Take to the Trees, Marguerite Holloway
Take to the Trees, Marguerite Holloway
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
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Take to the Trees
A Story of Hope, Science, and Self-Discovery in America's Imperiled Forests

Author: Marguerite Holloway

Narrator: Marguerite Holloway

Unabridged: 7 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/10/2025


Synopsis

Journalist Marguerite Holloway arrives at the Women's Tree Climbing Workshop as a climbing novice, but with a passion for trees and a deep concern about their future. Run by twin sister tree doctors Bear LeVangie and Melissa LeVangie Ingersoll, the workshop helps people develop impressive technical skills and ascend into the canopy. As Holloway tackles unfamiliar equipment and dizzying heights, she learns about the science of trees and tells the stories of charismatic species, including hemlock, aspen, Atlantic white cedar, oak, and beech. She spotlights experts who are chronicling the great dying that is underway in forests around the world as trees face simultaneous and accelerating threats from drought, heat, floods, disease, and other disruptions.

As she climbs, Holloway also comes to understand the profound significance of trees in her relationship with her late mother and brother. The book's rousing final chapter offers something new: a grander environmental and arboreal optimism, in which the story of trees and their resilience meshes with that of people working to steward the forests of the future, and of community found among fellow tree climbers. A lyrical work of memoir and reportage, Take to the Trees sounds the alarm about rapid arboreal decline while also offering hope about how we might care for our forests and ourselves.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kate on June 13, 2025

I read the blurb with some form of illusion that there would be some actual hope in this book. I know lots of research is being done into trying to find a solution to the destruction of olive tree groves all over Europe thanks to another fast moving disease. I thought that this book would be somethi......more

Goodreads review by Jessica on May 26, 2025

I enjoy nature and environmental novels, and this one hit the mark! This novel is an homage to a vital part of our ecosystem we often take for granted. Holloway takes us on a deep dive (or rather, high climb?) into the awe-inspiring world of trees and their caretakers. Take to the Trees follows the a......more

Goodreads review by Julia on July 31, 2025

This was fabulous and heart breaking. I got about 3/4th of the way before I had to stop because it made me cry every time I opened it. But then, I always was sensitive to nature's plight and had similar reactions to David Attenborough and his nature docs.......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer on June 15, 2025

In the last couple of years, I have read multiple books about the importance of trees. I have enjoyed them and learned a lot. In March, I saw the musical, Redwood, and was gutted by it. This book was a continuation of my fascination, and it did not disappoint.......more

Goodreads review by Phil on August 19, 2025

A well-written journey detailing the dire situation our national forests are in tree by tree. No punches are pulled and despair is not dispelled but somehow the stark realism of knowing combined with the physical and mental exertion of climbing trees and building relationships open a way to belief w......more