The Wild Trees was published in 2007. Its author, Richard Preston, has written about a lot more than trees and you can learn more about his interests at his website. He lists an approximately 20-minute TED talk from 2008 that’s quite informative and may be found here. If you click on the tab to the book on his website and scroll down that page, you’ll find a photo gallery with images and some descriptive captions.

Much of the book revolves around the life of Stephen Sillett. In the book he seems to spend his time doing nothing but climbing trees. The book does describe his activities in the 80s and 90s, laying the groundwork for his future career. In fact, Sillett is now a full professor with a strong publication record at CalPoly Humboldt. (It is, after all, approaching twenty years since the book was written and far longer since the 1980s.) This link is to his university page, which has a link out to google scholar for some articles as well as a link to all his research and publications. At least some of his research appears in quite impressive journals (for example, in Nature (2004), the journal where Suzanne Simard’s 1997 work was the cover story and catapulted her to fame.) There is certainly more to him and to his research than comes through in the book.

As for tree climbing itself, climbing competitions are regular events within the ISA (International Society of Arboriculture). The Think Trees conference here in Albuquerque (2024) included a Climbing 101 talk with information on safety as well as an arborist climbing simulation. I mention this because there is an almost unbelievable scene in the book (at the beginning of Chapter 2) in which one of the climbers falls about 100 feet but doesn’t die. This is still considered something of a miracle and a record.

And, an aside. That arborist and climber, Kevin Hillery, is still an active arborist in Oregon as far as I can tell. He has become a proponent for careful, limited, big tree climbing – not so much because of his fall as because of the damage climbing does to the fragile ecosystems of the trees.

Generally speaking, wild trees are characterized by being big and old and, often difficult to get to. Sequoias generally fit the bill and this book revolves around finding them.

First, there is a distinction between the giant sequoia and the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), described here and here. The Save the Redwoods League also has a tab ‘About Redwoods‘ that digs even deeper.

And then, there is the accounting are record-keeping for monumental trees. According to Atlas Obscura:
“At 275 feet tall, the General Sherman Tree is as tall as three blue whales are long. It’s just thirty feet shorter than the Statue of Liberty. It weighs over 2,000 tons, the same weight as 400 elephants. Its base measures 36 feet in diameter, which means you could hide two sedans behind it, parked end to end. But really, it’s a tree you need to see to believe.”

How do people determine the size of trees? This 6:06 video is of Sillett talking about measurements: the ones that can be made, the ones that can’t (e.g., weight), and how what can be measured is used to estimate what can’t be measured.

Perhaps one of the more interesting things about these very tall and very old trees is that the canopies support entire ecosystems. We first read about this in The Arbornaut and learned more in The Wild Trees. This page from Save the Redwoods League, talks about one of their 2014 research projects: what is growing in the canopies of the tallest trees in the world. You can click on the video on that page or go directly to the video on youtube using this link.

Of course, then one wants to know more about lichens and their role in healthy forests.

Or just take a deep dive and learn more about lichens in this 1.5 hr lecture.