The Hidden Life of Trees: A Graphic Adaptation

This title offers an elegant argument for woodland preservation, framed loosely through the life experiences of its author, Wohlleben. His childhood was filled with wonderment at his local forests, which led to a career in forestry while raising a family close to his well-loved woods. As he observed struggling sylvan ecosystems, he became a proponent of progressive forestry techniques, which preserve trees and promote ecological diversity. This framing gives a flexible structure to an intricate exposition of trees’ biological complexity—their reproductive lives, interdependent growth patterns, and of course, the effects of humans, from the practices of lumber harvesting to the scourges of climate change. Trees have long memories and are resilient and adaptive to change for years but can only cope to a point. Adapting Wohlleben’s prose memoir to graphic novel works brilliantly; richly colored vistas of seasonal scenery are accompanied by naturalist’s notebook-like sketches of minute elements of fauna. In this observation of nature’s ordinary miracles, Wohlleben, aided by graphic adaptors Bernard and Flao, pleads his conservation case convincingly, pointing to the wonder that already exists and is well worth safeguarding from further harm.