The Trees in My Forest

Follow a field biologist into three hundred acres of Maine woods to uncover the hidden architecture, competition, and symbioses of trees.

Ina book destined to become a classic, biologist and acclaimed nature writer Bernd Heinrich takes readers on an eye-opening journey through the hidden life of a forest. Drawing on two decades of careful fieldwork on Adams Hill, Heinrich traces the fierce race for canopy sunlight that shapes every branch, trunk, and leaf.

The surrounding hills harbor intricate partnerships, from wood-boring beetle larvae and fungi to the yellow-bellied sapsuckers whose fresh birch wells feed migrating hummingbirds.

With an observant eye, Heinrich examines how white pines weather winter ice storms, maples yield to fungal decay, and seedlings compete for a foothold in the soil.

• Forest Ecology: How red spruce and balsam fir boughs droop into conical, tepee-like structures under heavy winter precipitation, shedding snow like an umbrella rather than snapping under ice loads.
• Nature Study: The synchronized fruiting of white pines across entire regions, producing bumper cone crops in unison to satiate hungry squirrels and crossbills so surplus seeds can sprout.
• Botany: Why ancient club mosses thrive on dim forest floors without building massive wood scaffolding, outlasting competitors on minute energy budgets since the Carboniferous era.
• Wildlife Ecology: Aggressive Formica subintegra ants defend woodland saplings against leaf-devouring caterpillars while meticulously herding aphids for sugary honeydew secretions.
• Also by This Author: Mind of the Raven, Why We Run and Life Everlasting.