Tree Story: The History of the World Written in Rings in Science and Inquiry

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Tree Story: The History of the World Written in Rings

Valerie Trouet

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Jul 26, 2021 Jim rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1audio, historical, 2non-fiction, science, woodworking

I'm kind of a tree nerd having gained an interest in them after years of use because of turning. When I got a lathe, I was too cheap to practice on store bought wood, so I raided the firewood pile & found a treasure trove of gorgeous wood. That led me to stopping at houses with a downed tree to beg for wood to turn & raiding other firewood piles. I found that I didn't know what the wood was half the time, so I tried to cure my ignorance which led into studying trees for the past couple of decade I'm kind of a tree nerd having gained an interest in them after years of use because of turning. When I got a lathe, I was too cheap to practice on store bought wood, so I raided the firewood pile & found a treasure trove of gorgeous wood. That led me to stopping at houses with a downed tree to beg for wood to turn & raiding other firewood piles. I found that I didn't know what the wood was half the time, so I tried to cure my ignorance which led into studying trees for the past couple of decades.

This book seemed right up my alley & she really got my attention in the second chapter when she declared that all the wood in a tree is dead save for the cambium layer just inside the bark which other sources dispute. Most agree that the heartwood is dead even though a tree in good shape has a solid heart. There is a good deal of debate on the transition from sapwood to heartwood & some think the sapwood isn't really dead, but more in a state of very slow growth, almost dormancy. They say that if it wasn't alive, it would decay & couldn't turn into heartwood, much of which is distinctly different in color from sapwood due to collecting minerals since the sapwood is the area through which the majority of the sap rises in the tree. It makes me wonder if we have a good definition of 'dead'.

Using trees to figure out climate history is fascinating & she describes both its upsides & limitations. It's not straight forward & there are some big gaps, but also some surprisingly detailed records that are used to calibrate other methods such as carbon dating. She briefly touches on ice & stalagmite sampling, both of which are similar to tree ring samples. This gets her into wood microscopy a little & the book has some pictures. It's a fascinating field & she discusses it to the correct depth for this book. (R. Bruce Hoadley is tops in the field & I've worked through 2 of his books with my cheap microscope.) Towards the end of the book her theme really embraces our current climate change & she has a lot of interesting facts to support it, but she also gets rather strident & repetitive, both a real turn off to me.

Throughout the book, she describes field trips briefly. Most sound pretty horrific. Humping core samples is tough, but wedges to study fires is awful especially in the numbers required. Just getting to many of the sites could make an entire adventure book since the sites need to be far from civilization in order to find the oldest trees. Just how many hours these scientists have spent collecting samples to stitch together fantastically long & accurate climate data is incredible.

Comparisons of climate in various areas to historical events was really interesting. Most history books I've read completely missed just how much influence climate has had on politics. Genghis Khan's expansion took place during a series of wet years when there was plenty of fodder for the horses & many countries failed due to droughts that resulted in their people rebelling. Fascinating stuff that I don't recall reading about in most histories. Perhaps they didn't know. More secrets revealed by trees.

Well narrated & full of interesting facts, I feel as if I should have enjoyed this more than I did. The last quarter of the book really brought its score down for me. It was just too much. Still, it's definitely a worthwhile read. ...more

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