The Global Forest [Hardcover]

In the introduction to her new book, Canadian botanist, researcher, and lecturer Diana Beresford-Kroeger recalls the way Irish storytellers, the “living memory bank of [their] race,” treated their subjects. The rhythm and style of Beresford-Kroeger’s own writing emulates the storyteller’s oral tradition, which proves to be an effective means of presenting pithy and sometimes radical ideas.

Interesting details and an optimistic tone make The Global Forest more than just another book on impending ecological disaster. By drawing on mythology and spirituality, Beresford-Kroeger broadens the book’s scope beyond that of a simple scientific treatise, while also reminding readers that nature is the best healer and sustainer of life we have.

The bulk of these 40 short chapters (which the author calls “refrains”) advocates for the growth and preservation of indigenous trees. Much of the information in these “refrains” is surprisingly useful. For example, it’s handy to know that the coneflower is an antidote to the venom of eight different species of rattlesnake. Also, black walnut may protect against diabetes, and green walnut contains biochemicals that may help ward off childhood leukemia. The author, a self-proclaimed “renegade scientist,” combines Western medicine and botany with aboriginal healing. Science has yet to put the stamp of approval on much of her work, however, and very few studies of her findings have been undertaken.

While the material itself is interesting, the author’s habit of anthropomorphizing nature gets in the way. In books like The Bird Detective, ornithologist Bridget Stutchbury successfully humanizes her avian subjects to make a complicated ecosystem accessible for readers. In The Global Forest, however, Beresford-Kroeger’s use of a similar style is forced, partially because it’s difficult to visualize, say, mosses masturbating or lichens practicing bigamy, and partially because there’s just too much of this kind of thing. Overuse of such a fey style risks trivializing the seriousness of the book’s content and diluting its message.

Beresford-Kroeger's ideas are a rare approach to natural history... The essays of The Global Forest are a beautiful and poetic tribute to their subject, based on wide-ranging scientific knowledge. -- E.O. Wilson, Professor Emeritus Harvard University A beautifully written and carefully constructed book ... As I walked to work this morning, I did begin to see the trees with a newfound respect and awe -- Kayleigh Lawrence New Scientist [H]as the potential to do for trees what Rachel Carson's Silent Spring did for peregrines in the 1960s. The Global Forest has amazing breadth...Easy to read, each of her short essays could inspire a week's meditation. Live with them and discover your place in the global forest...When you have read this book you may want to embrace its author. -- Graham Long BBC Wildlife magazine Diana Beresford-Kroeger has woven together ecology, ancient myth, horticulture, spirituality, science and alternative medicine in The Global Forest to capture trees' enormous significance to us... each of these forty interlocking essays picks out a different aspect of life in the forest, explains it and then shows why it is so vitally important. The Green Parent This book has a simple and important message: trees are important, we should look after them more, cut them down less, conserve their habitats, revere them more -- Jules Pretty Times Higher Education --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a botanist, researcher, and lecturer who is an expert on the medicinal, environmental, nutritional, and herbicidal properties of trees. Her previous books include Arboretum America and A Garden For Life. Her work has been featured in The New York Times and on NPR and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She is well-known for the sprawling gardens on her property in Ontario, Canada, which include more than one hundred types of trees.