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About 25 years ago I visited Muir Woods just north of San Francisco to see the giant redwoods.
Of course I was impressed by their size and age but neither I nor any scientist then had any idea of the complex ecosystem that existed atop these trees.
Richard Preston, best known for his books on ebola and smallpox, has written a fascinating account of the discovery of life in the canopies of the remaining redwood forests. It is absolutely amazing that significant areas of the redwood forests of California and Oregon had gone unexplored up until the 1990s but it is true. It was then not experienced biologists and ecologists who made the incredible discoveries of the past 15 years but rather young, and tree-obsessed, explorers searching for the world's tallest tree.
Preston describes how a small group of dedicated tree climbers discovered a world hundreds of feet above the ground. I was astounded to learn that the giant redwoods have many trunks that branch out in a tangle of growth that supports, among other things, large stands of berry bushes. Preston himself became one of the explorers, winning the respect of those he was writing about.
Sadly, he tells how nearly all the redwoods are gone now. Miles and miles of majestic trees, many hundreds of years old, were destroyed over the past hundred years, many in a fit of greed just before Jimmy Carter signed legislation enlarging the redwood parks.
My only complaint was the Preston did not include any pictures in the book but his website has many.
This is a very enjoyable and fascinating book. I highly recommend it for a summer read.
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