trees and virus, insect, fungi, wow! The whole 8yards. This is as it should be. We do not yet know how attachment is communicated without retinas although his books make clear we are going to find out in time if we have time.I mourn deeply for the damage we've done to our partners in creating life on earth. How greatly we have betrayed our mission here, we human beings whose minds are losing ground, losing connection. Electronic systems as should be clear from these books are pathetic and limited in comparison to the richness, diversity and beauty of life. We need to appreciate other minds far more and place electronic systems on leave. They have been weaponized, they have been developed for the purpose of creating addictions, loss of control, people!These books can give us a peek at the vast material we are losing through our greed and failure to look one another in the eye and express our minds. The ricjhness of the huuman mind and the monds of others is so much richer than what electronics allow. I grieve lost for the loss of mind human beings suffer today in the United States. Here electronics are most rapacious. I have not watched television, listened to a radio, read a newspaper, eaten fish, etc since I was 18 years old. My parents died yound and witless of alcoholism. I sensed the danger in electronic systems and I stayed clear. I learn from people, birds, other animals, and school, reading, books. I do not feel in the least impovershed!These books are suerb. They will give the mind that is oppen a glimpse of far more.

I can't begin to list all the things that I liked about this book. Suffice to say that I had NO idea as to what trees are capable of doing, and how enormously important they are to our planet, and the continued existence of humanity on this planet. READ THIS BOOK!!! You will be amazed at what you learn, and would never have thought possible for trees to do - I guarantee it!IMPORTANT NOTE: You will learn that All the things you've heard from the big timber/lumber companies (i.e. Weyerhauser etc.) about the harvesting of trees, and their "crop row" re-planting are WRONG/LIES, LIES and MORE LIES! They ONLY say the things they do in an attempt to appease their detractors, so that they can keep destroying our forests, and continue to fill their pockets.Those people care not one whit about the fact that what they are doing is hastening the onset of global climate change, and the annihilation of the human race - and just about everything else on this planet. They don't care because they are old, money-hungry, men without consciences who have only another ten or twenty years of life left, so don't care about how much their actions ravage the Earth, 'cause they will be gone before it affects them! They also show that they don't love their families, friends or fellow human beings who will have to deal with the misery they have caused/are causing that will follow in their wake.READ THIS BOOK!!!

I read this book slowly over time, returning to where I had left off. I have been trained in an applied science (agriculture) and enjoy reading about humankind and nature although my attitude is not as positive as that of the author. This is the first book of his that I have read and I look forward to his others.

Great book to learn about trees

A great book to understand how nature works.

Ho ricevuto il libro e l'ho messo da parte per leggerlo poi con calma. In realtà poi leggendolo ho scoperto che mancavano ben 49 pagine, un salto che va da pag. 40 a pag. 89. E il periodo per il reso era ormai scaduto. Una vera fregatura. Ma possibile che non si possa rimediare?

Worth every penny