When you know that
trees experience pain and have memories and that tree parents live together
with their children, then you can no longer just chop them down and disrupt
their lives.
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.
Without bark the
tree cannot transport sugar from its leaves to its roots.
Modern forestry
targets a maximum age of 80 to 120 years before plantation trees are cut down
and turned into cash. Under natural
conditions, trees that age are no thicker than a pencil and no taller than a
person.
A mature beech tree
can send more than 130 gallons of water a day coursing through its branches and
leaves, and this is what it does as long as it can draw enough water up from
below.
If trees are capable
of learning (and you can see they are just by observing them), then the
question becomes: Where do they store what they have learned and how do they
access this information? After all, they don't have brains to function as
databases and manage processes.
When trees are
really thirsty, they begin to scream. If
you're out in the forest, you won't be able to hear them, because this all takes
place at ultrasonic levels.
A tree contains
almost as much liquid inside it as we do.
Moss grows very
slowly and takes decades to get established.
Beeches harass other
species, such as oaks, to such an extent that they weaken.
Spruce store
essential oils in their needles and bark, which act like antifreeze.
Dwarf trees on the
tundra, which are sometimes trampled to death by travelers who don't even know
they are there. It can take these trees a hundred years to grow just 8 inches
tall.
We know less about
the ocean floor than we know about the surface of the moon.
The older the tree,
the more quickly it grows. Trees with
trunks three feet in diameter generated three times as much biomass as trees
that were only half as wide. So, in the
case of trees, being old doesn't mean being weak, bowed, and fragile. Quite the opposite, it means being full of
energy and highly productive.
