{"product_id":"the-wild-trees-a-story-of-passion-and-daring-9780812975598","title":"The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring","description":"Hidden away in foggy, uncharted rain forest valleys in Northern California are the largest and tallest organisms the world has ever sustained-the coast redwood trees, \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eSequoia sempervirens. Ninety-six percent of the ancient redwood forests have been destroyed by logging, but the untouched fragments that remain are among the great wonders of nature. The biggest redwoods have trunks up to thirty feet wide and can rise more than thirty-five stories above the ground, forming cathedral-like structures in the air. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eUntil recently, redwoods were thought to be virtually impossible to ascend, and the canopy at the tops of these majestic trees was undiscovered. In \u003ci\u003eThe Wild Trees\u003c\/i\u003e, Richard Preston unfolds the spellbinding story of Steve Sillett, Marie Antoine, and the tiny group of daring botanists and amateur naturalists that found a lost world above California, a world that is dangerous, hauntingly beautiful, and unexplored. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The canopy\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003evoyagers are young--just college students when they start their quest--and they share a passion for these trees, persevering in spite of sometimes crushing personal obstacles and failings. They take big risks, they ignore common wisdom (such as the notion that there's nothing left to discover in North America), and they even make love in hammocks stretched between branches three hundred feet in the air. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The deep redwood canopy is a vertical Eden filled with mosses, lichens, spotted salamanders, hanging gardens of ferns, and thickets of huckleberry bushes, all growing out of massive trunk systems that have fused and formed flying buttresses, sometimes carved into blackened chambers, hollowed out by fire, called \"fire caves.\" Thick layers of soil sitting on limbs harbor animal and plant life that is unknown to science. Humans move through the deep canopy suspended on ropes, far out of sight of the ground, knowing that the price of a small mistake can be a plunge to one's death. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Preston's account of this amazing world, by turns terrifying, moving, and fascinating, is an adventure story told in novelistic detail by a master of nonfiction narrative. The author shares his protagonists' passion for tall trees, and he mastered the techniques of tall-tree climbing to tell the story in \u003ci\u003eThe Wild Trees--\u003c\/i\u003ethe story of the fate of the world's most splendid forests and of the imperiled biosphere itself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Random House Trade\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/12\/2008\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780812975598\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 294\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.50lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.94h x 5.16w x 0.70d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/19\/2008 pg. 100\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePeople Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/03\/2008 pg. 45\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/02\/2008 pg. 28\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooks \u0026amp; Culture\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/01\/2008 pg. 14\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Richard Preston","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36644434903196,"sku":"9780812975598","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_71ab7b43-c5b4-4012-8cae-3fa8a11975db.jpg?v=1603858626","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-wild-trees-a-story-of-passion-and-daring-9780812975598","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}