Teaching the Trees: Lessons from the Forest

Written by Joan Maloof

Narrated by Donna Postel

In this collection of natural-history essays, biologist Joan Maloof embarks on a series of lively, fact-filled expeditions into forests of the eastern United States. Through Maloof's engaging, conversational style, each essay offers a lesson in stewardship as it explores the interwoven connections between a tree species and the animals and insects whose lives depend on it-and who, in turn, work to ensure the tree's survival.

Never really at home in a laboratory, Maloof took to the woods early in her career. Her enthusiasm for firsthand observation in the wild spills over into her writing, whether the subject is the composition of forest air, the eagle's preference for nesting in loblolly pines, the growth rings of the bald cypress, or the gray squirrel's fondness for weevil-infested acorns. With a storyteller's instinct for intriguing particulars, Maloof expands our notions about what a tree "is" through her many asides-about the six species of leafhoppers who eat only sycamore leaves or the midges who live inside holly berries and somehow prevent them from turning red.

As a scientist, Maloof accepts that trees have a spiritual dimension that cannot be quantified. As an unrepentant tree hugger, she finds support in the scientific case for biodiversity. As an activist, she can't help but wonder how much time is left for our forests.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Oct 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781541432345

Joan Maloof

JOAN MALOOF is a professor emeritus of biology and environmental studies at Salisbury University.

Reviews for Teaching the Trees

[junipersun · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book celebrates the role of trees in our lives and in the ecology of their diverse habitats. Written by a scientist and a teacher, it footnotes a few references but these are as likely to refer to poets as to research studies. Maloof is not afraid to be personal, to tell us of her own attachment to trees, from the tulip poplar she climbed as a child to the loblolly pines perched in by eagles she watches. She links our interactions with trees to our wellness as a people, allowing the elder "grandfather' trees to live out their days, planting our children's placenta by the roots of a guardian tree. I would love to attend her classroom to hear her talk in the personal style she uses in her writing. Most chapters address a specific tree species and introduce us to the insects, caterpillars, bird, and animals whose lives are dependant on it. As a subtext, she makes a plea for protection for trees, for viewing them as more than a mere commodity.While most people would assume this book is meant for adults, I think it would be equally valued by intelligent middle schoolers and high schoolers who are searching for their purpose in life, who might be swayed by this author telling them there is still much we don't know about the world around us.