Best Quotes from The Secret Network Of Nature by Peter Wohlleben with Page Numbers

"Wolves are a wonderful example of how complex the connections in nature can be."

"When the wolves disappeared, the ranchers did not. They still graze their livestock on range land that runs right up to the national park boundary."

"The reintroduction of wolves has done more than just help the trees and creatures along the riverbanks."

"The fewer elk there are, the longer it takes the wolves to find them, and below a certain residual number, it’s no longer worth their while to hunt elk."

"The more we acknowledge that even the smallest disturbance can lead to unpredictable changes, the stronger the arguments for protecting larger areas of the environment."

"The wolves did what we all do when we’re hungry: they looked for something to eat."

"Even in heavily populated parts of the world, it’s possible to allow the return of sizeable animals that disappeared long ago."

"It’s a sentiment I share with many other people for whom the wolf restores the forest’s wild soul."

"The important thing is to make sure the fence is tall enough and in good working order."

"Just how hard a wolf’s life must be – how it has to risk its life every time it needs to eat."

Fish and rivers, it turns out, play an important role in nutrient distribution.

The only reason they are toiling their way upstream is so they can spawn, in the one and only frenzy of passion they will ever experience, and then finally breathe their last.

Not all the coveted nutrients, it turns out, remain above ground.

Thanks to the new environmental policies, water quality would improve so much that the river would be fit for swimming again.

What does all this have to do with European forests? If you’re looking at how things used to be, quite a lot.

The Atlantic salmon used to be native to Europe, and thanks to the efforts of conservation organisations – particularly their efforts to clean up the waterways – it is now returning to many rivers.

Many a turbine turns expensive hatchery-raised fish into sushi the moment they start their journey to the sea.

This is a huge accomplishment, and one that gives cause for hope.

The trees are like high-performance athletes already doped up on steroids, who then have an extra dose jabbed into them for good measure.

As soon as our interference in our ecosystem is reduced appropriately, there’s no question the pendulum can swing back.

"WATER NOT ONLY conveys nutrients into the forest through the vehicle of migrating fish, but even more importantly, thanks to its innate properties and the law of gravity, it also carries huge quantities out again."

"All life on this planet needs nutrients – minerals and compounds that contain phosphorus and nitrogen, for example."

"Without the cooling shade of trees, the ground warmed up, and bacteria and fungi became active in the soil even deep below the surface."

"These days we find this kind of landscape romantic: on a summer’s day there’s nothing quite like a belt of juniper or an expanse of heather dotted with sheep."

"What our ancestors did was participate in a grand experiment in speeding up time."

"Nature takes its time, as you can see if you consider the growth rate of trees."

"Not every shower of rain seeps gently into the porous soil of the forest floor to replenish the groundwater."

"Healthy forests create and protect their own reservoirs."

"Groundwater is a very special habitat. Not one single ray of light ever reaches down here, and neither does cold."

"Everything down here is actually in flux. Following heavy rain, water seeps down from ground level."

Deer have a love-hate relationship with trees.

Most of the forest is dark, because only 3 per cent of the sun’s light penetrates the canopy.

To ensure that the next generation of trees doesn’t starve... mother trees supply the saplings with nutrient solutions through connected root systems.

Roe deer prefer disturbed areas.

Roe deer love food with a high-energy content: scientists call them concentrated feeders.

Life is better than ever for them in Germany now no dark, ancient forest is left.

In the past... the deer also benefited from clear-felling of trees as part of commercial forestry.

Under such conditions their populations explode, because, like all species, roe deer immediately convert food into offspring.

Trees today make up less than 50 per cent of the biomass of a cultivated forest.

If hunters also gave up their winter feeding programmes, the situation would improve considerably.

Ants are nature’s gardeners, as it were.

Every species, regardless of whether it is common or rare, is worth protecting, in the sense of showing it respect.

The beautiful symbiotic relationship between ants and aphids turns out to be not entirely voluntary, after all.

Trees are attacked not only by aphids and bark beetles but also by a multitude of other species, all of them with one thing on their mind: getting their fair share from the gigantic warehouse of carbohydrates that is a tree.

Trying to understand all the connections here is a Sisyphean task.

It’s not just about saving individual species; it’s about honoring the intricate web of life that sustains them.

The more the ants climb up into the trees to hunt the insects that threaten their aphid herds, the fewer attacks from these predatory insects the trees have to endure.

In the ecosystem, what seems beneficial at first glance can often conceal deeper complexities.

Forests are not just collections of trees; they are intricate communities where every member plays a role.

The mechanism of nature is a delicate clock where each cog is essential to its function.

"Bark beetles prey on the weak, so they can only damage trees that are already in trouble."

"Instead of blaming the beetles, you could see them as an indication that things are not as they should be."

"The mass reproduction events that allow the beetles to overcome healthy trees only happen when people have changed the natural rules so much that the insects can gain the upper hand."

"Be it through creating plantations or emitting the pollutants that lead to climate change, ultimately it is us, not the beetles, who are to blame for upsetting the carefully calibrated balance of nature."

"Bark beetles merely open the door for creatures that live off dead wood."

"By multiplying in former plantations, they create a temporary paradise for detrivores."

"The next generation of trees is already primed and ready to go."

"Bark beetles are more than just funeral directors: they are midwives too."

"To label bark beetles as pests diverts attention from the root of the problem."

"These insects are vital sources of food for ant beetles, woodpeckers and many other species."

"Many animals tolerate or even require various stages of putrefaction in their food."

"Wolves would have no difficulty making a meal of ravens, but they teach their offspring that these birds are their friends."

"Rotting flesh serves as fertiliser – for the plants, deer carcasses are simply overgrown salmon."

"Even if the flesh gets eaten or rots in the way I’ve said, there should be large amounts of bones lying around in field and forest, bleaching in the sun."

"If the bones are still fresh, bears eagerly crack them open for the fatty marrow inside – a delicacy that no one will fight them for, not even wolves."

"The beetles dig tirelessly underneath the dead mouse, dragging it down by its fur."

"Sexton beetles stick around after their larvae hatch."

"If, in this flurry of activity, she ends up with too many babies, she soon fixes things by killing the extras."

"We could let dead deer and boar lie, at least in national parks. When people hunt in these parks, the carcasses of wild animals are usually taken away by foresters."

"It’s good to know that this ecosystem, with its sometimes bizarre-looking creatures, has another chance at survival."

Ultimately, almost every creature on the planet lives off processed solar energy.

A forest ecosystem is basically an enormous storehouse of energy.

Light is also important for completely different reasons.

Some flowers bloom only when it’s dark, because they want to avoid competition.

Moths have a completely different strategy...they need to remain as unobtrusive as possible and blend in with their surroundings.

Hunters and prey coexist in a delicate balance that gives each a chance to survive.

The hours of darkness are not to their liking and they avoid them.

Fireflies can convert 95 percent of energy into light; they need to be frugal, because as adults they don’t eat anything.

The glow-worm’s peaceful illumination with love in mind is abused by others for their own ends.

The more artificial light there is in this world, the more confusion there is in the animal kingdom.

"I look forward to the cranes. You can hear the trumpet-like calls of the migrating flocks from many miles away."

"Bird migration is a worldwide phenomenon undertaken by about 50 billion birds."

"Somehow, Sepp concludes, the birds must get together and discuss where they have the best chance of finding good breeding sites and food."

"Keeping pigs makes people preserve oak forests, which in turn provide important winter food for cranes."

"If pig farming loses its lustre, at least part of the motivation for preserving oak forests is also lost."

"I believe that more deciduous trees in Spain and Portugal would benefit all parties."

"If more oaks were grown, the danger of forest fires would be reduced considerably, and the ecosystem would become attractive to other species again."

"If we were all to dial down our demands a bit, there would be enough space for our fellow creatures."

"Empathy is one of the strongest forces in conservation, and can achieve more than any number of rules and regulations."

"The best way to protect nature is to ensure that people experience it."

"If temperatures are below freezing, you usually stay dry, which means it’s easier to keep warm."

"Hungry deer were appearing in cattle shelters on farms and eating the cows’ feed."

"It’s only a matter of time until conditions improve."

"Trees agree among themselves over long distances, and by long distances I mean hundreds of kilometres."

"The higher the numbers of wild boar, therefore, the more earthworms carry lungworm larvae, which in turn means more infected pigs."

"The only difference is the pigsty, which is much larger and made of trees."

"Fewer animals then means fewer excreted eggs and almost no infected worms."

"We mustn’t give in to such gloomy thoughts."

"Unfortunately, it’s only a matter of time until the wolves return all over Europe to set things back on track."

"There are connections that we know to be true because they have been well researched... and then there are connections that we assume to be true because they have been handed down for generations."

Trees can achieve great things together without meaning to, even when their achievements have nothing to do with survival.

Every year in autumn, a drama plays out that makes me think of the merry-go-round in a children’s playground.

What ticks love is not broom but warm-blooded hosts.

In nature, we can never apprehend everything correctly – but then in my opinion we don’t need to.

Knowing this, we must strive as hard as we can to preserve intact landscapes or leave them to their own devices.

Fungi help bridge such gaps. Like the fibre-optic cables of our internet, their subterranean filaments carry messages from tree to tree.

Ancient honey fungus networks have been found underground in North America.

You need a lot of these kinds of holes to safeguard populations of all the living things that are part of this delicately balanced community.

Instead of attempting a rescue mission by saving scattered individual trees from being harvested, large areas of forest should be taken out of commercial forest production completely.

Just as trees are not defenceless when bark beetles attack, so they don’t have to stand idly by accepting whatever the climate throws at them.

"If trees work together, they can not only regulate the humidity and air temperature in the forest but also exert influence in other ways for miles around."

"The dark green crowns of conifers absorb more solar radiation, which has a warming effect."

"This sounds logical, but right now it remains simply speculation."

"In times of upheaval, these are the trees that reproduce and form new stands better adapted to the new norm."

"The hotter the sun, the stronger the smell, and this connection is probably not coincidental."

"For precipitation to happen, a large group of water molecules has to clump together and get heavy enough to fall as raindrops."

"At temperatures up to 5 °C, the spruce is metabolising but not increasing its girth, which means the tree is basically marking time."

"Trees have only two strategies to survive this rollercoaster."

"The first is that they are less affected by drought."

"If we import species of trees that love warmth, then an exceptionally cold winter might see them freeze to death."

A forest is an enormous storehouse of energy.

When it comes to forest fires in populated areas, it’s impossible to distinguish between the two.

Even though flaming infernos don’t usually have a natural cause, foresters still use them as a burning excuse for clear-felling.

In the normal course of events, it’s not fire that releases stored nutrients and makes them available to new plant growth; it is the billion-strong army of animal sanitary engineers.

Without these tiny, overlooked creatures the forest would suffocate on its own waste.

Trees can now send their roots out into this layer and use the nutrients that have been released in the decomposition process.

Fire accompanies human settlement.

Even species which are adapted to fire don’t like to burn.

Nature has come up with a much smarter and less incendiary way of recycling nutrients.

Humans have been playing with fire for hundreds of thousands of years.

Nature is the opposite of culture – everything that people have not created or changed.

The problem faced by the modern conservation movement is: What is truly worth protecting in nature?

If we’ve forced our environment into a straitjacket, how can we have any idea how it reacts to climate change?

Less use of wood equals less use of energy equals slower climate change equals healthier, resilient forests.

Forests that are left alone to regulate their microclimate can cool themselves in hot summers.

Every time one of their seeds sprouts somewhere we’ve not designated as an area for trees, we immediately remove it.

We need zones of wild forests to act as stepping-stones for species to migrate and adapt.

Subtle changes to our climate year on year highlight the need for immediate action to safeguard our forests.

Human activity has pervasive effects on ecosystems, often in ways we cannot immediately observe.

The future of our forests relies not just on protection, but also on our compassion and willingness to adapt.

Nature knows of only two paths for the future of every species: adapt or die out.

If you leave aside the amazing things our large brains allow us to do, we might ask whether the amount of intellectual ability that we have today is really necessary for our personal quality of life.

What is really important? There’s happiness, love and security, of course, alongside such pleasures as delicious food and a comfortable home.

Evolution means adapting to change, not necessarily development in the sense of improvements of the brain and its size.

Our genes also entered Neanderthals, something scientists had for a long time rejected as impossible.

Modern civilization makes modern medicine necessary in the first place.

I don’t think they [scientists] do so fairly. Earlier Homo sapiens were no different from people today.

Nature continues to apply pressure. Cancer, heart attacks and strokes are only some of the factors we cannot control despite medical advances.

The impression that evolution has almost ceased and that humans have achieved the pinnacle of their success is false.

In practice, however, such developments are impossible in our modern world, because our enormous mobility interrupts this process of separation.

Nature is considerably more complicated than the finely calibrated movement of a clock.

Just as in the internal mechanism of the timepiece, this loss triggers a chain reaction that changes the whole system.

We know in certain circumstances nature can heal itself, but we also know this takes time.

How do we know when it’s broken?

All it means is that those species are being pushed back to the places they came from.

You could say that everything is slowly recalibrating.

Is it really broken? Is there something that needs to be repaired?

If we were to leave nature alone, then wetland forests would naturally regenerate along our streams and rivers.

Trust mechanisms which are millions of years old to carry on functioning without us.

The positive message from all this is that not only can we win back the original forests, but that it could also steer the climate in the right direction.