Trees, Truffles, and Beasts: How Forests Function

by Chris Maser, Andrew W. Claridge, James M. Trappe

In today's world of specialization, people are attempting to protect the Earth's fragile state by swapping limousines for hybrids and pesticide-laced foods for organic produce. At other times, environmental awareness is translated into public relations gimmicks or trendy commodities. Moreover, simplistic policies, like single-species protection or planting ten trees for every tree cut down, are touted as bureaucratic or industrial panaceas.

Because today's decisions are tomorrow's consequences, every small effort makes a difference, but a broader understanding of our environmental problems is necessary to the development of sustainable ecosystem policies. In Trees, Truffles, and Beasts , Chris Maser, Andrew W. Claridge, and James M. Trappe make a compelling case that we must first understand the complexity and interdependency of species and habitats from the microscopic level to the gigantic. Comparing forests in the Pacific Northwestern United States and Southeastern mainland of Australia, the authors show how easily observable species, trees and mammals are part of a complicated infrastructure that includes fungi, lichens, and organisms invisible to the naked eye, such as microbes.

Eminently readable, this important book shows that forests are far more complicated than most of us might think, which means simplistic policies will not save them. Understanding the biophysical intricacies of our life-support systems just might.

 

Genres: Natural History, Ecology, Nonfiction

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Chris Maser is an independent author as well as an international lecturer, facilitator, and consultant in resolving environmental conflicts, vision statements, sustainable community development, as well as forest ecology and sustainable forestry practices.

Reviews

[Paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

So this book was pretty slow going. They repeat themselves extensively on some really easy-to-grasp ideas, and then delve into a whole bunch of dry facts that aren't all that exciting to read and even harder to recall. Then there are some really interesting sounding things that I wanted to hear more about but was left wanting.

Despite these drawbacks, I'm giving this book 5 stars because of the large amount of useful information in it, and how it opened my eyes to the world of forests, how resilient they are naturally and how fragile they become with meddling.

[Kiya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Takes some work to get into, but concepts and ideas well worth it.