This book shows how complicated eco-systems can be – with some of the links being quite surprising. For example, the link between salmon and trees. On the north-west coast of North America, where the soil is low in nutrients, growth rings on trees show that there is a direct correlation between the number of fish that made their way upstream but were caught by mink, foxes, birds of prey, and carried off into the forest, nibbled and then left leaving the bones, rich in nitrogen in the forest. Data shows that Sitka spruce in these areas grow up to three times faster with the fish fertiliser. In some trees, more than 80 per cent of the nitrogen they contain can be traced back to fish. The conclusion of this fact is that if we disturb the fish runs by building dams or changing the water courses we also disturb the growth of the trees. He discusses animals, plants rivers, rocks and weather systems and how these delicate systems interact with each other to keep the balance working as a whole.
Wohlleben says nature is more complicated than the finely
calibrated movement of a clock and if we carelessly remove one little cog – it
can trigger a reaction that upsets the whole balance of nature. He further adds
that sometimes helping a species also changes the balance as well. He concludes
that we interfere all the time and we should just leave things alone – on as
large a scale as possible and let nature sort itself out.
This book is written by a German writer and is a bit
technical/scientific in places. Wohlleben says he began giving lectures and let
his family listen to the recordings but they told him he was boring. He
realised he used too many technical terms so he says he has revised his work
and stopped doing that in his writing. He says he writes a better story now –
read the book and decide yourself!
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