Hidden away in foggy, uncharted rain forest valleys in Northern California are the largest and tallest organisms the world has ever sustained–...
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reviews
Oct 24, 2011
Joseph
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The idea that there is an entire unexplored world lurking in the canopy of what's left of our nation's redwood forests is intriguing. It seems unfathomable that in our modern life, with all our GPS systems and Google maps, there are still areas of planet Earth just waiting to be explored.
The Wild Trees is at its best when describing this hidden world. Sadly, that's not what the book is about. This is really a story about the people involved in the exploration of that world, with a More...
The Wild Trees is at its best when describing this hidden world. Sadly, that's not what the book is about. This is really a story about the people involved in the exploration of that world, with a More...
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Feb 09, 2008
M.
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The book was good enough to get me to explore deeper into the dense Jedediah Smith Redwoods and find the Titans myself. Read the book early January, and found the Grove of Titans and Lost Monarch on January 15, 2008.
See > M.D. Vaden's hunt for The Wild Trees Redwoods
Unlike the book, I supplied one color photo of a titan. That's one desire for that book, which was lacking. If even but one nice color photograph.
There was more in the book than I expected abou More...
See > M.D. Vaden's hunt for The Wild Trees Redwoods
Unlike the book, I supplied one color photo of a titan. That's one desire for that book, which was lacking. If even but one nice color photograph.
There was more in the book than I expected abou More...
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Jul 29, 2010
Julia
rated it: 
The sections about the redwoods in this book were 5 star for me--but then, trees have always fascinated me, and Preston brings his intense focus on detail to these giants.
However, the sections on the PEOPLE in this book moved it down to a 2 star for me, since FAR too much time was spent on the soap opera details of their lives rather than on the trees themselves. And their lives seemed self-centered and crass.
Stephen Sillett is the first holder of the endowed Chair in Re More...
However, the sections on the PEOPLE in this book moved it down to a 2 star for me, since FAR too much time was spent on the soap opera details of their lives rather than on the trees themselves. And their lives seemed self-centered and crass.
Stephen Sillett is the first holder of the endowed Chair in Re More...
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Dec 16, 2009
Donovan
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This isn't a book for everyone, but I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a fast paced(although somewhat tedious at times) book. It is a window into the lives of those whose passion is climbing trees, and not just any trees - the tallest trees in the world, the coastal Redwoods of northern CA.
The cover caught my eye and then as I read the jacket, I knew I had to read it, as the setting is near where I grew up. The book is the story - over about a twenty More...
The cover caught my eye and then as I read the jacket, I knew I had to read it, as the setting is near where I grew up. The book is the story - over about a twenty More...
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Jan 16, 2008
Susan
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Think the trees you see on the tours of Redwood National Forest are the granddaddies of them all? Guess again.
A really interesting look at the group of tree-groupies (arborists, naturalists, botanists, and so on) who dedicate themselves to identifying, documenting and preserving the Giant Redwoods and other behemoth trees. The story gets a bit hokey when Preston starts recounting the personal lives and relationships of and between his characters. It seems like quite a detour, is u More...
A really interesting look at the group of tree-groupies (arborists, naturalists, botanists, and so on) who dedicate themselves to identifying, documenting and preserving the Giant Redwoods and other behemoth trees. The story gets a bit hokey when Preston starts recounting the personal lives and relationships of and between his characters. It seems like quite a detour, is u More...
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Jan 27, 2009
Patrick
rated it:
Any book beginning with a twenty-something taking a leak along the side of the road has my attention. I’m big on the personal freedom to express oneself in the art of peeing outside—for indeed it is a talent many are afraid to exhibit, which has nothing to do with this book, except for the scene in the opening paragraphs.
Richard Preston is a serious fellow. His books tackle big somber issues. This one branches away from killer plagues and toxic-terrorism for a much more esoteric look More...
Richard Preston is a serious fellow. His books tackle big somber issues. This one branches away from killer plagues and toxic-terrorism for a much more esoteric look More...
Jan 21, 2012
Gabrielle
rated it:
Great book about the noble Redwoods and a few interesting people who study them, and end up becoming quite emotionally attached to the trees.
There's some science, too! I loved learning about all the incredible biology. On the tops of these trees, the climbers discover "gardens of ferns, fruiting huckleberries, flowering rhododendrons, fully grown bay laurels. Miniature salamanders live in water captured by the giant ferns, as do tiny crustaceans. Preston describes a 60-foot wide platfo More...
There's some science, too! I loved learning about all the incredible biology. On the tops of these trees, the climbers discover "gardens of ferns, fruiting huckleberries, flowering rhododendrons, fully grown bay laurels. Miniature salamanders live in water captured by the giant ferns, as do tiny crustaceans. Preston describes a 60-foot wide platfo More...
Aug 07, 2011
Deb
rated it:
I usually love any story about trees and thought a book regarding redwoods and climbing them would be fascinating. The author's description of the redwood groves was outstanding and often throughout the reading of this book, I found myself going back in my memory to the one and only time out to a retreat center in California that I journeyed to, which just happened to be near a small grove of Redwoods. The author did a fabulous job of putting the details of these groves down on paper. Preston
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May 20, 2011
Rebecca
rated it:
I knew oceans are under explored and little understood. Living in the west, I know the secrets of western deserts, mountains, caves and canyons still belong to the intrepid explorer. I didn’t know the tops of the world’s tallest trees, that are within miles of California towns, have a biological diversity that rivals the Amazon, and are also little touched and unexplored. The country that has flown to the moon and developed robots and computers, has only recently developed methods of climbing 35
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May 23, 2010
Patty
rated it:
Richard Preston is a science writer with a gift for turning complex biology into riveting page-turners. In The Wild Trees, he describes old-growth forests, mostly redwoods, that have managed to evade the timber industry's blades and still live along the coast of northern California. Preston assures us that, amazingly, until the past two decades the ecosystem formed by the intertwining limbs of these ancient, gargantuan living things had never really been studied. Preston introduces us to several
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Jan 20, 2010
Laura
rated it:
I had never imagined that there are people whose lifelong passion is to study and climb redwood trees.... specifically Titan redwoods which are the world's longest (and some of the oldest) trees measuring in at a minimum height of 360 feet. I fell in love with redwoods and tree climbing through this book, and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about something that I knew nothing about and that I found fascinating. That said, the material is fantastic, and had it been in the hands of a skillful writ
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May 13, 2009
I love trees. Having grown up in the country in Louisiana it comes naturally, but I find that New Yorkers, for the most part, have this same affinity. (Horror rocks the city when longhorn beetles are discovered.) Therefore no surprise that I was drawn to The Wild Trees which takes as its subject the last remaining stands of giant redwood trees, scattered along the California coast, and those few passionate climbers and naturalists that have discovered the very tallest and live to protect them. I
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Oct 13, 2011
Sam
rated it:
I have always had a sense of wonder when I hear about trees that can live as long as a few thousand years. I guess the idea that a human life can come and go like a flash in the life of a redwood tree is pretty amazing. In The Wild Trees, I felt like the characters shared that awe.
I found many of the individuals almost "aspy" in their nerdiness about trees. At times I even found them obnoxious. But by the end you start to understand just why they have all dedicated their More...
I found many of the individuals almost "aspy" in their nerdiness about trees. At times I even found them obnoxious. But by the end you start to understand just why they have all dedicated their More...
Mar 09, 2010
Donna Jo
rated it:
One year my daughter spent most of her summer vacation climbing in and hanging out in one of the ash trees on our lot. I thought of her as I read this book. Only the people in this book climb up and hang out, do research in and get married on the Giant Redwoods in the temperate rain forest of northern California.
Reading the second chapter, I had to close the book and take several deep breaths. Just reading about people swinging around at 150 feet in the air (in this case, without any cl More...
Reading the second chapter, I had to close the book and take several deep breaths. Just reading about people swinging around at 150 feet in the air (in this case, without any cl More...
Jan 30, 2008
Flori
rated it:
This was the most fascinating read I've had in a long time. I loved learning about the old-growth forests of the northwest (which I previously knew nothing about). I loved learning about the science behind forest ecology (which I knew nothing about). I felt inspired by the people who developed ways to climb these giant trees and figured out that there's a whole world up there to explore. In short, I felt like I really learned a lot and enjoyed it too!
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Mar 04, 2011
Frankye
rated it:
This books is truly jaw dropping. It is about the ancient and tallest redwoods on earth and how it wasn't until the late 1980s and early 1990s that (thanks to some college kids who loved to climb) that botanists came to realize the enormous bio-diversity alive in the uppermost branches and multiple trunks of the centuries old redwoods. Huckleberries - salmon berries - rhododendrons - salamanders and countless lichens and ferns and tons of soil and water. And earthworms and still no idea how th
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Oct 16, 2010
Todd
rated it:
“The Wild Trees” is ostensibly about redwood trees, but Preston focuses largely on the life stories of a few individuals who have become fascinated with them. This is the first book I’ve read by Richard Preston, but evidently he’s mainly a fiction writer. This shows itself in his use of a narrative, in which he creates a story line based on the lives of Stephen Sillett and Michael Taylor and their efforts to find the tallest tree and to study the redwoods, respectively. The upside of this approa
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Apr 23, 2009
Steven
rated it:
This book is for anyone who ever enjoyed climbing trees, exploring unknown, uncharted and nearly impassable forests, extreme sports, scientific research--or all of the above. Great story of men using modern climbing gear to ascend over 300 feet into the heights of the world's tallest trees. High in the canopy they discover a new ecosystem, complete with plants and animals unknown on the ground. The climbers sometimes spend nights tied into the tree-tops, nurturing the occasional budding roman
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Feb 05, 2009
Richard Preston, whose previous nonfiction thrillers include The Hot Zone (about the Ebola virus) and The Demon in the Freezer (about smallpox; ***1/2 Jan/Feb 2003), takes a botanical detour in The Wild Trees. Most critics praised this noteworthy, if somewhat less sensational, effort. Yet while some relished the offbeat characters, the action-packed sequences, and Preston's personal climbing experiences, others found fault with Preston's detailed descriptions of his subjects' personal lives, his
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Mar 21, 2011
Michael
rated it:
Richard Preston really does a good job capturing the characters' passion for wanting to contribute to something great. These guys obviously dedicated a lot of time and effort to the cause of discovering more about the redwood groves in northern California. It was fascinating to share their adventures, heartaches, and vision of redwood groves.
One thing that stood out to me was the fact that redwoods used to be found all over the world under a much different climate. There was evidenc More...
One thing that stood out to me was the fact that redwoods used to be found all over the world under a much different climate. There was evidenc More...
Sep 20, 2011
Scott
rated it:
The title doesn't lie, this is a book about passion and daring. Passion for trees and daring to take the risks involved in climbing them for study. And maybe it was the right kind of book for me because by the end I found myself wanting to climb a big tree and see what was up there.
Unfortunately the book is limited in scope. There is very little information outside of the stories about a bunch of people who like to climb trees and how they came together from different backgrounds More...
Unfortunately the book is limited in scope. There is very little information outside of the stories about a bunch of people who like to climb trees and how they came together from different backgrounds More...
Jul 12, 2011
Miles
rated it:
I found the author's writing a little difficult to get through at times, but well worth it once I spent the time. The parts I liked best were those about the trees themselves. I had not realized how fully developed the ecosystems high up in redwood (and other) canopies become. Preston's descriptions really bring it home. Soil collects in the high altitudes of a treetop (say, 200 feet up) and other plants will grow in it. Not to mention the many species of lichens that turn out to be a possi
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Feb 27, 2010
Gail
rated it:
A community of renegade tree climbers and botanists, college drop outs, PhD students and faculty, who dedicate their life to finding, documenting and studying the world's tallest redwoods. These climbers are daring, often climbing trees over 300 feet tall, once in the tree canopy they will eat, spend the night sleeping in a hammock, study lichen and insects, have untethered sex at 400 feet, and sometimes falling out of the trees. Preston sometimes seems unsure if his "story" is t
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Jan 24, 2010
Paul
rated it: 
Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I came away from it feeling that Preston was a pretty poor writer. It was almost excruciating at times, the somewhat disjointed interjections that appeared throughout the narrative. Other times, the characters and settings were very engrossing, so I suppose his problem was a lack of consistency in his story-telling. The stories of the primary actors were fascinating, and it was a great insight into a natural wonder that you one rarely hears about in great detail
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Sep 03, 2010
David
rated it:
I'll admit, I had my reservations when deciding on this -- a book about trees. Much to my delighted surprise, my fears were laid to rest as the vivid, delicate writing of Richard Preston weaved a compelling story, for why trees should be much heralded.
The book follows a series of amateur and professional arborists/botanists on their journey of discovering the world's largest trees. Along the way, many of the stories become intertwined as the protagonists meet one another and cross pa More...
The book follows a series of amateur and professional arborists/botanists on their journey of discovering the world's largest trees. Along the way, many of the stories become intertwined as the protagonists meet one another and cross pa More...
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Jan 07, 2009
Liz
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This book was like a textbook with a story. In the beginning of the book, the author introduced many characters which played minor and major parts throughout the book. Had some pictures been associated with it, the plot would have been easier to follow. A timeline as well as this book spans three decades. Some of the main "characters" were possibly not even born when the book begins it trip through the treetops.
I have a moderate interest in botany and ecology as I am an More...
I have a moderate interest in botany and ecology as I am an More...
Jul 27, 2009
Witzfree
rated it:
you may already have found this book, but it was something i stumbled across in a used book store -- really fascinating. It's all about researching the forest canopy -- much of it in northern california redwood forests. they had to climb the trees to study them and found complete gardens 100 feet up or more, growing from the tops of broken trees or even from the ledge of a horizontal branch. really neat stuf.
one of the key researchers is Steve Sillett, now a professor at humbolt st More...
one of the key researchers is Steve Sillett, now a professor at humbolt st More...
Jan 28, 2012
James (JD)
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I listened to this book in advance of a road trip up the California/Oregon Coast, and I'm really glad that I did.
The tops of redwood trees have been unexplored until the last twenty years, when an intrepid group of climbers and explorers sought to find the tallest trees, climb them, and record them for us.
The book centers upon the explorers and climbers, but it shares plenty of fascinating insights about redwoods along the way. Some of my favorite parts were reading abou More...
The tops of redwood trees have been unexplored until the last twenty years, when an intrepid group of climbers and explorers sought to find the tallest trees, climb them, and record them for us.
The book centers upon the explorers and climbers, but it shares plenty of fascinating insights about redwoods along the way. Some of my favorite parts were reading abou More...
May 14, 2009
Sharon
rated it:
This book made me realize that I am terrified of heights, as I couldn't stop worrying about the characters tumbling to their deaths (and the book does include several descriptions of nasty falls). Every time someone unclipped a safety harness, even just for a few seconds, I was on the edge of my seat.
However, the book also made me want to put this fear aside to explore the enchanted world that is the canopy of old-growth forests. By far more fascinating than the tales of troubled re More...
However, the book also made me want to put this fear aside to explore the enchanted world that is the canopy of old-growth forests. By far more fascinating than the tales of troubled re More...
Nov 04, 2009
"This was even more engrossing than I thought it would be when I came across the title (I know not where). The description of what can be found in the canopy was fascinating, and the narrative, multi-biography style made it an easier read than a lot of non-fiction (which can tend toward the dry).[return][return]I have a new ambition to learn to climb large trees, and to spend the night in a tree. It sounds delightful (the described night during the storm notwithstanding). [return][return]I
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