The Wild Trees

Reading this book was an act of both admiration and agony, admiration for the courage of the author to look where no one else was looking, to take huge physical risks, and to prevail, and agony because I longed every moment to have the ability to myself ascend the world’s tallest trees and meet the life that lives, separated forever from the ground, at their very tops.

Everything about this book is poetry of the best kind because it’s also true.

Fasten your seat belts, for Preston will take you on a wild and crazy journey up into the canopies of redwood trees.

You’ll join a brave and fearless troop of young explorers as they ascend ever higher into these magnificent trees to discover a world previously unseen. Strange critters, unusual plants, and an ecosystem unlike any on the forest floor come into view.

I have always believed that good nonfiction writing is also good storytelling. Preston is a master at weaving tales that capture readers’ imaginations and inform at the same time. His narrative bristles with mystery, intrigue, and rich… show more.

I spent half the time reading this book with my mouth open, occasionally gasping, "Wait… what?” I thought I was conversant in global habitats until I read about the canopies of Northern California’s coast redwoods. Who knew there were entire ecosystems teeming with life 300 feet in the air? This non-fiction book reads like a novel, and I was enthralled by the passionate group of people who love and climb the legendary trees, risking their lives in the process. While not a humorous book there are some wonderfully funny moments, and personally I find the idea of someone climbing a… show more.

Before Richard Powers’s bestseller The Overstory, there was The Wild Trees. We love our trees in Cascadia—three of the world’s tallest tree species grow here. We’ve also harvested the hell out of them; just a small fraction of the biggest, oldest trees remain unlogged. Preston’s book about coast redwoods and the people who study, climb, and live among them is not only compelling journalism but a kind of memoir and, I’d venture to say, love story. I read it while hiking the Oregon Coast Trail, then gave it to a southbound cyclist I met at a campground on… show more.