Written by Dr. Paul Smith, with a foreword by Dr. Robert Macfarlane, “Trees” provides its readers with a copiously illustrated compendium of information arranged and presented in a manner that makes it very accessible to all regardless of their previous familiarity with the subject.
Back in December of 2021, I published a review of Prof. Matt Ritter’s 2016 book “A Californian’s Guide to the Trees Among Us,” a work that admittedly had been in print for some time but having just then recently been brought to my attention I found so impressive and useful that I wanted to make certain my readers were aware of it. Little did I know at the time that Dr. Ritter’s book was scheduled for a new edition.
If you’ve been enjoying the many volumes of Stephen J. Pyne’s “To The Last Smoke” series and ever found yourself thinking, “Gee, I’d really like to recommend this entire collection to some friends but I don’t know if they’d be willing to read so many books” then your friends are now in luck.
As a naturalist who travels, I often find myself examining things that might be often overlooked, particularly in places where many people might not give them much thought. Such as case over the past few years has been trees in cities. I began to take greater notice of them a few years ago on a business trip to the U.S. city of Indianapolis, Indiana; an interest that received a significant boost when I discovered that in Nürnberg, Germany all the trees are given identifying numbers to make their care more efficient and effective.