Don’t Just Walk In The Woods—Touch, Smell, and Taste Them, Too

IRA FLATOW: This is Science Friday. I’m Ira Flatow. It has been a rainy summer here in the Northeast, and it’s been hard to spend as much time in nature as we’d all like to. Extreme heatwaves, unpredictable weather changes have made it riskier to stay safe outside. Maybe you’ve chosen an easier hike or you’ve doubled up on your water bottles or stayed inside when you’d much rather be outdoors with friends and family. I know that I have.

Well, if you’ve been feeling this way also, I have a book recommendation. It’s called Forest Walking, Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North America, and it teaches readers how to engage with their local forested areas. SciFri’s Diana Plasker, our Senior Experiences Manager, talked to the authors of that book about how to decode nature’s subtle signs and why it’s important to use all five senses when exploring your surroundings. Here’s Diana.

DIANA PLASKER: Peter Wohlleben is a forester, conservation advocate, and bestselling author. And Jane Billinghurst is an editor, author, and translator in addition to her life as a naturalist and master gardener. They are the co-authors of that book, which is September’s SciFri Book club pick. You can find out more about this season’s read on our website, sciencefriday.com/bookclub. Thank you both for coming on Science Friday.

JANE BILLINGHURST: It’s great to be here.

PETER WOHLLEBEN: Yeah, thank you for the invitation.

DIANA PLASKER: So there’s lots of books about forests and natural environments. So why did you two come together to write something that’s more like an instructional guide to teach readers how to engage more deeply in forests?

JANE BILLINGHURST: This is very much more of a book where you take people by the hand, take them out into the forest, and explain to them how they can personally experience the forest. So one of my tasks for this book was to take a long trip all around North America, visiting all different kinds of forests. So my husband and I got in our camping van and we did 17,000 miles over the course of four months, visiting old growth forests around North America so we’d have lots of information for the book.

DIANA PLASKER: Amazing. So the book is all about using your senses to notice new things about forests. Was there a moment that you both remember when you went from the average nature lover to someone who pays deep attention while in the forest?

PETER WOHLLEBEN: Perhaps one special moment for me was when I started to work as a forester. And at first I thought a forester would be someone like a tree keeper. And then one of my first duties was to fell old beech trees, which I was told was good for the forest to recover and to become healthier. And of course, that’s nonsense.

And then I started to read more about forest and traveled around and found out that it’s just the other way around, that we should keep forest on their own and that there’s so much to discover and much more than just to judge this is a beech tree, that’s an oak tree, that’s a Douglas fir, but that there is social interaction, which you can see, which you can smell, which you perhaps can even taste. So with all senses can dive into the forest, and that makes much more fun and that’s a much more better way to approach the forest or to experience a forest. And that is something which had to be written down.

DIANA PLASKER: Jane, what about you?

JANE BILLINGHURST: I grew up close to woodlands in the United Kingdom. And I spent a lot of time walking in them. But I don’t think I ever really slowed down enough to pay attention until I started working with Peter. And once I did that, I began to get totally fascinated by the small things that you can see in the forest by the trees definitely.

And then once I began noticing them, I became really interested in knowing more about them. And then, as Peter says, beginning to understand that this whole forest is a system that functions together. It’s not just a collection of trees. So I really feel that having Peter explaining to me what’s going on, then being able to go out myself and to start looking and then decide for myself, which are the bits I find more fascinating? I feel like I’m just going down this road where I’m learning more and more, and it continues every day. I challenge myself to see something new every time I go out into the forest and to learn just a little bit more.

DIANA PLASKER: Well, that’s a great tip to try and notice something new each time you go outside. So what are some simple things we can all do to change a hike from average to sensational? Jane, what about you?

JANE BILLINGHURST: Well, I think it partly has to do with the speed of which you’re walking. So just slow down a little bit. And awareness of what it is you might find. I tend to focus on one thing when I take a walk. There is so much out there in the forest. So it’s almost overwhelming.

So I think today I’m going to look at mosses and I’m going to see all the different kinds of mosses, and I’m going to look for moss spore capsules, and I’m going to see where the moss grows, and I’m going to think about how the moss is contributing to the forest that I’m walking through by storing the water and releasing it gently so it’s almost like an air conditioning system for the forest.

So where is the moss and what is it doing? What are the different shapes? So I try to focus on a single thing when I go out. Of course, I get distracted. But I find it really helps me dive deeper if I’ve got just one thing, a thread I’m following through for that particular walk.

DIANA PLASKER: Peter, what about you?

PETER WOHLLEBEN: I completely agree. And I think I would add some fun facts or funny things. For example, you can collect Douglas fir needles and make a forest smoothie together with bananas and grapes. And it’s always a lot of fun, because children, for example, don’t know that you can even drink trees. And that’s one funny thing.

Perhaps another is that you can try to smell trees, for example. If you can smell this, a little orange smell under conifer trees on hot summer days. And that means that there is alert among trees that they are warning each other from bark beetle attacks, for example. And you can smell tree language. But you have to know which tree is poisonous, which is not edible.

For example, you can eat beech trees, you can eat European Oak, you can eat Douglas fir, you can eat spruce, and you can try to taste which tree it is with closed eyes. That’s also very funny for the whole family. And by this, yeah, you experience a lot of different trees. So you experience that there’s so much more to discover in the forest.

DIANA PLASKER: Yeah, I have to get better at tasting trees, it seems. Well, this book is full of fun facts. Peter, you just told us a few of your favorites. Jane, what about you? What are some of your favorite fun facts about the forest?

JANE BILLINGHURST: Well, one of the things I like to do, if there are young people in the group, is take them and show them bark beetle galleries, the patterns that the bark beetles make, either in the bark itself. You can see it in the bark. You can also see it in the wood.

So they can trace where the beetle larvae started out their lives, where they moved and ate through the wood, where they exited through the bark. They can hold up the bark and have a look through the holes. So to understand that this very artistic and very beautiful patterns have been made by little beetles that have been living in the trees.

And then to explain that under a normal balanced system, this works very well. There’s not too many bark beetles. The trees can manage to defend themselves. But in a drought situation, when there isn’t enough sap in the tree and they can’t push the bark beetles out, then that’s when things become a problem. So I like people to understand that the ecosystem left on its own is a very balanced ecosystem. But there are times when it starts to struggle, and then these are signs that you can see in the forest that you’re going out into.

DIANA PLASKER: What sense do you think we should use more of while out in the forest? What’s an underrated forest sense? Peter.

PETER WOHLLEBEN: Perhaps our ears. We can all do when we are out in the forest, sit down at a tree, lean against the stem, and then close your eyes. Hear what’s going on in the forest. And then afterwards, draw a sound map. That’s really cool, because there’s so much to hear.

I’ve talked to blind people, and there are some who can judge which tree species it is by the sound of the wind going through the crown. So that’s really crazy what you all may hear out in the forest. There’s so much about sound in nature. It’s so underestimated, and it’s very, very important for warnings, for communications. And you can dive into that and be part of it. And usually we just use our eyes.

DIANA PLASKER: That’s amazing. Jane, what about you? An underrated forest sense.

JANE BILLINGHURST: So for me, it would be just feeling the air on your skin and getting a sense of how a forest changes the temperature around you, how when you step into a forest, you immediately feel that it’s cool. To find out where the breezes are coming. To look and see what’s growing in those areas. To get a sense that a forest is almost like a collection of different rooms that you can walk through to find different spaces within the forest itself. And you can look at the vegetation that’s growing there and see that it differs.

The understory differs depending on whether you’re on a windier, higher part of the forest or if you’re on a cool, low part of the forest, maybe next to a beaver pond. So you can begin to get a sense of how the forest mosaic is put together to support so many different kinds of plants and animals. And one way of doing that is to just feel the air on your skin and to feel how that temperature is changing, to feel where the breezes are coming through.

DIANA PLASKER: That really makes me want to go outside right now. So we’re seeing a worrying increase in invasive species across the US. We reported last year on the spread of beech leaf disease in the Northeast. It’s a disease that’s likely killing off many of these familiar trees. Does your experience spending so much time in forests give you a specific perspective on diseases like these?

JANE BILLINGHURST: So I think that one thing it would be very nice if people understand with the forest being an ecosystem that is kept in a certain balance that there is an impact of invasive species coming in. So when they go out hiking, they can think, are my hiking boots clean? Am I bringing in seeds?

If people are gardening close to forests and woodlands, to understand which of the plants in their garden might escape and go into the forest. Where I live, ivy is a big problem in our forest lands. It can smother trees. And it’s often planted as an ornamental in the garden. So I think if people just put themselves in the place of being in the forest and think what belongs there and what doesn’t. And if everyone could just do their bit to make sure that they keep it as clean and as whole of a system as they can.

And even that comes with garbage and discarding things. Or maybe there’s an orange peel that you’re going to leave in the forest after you’ve had your lunch because you think, well, it’s biodegradable, so it doesn’t matter. But the point is that it is making a difference in that forest ecosystem.

It’s maybe encouraging other people to leave bits and pieces or it’s taking a really long time to break down. And it doesn’t belong there, and it’s not what the animals are expecting to be eating or breaking down. So just a sense of respect when you go into the forest and understanding that every time you go in, you do make an impact. So try to make that a positive impact when you’re enjoying the forest.

DIANA PLASKER: That’s great advice. So I haven’t been able to spend time outside as much as I would like because it’s raining heavily or there’s a heat warning. I’m wondering if you have any advice for our listeners who can’t spend as much time as they’d like outside but are missing the outdoors and their local forests?

JANE BILLINGHURST: So forests create different ecosystems. So sometimes you can be surprised. If you go out in a coniferous forest in the pouring rain, you actually don’t necessarily get that wet, because the trees act like big umbrellas. Or if it’s really hot, a forest or a woodland could be a great place to go because of the shade, because of the trees creating a cooler atmosphere with transpiring moisture all around you.

So maybe give it a go and see what it seems like when you’re sitting outside. The weather could be quite different out there. And I think that that’s a sign of the power of forests that they have to change their environment and a good reminder that they are actively interacting with the world around them and making it a different place, which is one of the reasons that they’re so important for our planet.

DIANA PLASKER: I love that. I love the advice of if it seems too rainy to go outside, maybe try going outside anyway and see how rainy it actually is. That’s great.

PETER WOHLLEBEN: And I have a little addition. In Germany, we have a word that says rain is liquid sunshine.

DIANA PLASKER: I love that. Peter, could I ask you to tell us how to say that rain is liquid sunshine in German?

PETER WOHLLEBEN: In German, it would be [SPEAKING GERMAN].

DIANA PLASKER: Amazing. I won’t try it for our listeners’ sake, but we’re going to try to adopt that here in the US. I really love the chapters about creative ways to spend time in nature with young people. What’s your favorite way to engage kids while in the forest? Peter.

PETER WOHLLEBEN: Yeah, first, what do I do everything when I have a little group of children with me in the forest, I encourage them to shout as loud as they can, because they relax. And even better, the wildlife relaxes, because they know instantly, OK, there are no hunters on their way that are just children. They do no harm. And so you can experience much more wildlife. So that’s the best way to start. And most parents give the advice be quiet. Be quiet so that the animals– so that you can see more animals. But it’s just the other way around.

DIANA PLASKER: Jane, what about you?

JANE BILLINGHURST: So there’s so much on the forest floor that is worth investigating. It’s really cool if you can look for the cones of Douglas fir and you can tell the kids the story about the little mouse tails that are in the Douglas fir. So Douglas fir cones have these little bracts, and they look like the hind legs of mice with a little tail.

So many years ago, there was a huge forest fire and the mice needed somewhere to seek sanctuary, and the Douglas firs offered them a safe place to be. And you can see that they’re looking after the little mice to this day. And of course, Doug firs were a great choice, because when they get to about 40 years old, they’ve got a thick, insulating bark that is resistant to fire that runs along the forest floor.

And another thing you find that falls onto the forest floor, we have a lot of it here, it’s a lichen called old man’s beard or usnea. And it has central threads that run through it. And when these are well-hydrated, it’s lovely and stretchy. So you can pick up things from the forest floor and you can turn them into games of discovery.

DIANA PLASKER: Amazing. I think it’s about time we all get up from our desks and go outside. I’d like to thank both of my guests. Peter Wohlleben is a forester, conservation activist, and best selling author. And Jane Billinghurst is an author, translator, naturalist, and master gardener. They are the co-authors of this September’s SciFri Book club pick, Forest Walking, Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North America. You can find out more, including how to win a free book on our website, sciencefriday.com/bookclub. Thank you both for spending some time inside with me today.

JANE BILLINGHURST: It was a pleasure.

PETER WOHLLEBEN: Thank you very much, Diana.

IRA FLATOW: Thank you, Diana. And before you go, I heard you’re hosting a few events for our listeners this fall meant to do exactly what Peter and Jane’s book encourages people to do. Get outside.

DIANA PLASKER: Yeah, that’s right, Ira. This September and October we’ll be in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Catskills, New York, where people can learn about some of my favorite trees, American beech, and how we can help forestry researchers with a bit of our time and our keen observation skills. They’re completely free to attend, and you can RSVP on our website, sciencefriday.com/outside.

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