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Chapter 4 | How Trees Work
How Trees Work
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“When trees grow together, nutrients and water can be optimally divided among them all so that each tree can grow into the best tree it can be. If you ‘help’ individual trees by getting rid of their supposed competition, the remaining trees are bereft.” — Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from A Secret World
T
rees are much older than man, and we have
only recently begun to understand them. Groundbreaking work over the past decade by Suzanne Simard, Peter Wohlleben, and others has revealed new insights into the lives of trees: how they grow and survive, how they support each other, and how they can thrive not just in forests, but in suburbs and cities.
