Peter Wohlleben, the world’s most famous forester: ‘In cities, trees are treated like street furniture’

Environmental activist and tree expert. That’s how Peter Wohlleben, 60, defines himself today. He no longer calls himself a forester, for a simple reason: “I no longer manage forests. I don’t have time,” he explains during a Zoom interview from his home in Hümmel, a small town an hour from the city of Cologne, Germany.

The Bonn-born Wohlleben is dedicated body and soul to making the true nature of forests known. He does this from the forestry academy he created in 2014, in Wershofen, less than three miles from his house.

It’s something like his second life, after more than two decades working as a forest ranger. He began his career in the service of the Rhineland-Palatinate state government in 1987. But, little by little, his professional vision of the forest as an exploitable reality changed. He began to abhor the management system imposed by the authorities, based on the massive felling of century-old trees by using heavy machinery to then replant perfectly aligned pines.

From then on, Wohlleben waged a long and courageous battle with what he calls “the German forest lobby” by refusing to treat the trees in the forest as “factory farms.” He eventually resigned from his government post in 2006. But then, when he was about to leave Germany, the mayor of Hümmel entrusted him with the management of the 1,200 hectares of local beech forest, which had previously been the responsibility of the state forestry authorities.

Wohlleben took a much less interventionist approach. He stopped using insecticides and began using horses to transport wood. The constant battle with the authorities left him exhausted and the workload caused him to fall into a deep depression that required psychological treatment. His wife, Miriam, encouraged him to write down all his knowledge about forests. This led to The Hidden Life of Trees, which was published in 2015. The illustrated version was released this past October.

The book quickly became a bestseller, while Wohlleben became an international celebrity. A quick look at the website of his forestry academy reveals the many lectures, conferences, courses, and seminars he gives to large audiences. The list of activities on offer is extensive. For example, you can book an evening out in the forest for $250, or simple daytime walks at a more modest price.

Is the use of forests for tourism preferable when compared to their use for timber? “This is a hotly debated topic here… especially by the forestry lobby,” Wohlleben notes. “They complain that it could lead to mass visits to forests. But what’s really dangerous is what the forestry industry does: [they bring] in machines weighing up to 17 tons and compress the soil under the trees. That said, I’m not against the commercial use of wood, but I would like to see it done more carefully. People who come to walk in the woods on Sundays end up being more involved in the well-being of the trees.”

His book was instrumental in spreading the research of individuals such as Suzanne Simard, a Canadian professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia (UBC). In the 1990s, she discovered the existence of a gigantic network formed by tree roots and mycelium (the fungi associated with them) that allows these forest creatures to communicate with each other and exchange nutrients, or even warning signals. This is what Simard called the “woodwide web,” in an article published in the journal Nature. But this vision of forests — considered by some scientists to be too anthropomorphic — caused controversy. “There’s a transfer of sugars and other nutrients between trees and even between the plants that surround them; that’s been proven,” Wohlleben affirms.

No one doubts that preserving trees is essential. But since time immemorial, humans have used the forest to collect food, medicines, and wood. This has wiped out almost all of Europe’s primary or virgin forests, as well as many other old European woodlands. “There are letters from 2,000 years ago which say that squirrels could cross Spain by jumping from tree to tree from the Pyrenees to the Strait of Gibraltar,” Wohlleben sighs. He frequently uses this analogy to underline the importance of planting more forests in countries particularly affected by climate change and desertification.

He’s less enthusiastic about the presence of trees in cities. “They’re treated a bit like street furniture,” he laments. “The ecosystem is fragile. The city itself is very stressful for them. It’s hot and illuminated at night, when the trees also need to sleep. The ideal would be to create small ecosystems, as was done in Medellín in 2019, [when] more than 800,000 trees were planted. [The authorities] created a green corridor that allowed summer temperatures to drop by two to three degrees [Celsius].”

Wohlleben also isn’t sold on the idea of traditional parks. “I see them, in general, like zoos,” he notes. “There are trees of different species, from different continents… and they have nothing to do with each other.” He explains that it’s better to lean towards the uniformity of species and plant native trees.

For a tree lover, it must be painful for him to see how climate change is causing wildfires in forests around the world, from Canada to Portugal. “These fires,” he explains, “have nothing to do with climate change. Most of them are intentional, caused by people. So, what we need are stricter laws and more prevention, as well as [an effort to] restore fire-resistant forests.” But prevention, he emphasizes, shouldn’t include banning access to nature. “It’s important that there’s a connection between people and forests.” After all, that’s the only way to know and respect them.

Translated by Avik Jain Chatlani.

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