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Trees in Trouble: Wildfires, Infestations, and Climate Change
A troubling story of the devastating and compounding effects of climate change in the Western and Rocky Mountain states, told through in-depth reportage and conversations with ecologists, professional forest managers, park service scientists, burn boss, activists, and more. Climate change manifests in many ways across North America, but few as dramatic as the attacks on our western pine forests. In Trees in Trouble , Daniel Mathews tells the urgent story of this loss, accompanying burn crews and forest ecologists as they study the myriad risk factors and refine techniques for saving this important, limited resource. Mathews transports the reader from the exquisitely aromatic haze of ponderosa and Jeffrey pine groves to the fantastic gnarls and whorls of five-thousand-year-old bristlecone pines, from genetic test nurseries where white pine seedlings are deliberately infected with their mortal enemy to the hottest megafire sites and neighborhoods leveled by fire tornadoes or ember blizzards. Scrupulously researched, Trees in Trouble not only explores the devastating ripple effects of climate change, but also introduces us to the people devoting their lives to saving our forests. Mathews also offers a new approach to managing western pine forests is underway. Trees in Trouble explores how we might succeed in sustaining our forests through the challenging transition to a new environment.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published April 7, 2020
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December 21, 2021
Usually, if a book takes me 13 days to read, I bail on it at some point. But this was interesting enough, I wanted to keep reading. I just couldn't absorb the detail quickly, and a lot of it was pretty depressing, so I took a chapter a day.
The western Pine forests of the US and Canada are in trouble. Wildfires are bigger and hotter than they've ever been, and part of that is down to mismanagement of forests over 100 years. Putting out all fires ended up being a terrible idea. Climate change isn't helping them. Insects and diseases aren't helping. Invasive species are making things worse. Suburbia spreading isn't contributing so much directly, but indirectly, if you put out fires to save McMansions, rather than letting a healthy and small fire go in ideal circumstances, you're screwing things up again. Overgrazing of federal lands plays a small role in this trouble too.
Clear-cutting ends up not being the worst thing you can do, and tearing out ladder trees, fuel trees, and invasive trees probably is a good thing (though logging companies, if you allow them to do that, instead of taking the correct marked trees, steal the profitable trees that you're trying to save instead, because logging companies are just assholes that way, so logging remains a problem.)
Why should you give a shit about trees surviving if you live in Florida or Quebec City? Well, the sequestering-carbon value of trees, for one thing. No huge Western forests, then global warming happens even faster. If you're in Tucson, you're already tired of 122 degree days in June, and you ain't gonna like 132 degree days in June any better. If you're working at an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville Illinois and a tornado kills you in December 2021, you might not connect it to there being fewer trees, but you know, it probably is connected because tornadoes should be gone by Christmas, and they aren't anymore. Extreme weather will get everybody sooner or later, even if "getting got" is nothing more than some money spent and days shoveling mud out of of your basement.
And the hotter these wildfires get, the more terrible for human health are the particulates from the fires, which can spread 2000 miles on the jet stream. And you pay taxes to deal with all this, if you're North American, so you should probably care about wildfires for that reason. And because these super-hot fires kill not only trees but everything, fungal networks necessary to regeneration a full meter under the soil being scorched out. There are more and more dead zones from these extreme fires. And that means when it rains, a couple of bad things happen, like houses get buried under tons of mud (wouldn't that be a shitty way to die, having just avoiding dying in the wildfire?) And water gets polluted sometimes from this, and then you have to truck in drinking water for lots and lots of people.
So even if you've never lost your house or pets or family photos in a fire, and even if you think people who live in California and risk both earthquakes and wildfires must be a little nuts, and even if the story of the poor rancher in Idaho who had a fire go over his whole herd and had to go out and shoot 250 bellowing, burned meat cows to put them out of terrible pain doesn't make you feel for both the guy and the cows, it isn't just them who suffer. You suffer, and your children will suffer more, and their children will suffer more when these western pine forests continue to burn the way they've been burning.
I don't have much cheery news, sorry, but the book does introduce us to interesting scientists (and that they are so smart and hardworking and committed is a kind of good news), and this book's illustrations are wonderful. I've lived out west mostly, and I've spent months and months deep in the lodgepole (mostly) pine forests and the drawings took me right back to the trees, as did the things he described that I've seen: bark beetle damage, skeletal dead pines, fire scars, nuthatches walking upside down, dizzyingly for me, down a pine trunk, stopping for pine nuts (which they poop out and that helps replant forests). (See https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...) Could be if you don't have the hours of camping in these forests that I have, you might not find the book as good as I did, but I learned a lot from it.
The western Pine forests of the US and Canada are in trouble. Wildfires are bigger and hotter than they've ever been, and part of that is down to mismanagement of forests over 100 years. Putting out all fires ended up being a terrible idea. Climate change isn't helping them. Insects and diseases aren't helping. Invasive species are making things worse. Suburbia spreading isn't contributing so much directly, but indirectly, if you put out fires to save McMansions, rather than letting a healthy and small fire go in ideal circumstances, you're screwing things up again. Overgrazing of federal lands plays a small role in this trouble too.
Clear-cutting ends up not being the worst thing you can do, and tearing out ladder trees, fuel trees, and invasive trees probably is a good thing (though logging companies, if you allow them to do that, instead of taking the correct marked trees, steal the profitable trees that you're trying to save instead, because logging companies are just assholes that way, so logging remains a problem.)
Why should you give a shit about trees surviving if you live in Florida or Quebec City? Well, the sequestering-carbon value of trees, for one thing. No huge Western forests, then global warming happens even faster. If you're in Tucson, you're already tired of 122 degree days in June, and you ain't gonna like 132 degree days in June any better. If you're working at an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville Illinois and a tornado kills you in December 2021, you might not connect it to there being fewer trees, but you know, it probably is connected because tornadoes should be gone by Christmas, and they aren't anymore. Extreme weather will get everybody sooner or later, even if "getting got" is nothing more than some money spent and days shoveling mud out of of your basement.
And the hotter these wildfires get, the more terrible for human health are the particulates from the fires, which can spread 2000 miles on the jet stream. And you pay taxes to deal with all this, if you're North American, so you should probably care about wildfires for that reason. And because these super-hot fires kill not only trees but everything, fungal networks necessary to regeneration a full meter under the soil being scorched out. There are more and more dead zones from these extreme fires. And that means when it rains, a couple of bad things happen, like houses get buried under tons of mud (wouldn't that be a shitty way to die, having just avoiding dying in the wildfire?) And water gets polluted sometimes from this, and then you have to truck in drinking water for lots and lots of people.
So even if you've never lost your house or pets or family photos in a fire, and even if you think people who live in California and risk both earthquakes and wildfires must be a little nuts, and even if the story of the poor rancher in Idaho who had a fire go over his whole herd and had to go out and shoot 250 bellowing, burned meat cows to put them out of terrible pain doesn't make you feel for both the guy and the cows, it isn't just them who suffer. You suffer, and your children will suffer more, and their children will suffer more when these western pine forests continue to burn the way they've been burning.
I don't have much cheery news, sorry, but the book does introduce us to interesting scientists (and that they are so smart and hardworking and committed is a kind of good news), and this book's illustrations are wonderful. I've lived out west mostly, and I've spent months and months deep in the lodgepole (mostly) pine forests and the drawings took me right back to the trees, as did the things he described that I've seen: bark beetle damage, skeletal dead pines, fire scars, nuthatches walking upside down, dizzyingly for me, down a pine trunk, stopping for pine nuts (which they poop out and that helps replant forests). (See https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...) Could be if you don't have the hours of camping in these forests that I have, you might not find the book as good as I did, but I learned a lot from it.
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May 22, 2021I picked up this book because I'm interested in how climate change affects wildfires and because I live in the American West, but I really knew nothing about trees or forest management. I couldn't even tell the difference between pine, spruce, cedar, and fir.
That said, this book was incredibly informative. I got lost once in a while, especially when "low-severity," "mixed-severity," and "high-severity" got thrown around with all the other fire terms, and I had to image search many, many trees, plants, and birds to better visualize what was going on (but I enjoyed that part). However, I loved the chapters on bark beetles, how scientists are breeding resistant trees, dendrochronology, and the longevity of the Great Basin bristlecone pines. I also appreciated discussions of how best to fire-proof homes and reduce wildfire risk to communities.
This is a book everyone should read, especially those who live in the West. Even if you think it doesn't, wildfire affects everyone, whether directly from fire or less directly from air pollution and wildfire smoke or contaminated water supplies. Also, trees are just interesting :)
As an aside, I loved the ending reference to shinrin'yoku. I've studied Japanese culture for years and never heard of this.
That said, this book was incredibly informative. I got lost once in a while, especially when "low-severity," "mixed-severity," and "high-severity" got thrown around with all the other fire terms, and I had to image search many, many trees, plants, and birds to better visualize what was going on (but I enjoyed that part). However, I loved the chapters on bark beetles, how scientists are breeding resistant trees, dendrochronology, and the longevity of the Great Basin bristlecone pines. I also appreciated discussions of how best to fire-proof homes and reduce wildfire risk to communities.
This is a book everyone should read, especially those who live in the West. Even if you think it doesn't, wildfire affects everyone, whether directly from fire or less directly from air pollution and wildfire smoke or contaminated water supplies. Also, trees are just interesting :)
As an aside, I loved the ending reference to shinrin'yoku. I've studied Japanese culture for years and never heard of this.
September 28, 2024
It was just too messy and informal. It didn't feel like the author structured it to the best that it could've been. At points the book would expect you to know things that will be touched on later, or he'll go back and explain something important that should've been explained earlier. The informal language was distracting. I would get very invested in the science, and then there would be a line like "the beetles gang up on a tree." Or the last line, "literally, we can't breathe without them."
July 4, 2020
At times this was a bit of a slog but it was generally very interesting. I had trouble keeping up with the different kinds of western pines and their various adaptations or problems. The overall message of climate change is loud and clear though and it exacerbates all the other problems of fires, beetles, and forest mismanagement - both by folks who don't think we should put any fire out, start any fires or log any trees and the others who would over-harvest the trees. Fire management is fascinating - some fires are left to their natural progression - those in Yosemite spring to mind, whereas others should be intentionally started, and others should be put out. What should be done depends on a lot of things none of which always work out as intended. I was also fascinated by the lodgepole cone that needs fire to germinate. I did think it got in the weeds a bit sometimes and I didn't know what kind of pine tree or what kind of beetle we were talking about.
September 10, 2020
Author took too much liberty with his voice from my liking. Give me the data and the science not your opinions.
July 12, 2020
Daniel Mathews writes in great depth about devastating challenges facing our forests. He treats this complex subject with a compelling narrative. He does describes all the damage we've done, he is not all gloom and doom. And the book is populated with so many rich people stories, about those on the ground, facing these challenges every day. For a long time I will remember what he wrote in the final paragraph: "For us to continue enjoying forests in the ways we count one, we'll have to change." Thank you Daniel Mathews for writing this book.
July 21, 2021
There’s absolutely no question in my mind that Daniel Mathews is a fluid and competent writer of ecological and dendrological themes, the study of surviving and struggling organisms throughout nature as well as the vast architecture of trees and their classifications throughout the forests of the North American west. I found myself particularly fascinated by his presentation of the pine crows (otherwise identified as “Clark’s Nutcracker” birds) and the cache of seedlings they both preserve for sustenance and also drop deep into the soil, assisting with reforestation in the most organic way possible. This is a title understandably littered with textbook-level information for anyone seeking to delve into the challenges that exist across our many forests, and a better sense of what it means to differentiate between wildfires and the increasing need for more prescribed burns. But throughout the book, Mathews seemed to hover back and forth in his writing, between trying to sound like the up-close-to-the-trees-vibe of Henry David Thoreau (from Walden), which often felt forced and gimmicky, and hoping that his readers hadn’t gotten bored yet by inserting lines like, “if you’ve read this far,” then you’ll know x, y, or z. Having recently read through such in-depth ecological works of the 1950s (Living Earth by Peter Farb) and the 1960s (Silent Spring by Rachel Carson), I think I would have preferred that Mathews steer less melodramatic and more straight forward in his prose, since there’s enough knowledge in his back pocket to tell the truth of our “trees in trouble” without the added fluff.
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October 1, 2022 It never fails to make one angry when we hear about problems facing our existence cited as hoaxes. Global warming and climate change are not the stuff of fiction. They are fact, whether we accept them or not.
Daniel Mathews writes a lot about natural history, his backpacking life taking him far and wide. In his book, TREES IN TROUBLE, he presents a common sense overview of the decimation of America’s western pine forests.
The proof is here within the pages of this book, and most will find these revelations to be noteworthy. The author says there are over 100 species of pine trees. Every single one of them is facing the danger zone, threatened in one way or another. One of the biggest threats is of course the number of forest fires that have destroyed forests, decimating millions of them. This puts their already precarious nature, teetering even closer to the brink of extinction.
Another menace is nature, with various types of beetles threatening as well. The notorious bark beetle has destroyed miles of trees. It seems to be one concern after another, but Mathews explains how we can win the battles.
He introduces us to many scientists who are working to preserve pine forests through a variety of methods. The book captures the reader’s attention and keeps it there, offering inspiration, reality, and hope for the future of forest and the planet.
Daniel Mathews writes a lot about natural history, his backpacking life taking him far and wide. In his book, TREES IN TROUBLE, he presents a common sense overview of the decimation of America’s western pine forests.
The proof is here within the pages of this book, and most will find these revelations to be noteworthy. The author says there are over 100 species of pine trees. Every single one of them is facing the danger zone, threatened in one way or another. One of the biggest threats is of course the number of forest fires that have destroyed forests, decimating millions of them. This puts their already precarious nature, teetering even closer to the brink of extinction.
Another menace is nature, with various types of beetles threatening as well. The notorious bark beetle has destroyed miles of trees. It seems to be one concern after another, but Mathews explains how we can win the battles.
He introduces us to many scientists who are working to preserve pine forests through a variety of methods. The book captures the reader’s attention and keeps it there, offering inspiration, reality, and hope for the future of forest and the planet.
February 23, 2021
The book is comprehensive in its description of the challenges to our pine forests on the drier side of the mountains, from the Southwest to British Columbia. It helped me understand why, 5 1/2 years after the Twisp River Fire, we are still losing Ponderosa pines that survived the fire. The information about beetle attacks makes the survival of our pine forests seem unlikely, but learning that there are are researchers with some level of optimism is helpful. The notes include references to Ted Talks by researchers, and those suggestions for followup are much appreciated. I would think this book would be helpful information for all who live in or near the pine forests. Certainly, the information makes it possible to look at Forest Service plans for thinning with an informed perspective, and make knowledgeable comments that might be viewed more seriously.
I found it to be informative and written in an engaging style as Mathews introduces the reader to the people working on forest issues in a personal way.
I found it to be informative and written in an engaging style as Mathews introduces the reader to the people working on forest issues in a personal way.
October 23, 2021
I am a member of the American Conifer Society (www.conifersociety.org) and just completed a U of M course on climate change. This book was very good; but given the prior sentence, I may be a bit biased.
This book concentrates research on western conifers (where wildfires have been predominantly). I’m in the Midwest, but as a conifer lover, I found this interesting. I wish there were more on diseases in the Midwest, but invasive insects and diseases are spreading so quickly, they are here or almost here. We have plenty of diseases in the Midwest that aren’t part of this book; but - thankfully - not many wildfires.
This book concentrates research on western conifers (where wildfires have been predominantly). I’m in the Midwest, but as a conifer lover, I found this interesting. I wish there were more on diseases in the Midwest, but invasive insects and diseases are spreading so quickly, they are here or almost here. We have plenty of diseases in the Midwest that aren’t part of this book; but - thankfully - not many wildfires.
December 21, 2020
The focus is indeed on current policies for managing tree damage by bark beetles and wildfires in light of climate change; it is almost a brief for and explanation of these policies. Each chapter uses a different species of pine to bring out an aspect of the problems facing coniferous trees in the West. When bark beetles have been in the US for time out of mind, why are they destroying whole forests now? Why are we having such huge forest fires? What can we do about it? This book seeks to answer these questions.
August 12, 2020
An in-depth exploration of the big pine forests of the West-- so much interesting information in here and great writing. Saw other reviews that mentioned that some of the book was too dry for them-- but I don't really find that to be the case. Very interesting information-- while it is dense, Mathews does a great job of laying it all out there and presenting many different possible futures for our big pine forests.
November 3, 2020
Very interesting and informative account of the challenges western pine forests face. This book provides solid insight on how the West will change in the coming century and describes several solutions to help ease the pains caused by climate change, disease, and forest mismanagement. Highly recommended if you want to better understand the mega-fires and massive tree die-offs happening each year.
March 2, 2021
Interesting to learn a little bit more about what the forest service has to deal with, and of course wonderful for me to read about the efforts in my native state of Montana! I have always had a soft spot in my heart for nature, wanting to know what we can do to help. We must take care of our trees! All the fires that have happened this last year are heartbreaking, yet hopefully communities will rally together and plant seedlings to replace!
January 29, 2025
This book was fascinating! I didn’t think I would be that intrigued by a book about trees and wildfires. I learned so much! I read it originally (unknown from the library) for my Master Gardener book club but enjoyed it so much. I purchased a copy to reread.
I’d recommend for anyone - but especially those living in areas prone to wildfires. You’ll learn a lot about maintenance and prevention and can become an advocate for effective policies that will hopefully save your home!
I’d recommend for anyone - but especially those living in areas prone to wildfires. You’ll learn a lot about maintenance and prevention and can become an advocate for effective policies that will hopefully save your home!
July 13, 2020
I learned a lot about pines and all their modern ailments. However the book is a bit disorganized and dry. I found myself wishing there were more illustrations on the topics written about for us non tree scientists.
June 15, 2021
A terrific book. It is specific about what our choices are to save the pine forests of NA growing in dry areas. Some money must be spent to save these forests. His specific interviews with scientists is particularly good.
June 17, 2021
This book addresses another part of climate change I don't hear very about. Most of the time when people talk about climate change they mention rising sea levels or the number of storms. However, this addresses how more and more forest fires are coming about through climate change.
August 31, 2021
an absolutely imperative read for all folks living in the American west, especially CA, to learn about specifically WHY we're seeing a rise in catastrophic wildfires and what we can do to maybe change a nerve wracking trajectory. Definitely recommend the audiobook if you get the chance.
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May 14, 2020Very interesting; I earned a lot I didn't know.
August 29, 2020
Somewhat academic book about increasing fires, and deaths of trees by many reasons, birth acerbated by climate change.
December 28, 2020
Dude made trees interesting. Really engaging.
March 9, 2021
Lovely pine trees. Is there any hope?
May 9, 2021
A dense, informative and alarming look at our forest (mis) management, the threats and opportunities posed by climate change.
June 9, 2021
This is a good but difficult read about the state of our forest trees and the problems they and we face.
April 21, 2022
Meh. So boring. I’m clearly not a non-social scientist. Glad this is over! We should defer to our NFS for how to address fire, and some of that means letting it burn and thinning forests!
April 21, 2022
Everyone who wants to know how forests work should read this. More people need to read books like this
June 19, 2024
Compelling argument for prescribed burns, I learned a lot about some conifer species & also I had fun
June 22, 2024
This is a topic that interests me greatly. I enjoyed a lot of the book and found it interesting but parts of it were a slog and I just didn't connect with it.
December 28, 2022
In depth science and social science focus (mostly) on our western pine forests. History, current state of affairs and future of trees during climate upheaval.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews