In the Circle of Ancient Trees
Our Oldest Trees and the Stories They Tell
The essays from leading tree scientists collected in In the Circle of Ancient Trees read like fervent love letters to ten of the most ancient and important tree species on the planet.
Dendrochronology, or the study of tree rings to help in determining the dates of past events, connects the ten explorations of tree species presented here. Because trees undergo regular and predictable cycles of growth in their cell walls, the book notes, their rings are an invaluable resource, speaking to the history of drought conditions, wildfires, cold spells, and other environmental influences across a given region. The essays describe the many ways in which these tree rings have helped clarify long-standing mysteries about the histories of cultures, environments, and climates of regions as diverse as California’s Pacific coast, northern New Zealand, rocky outcroppings in the Balkans, and the dense Amazon rain forest.
A tight but dense compendium, the book is scaffolded by accessible graphs and visual aids. The geographic sprawl of the species studied creates a pleasant and engaging “globe-trotting” effect, ensuring touchstones “close to home” as well as far-flung novelties. The narratives vary in tone and approach, with different authors foregrounding their personal experiences to different degrees. Field-based anecdotes create a somewhat uneven effect across the book, with many examples serving as filler between the more awe-inspiring, millennial-scale events that the chapters offer. Others dovetail with their respective subjects to create a congruent narrative pull, as in the case of one author’s moving parallel between her time researching kauri trees and her husband’s diagnosis of terminal cancer.
Mixing cultural, environmental, and scientific histories, In the Circle of Ancient Trees is a hardy introduction to the uses and methods of dendrochronology.
Reviewed by
Isaac Randel
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
