Chicago Botanic Garden

Education — Lenhardt Library

Current Books & Book Reviews

PHOTO: bookcover

Jeff Gillman.
How Trees Die: The Past, Present, and Future of our Forests.
Yardley, Pa.: Westholme Publishing, 2009.
cloth, 234 pp., ISBN 978–1–59416–081–3, $24.95.

In this volume of informative essays on the subject, research scientist Jeff Gillman examines the importance of trees in the environment and traces the many ways their life patterns have been affected by human intervention. He speaks of his personal connections to these woody creatures; of human destruction for utilitarian and ornamental purposes; and, finally of how many different activities are leading to the death of entire populations of trees. In conclusion, he describes new dangers to trees and the significance of these dangers to existing species as well as the environment.

— Marilyn K. Alaimo, garden writer and volunteer, Chicago Botanic Garden.