Diana Beresford-Kroeger

Canadian botanist, biochemist and visionary Diana Beresford-Kroeger's startling insights into the hidden life of trees have already sparked a quiet revolution in how we understand our relationship to forests. Now, in a captivating account of how her life led her to these illuminating and crucial ideas, she shows us how forests can not only heal us but save the planet. When Diana Beresford-Kroeger--whose father was a member of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy and whose mother was an O'Donoghue, one of the stronghold families who carried on the ancient Celtic traditions--was orphaned as a child, she could have been sent to the Magdalene Laundries. Instead, the O'Donoghue elders, most of them scholars and freehold farmers in the Lisheens valley in County Cork, took her under their wing. Diana became the last ward under the Brehon Law. Over the course of three summers, she was taught the ways of the Celtic triad of mind, body and soul. This included the philosophy of healing, the laws of the trees, Brehon wisdom and the Ogham alphabet, all of it rooted in a vision of nature that saw trees and forests as fundamental to human survival and spirituality. Already a precociously gifted scholar, Diana found that her grounding in the ancient ways led her to fresh scientific concepts. Out of that huge and holistic vision have come the observations that put her at the forefront of her field: the discovery of mother trees at the heart of a forest; the fact that trees are a living library, have a chemical language and communicate in a quantum world; the major idea that trees heal living creatures through the aerosols they release and that they carry a great wealth of natural antibiotics and other healing substances; and, perhaps most significantly, that planting trees can actively regulate the atmosphere and the oceans, and even stabilize our climate. This book is not only the story of a remarkable scientist and her ideas, it harvests all of her powerful knowledge about why trees matter, and why trees are a viable, achievable solution to climate change. Diana eloquently shows us that if we can understand the intricate ways in which the health and welfare of every living creature is connected to the global forest, and strengthen those connections, we will still have time to mend the self-destructive ways that are leading to drastic fires, droughts and floods.

My Life's Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest

To Speak for the Trees

The Soul and Science of Forests

Our Green Heart

The global forest

Diana Beresford-Kroeger's startling insights into the hidden life of trees have sparked a quiet revolution. In this captivating account, she shows us how forests can not only heal us, but can also save the planet.

The author of The Global Forest--an international bestseller and a classic upon publication, beloved by readers around the world--gives us her tips and advice for achieving better health and peace of mind, with frugality, simplicity and pleasure not far behind. In The Sweetness of a Simple Life, Diana Beresford-Kroeger mixes science with storytelling, wonderment, magic, myth and plenty of common sense. Orphaned at an early age, Beresford-Kroeger was tutored by elderly relatives in Ireland in the Druidic tradition, taught the overlap between the arts and sciences, and the triad of body, mind and spirit. After pursuing a Ph.D. in medical biochemistry, Beresford-Kroeger set out on a quest to preserve the world's forests. In this warm and wise collection of essays, she gives us a guide for living simply and well: which foods to eat and which to avoid; how to clean our homes and look after pets; how we can protect ourselves and our loved ones from illness; and why we need to appreciate nature. She provides an easy dose of healing, practical wisdom, blending modern medicine with aboriginal traditions. This inspiring, accessible book emphasizes back to basics, with the touchstone not an exotic religion or meditation practice, but the natural world around us.

Tips for Healthier, Happier and Kinder Living Gleaned from the Wisdom and Science of Nature

The Sweetness of a Simple Life

Combining both hands-on practicality and garden philosophy, Diana Beresford-Kroeger, a self-described "renegade scientist," appeals to the hearts and minds of gardeners everywhere. Arboretum America's goal is both lofty and down to earth: the salvation of the planet---through the planting of trees. There are many books on both of these subjects. Some warn, some inform, while others meditate on the disappearance of the forests or the meaning of trees. Few books, though, touch on so many aspects of trees, including ways to use them in garden design, as Arboretum America does. Beresford-Kroeger's remedy is what she calls the Bioplan. The plan consists of how each of twenty different tree groups relates to its natural environment and how these specific trees can be used to promote health or to counteract the effects of pollution and global warming. The plan also reveals the fascinating history of these trees in Native American culture, including their medicinal uses. Finally, the Bioplan offers practical design ideas and tips---where to plant these trees, what season they look best in, what native plants complement them---as well as organic care and how to grow them. Beresford-Kroeger captures the magic spell that trees cast over us. Yet her holistic approach urges us to think big while acting locally, so that we may someday restore the forest primeval. Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a botanist, medical and agricultural researcher, lecturer, and self-defined "renegade scientist" in the fields of classical botany, medical biochemistry, organic chemistry, and nuclear chemistry. She lives in Ontario, Canada.

A Philosophy of the Forest

Arboretum America

The description, history, and care of the world's northern forests

A Lifeline of the Planet

Arboretum Borealis

Authoritative and environmentally conscious information on growing over 1,200 species of perennials, biennials, bulbs, corms, and tubers

The Natural Approach to Designing, Planting, and Maintaining a North Temperate Garden

A Garden for Life

The basis for the documentary film Call of the Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees – a compelling tribute to trees, grounded in a wide range of scientific knowledge One of the world's experts on how trees chemically affect the environment, Canadian scientist Diana Beresford-Kroeger is on a mission to save the planet- one newly planted tree at a time. In this new book, she skillfully weaves together ecology, ethnobotany, horticulture, spirituality, science, and alternative medicine to capture the magic spell that trees cast over us, from their untapped ecological and pharmaceutical potential to the roles they have played in our cultural heritage. Trees not only breathe and communicate; they also reproduce, provide shelter, medicine, and food, and connect disparate elements of the natural world. In celebrating forests' function and beauty, Beresford-Kroeger warns what a deforested world would look like. Her revolutionary bioplan proposes how trees can be planted in urban and rural areas to promote health and counteract pollution and global warming, main­taining biodiversity in the face of climate change. Presented in short interconnected essays, The Global Forest draws from ancient storytelling traditions to present an unforgettable work of natural history. Beresford-Kroeger is an imaginative thinker who writes with the precision of a scientist and the lyricism of a poet. Her indisputable passion for her subject matter will inspire readers to look at trees with newfound awe.

Forty Ways Trees Can Save Us

The Global Forest

Bioplanning a North Temperate Garden

Trees provide shelter, medicine and food. They are part of our imaginations, folklore, ecosystems and our lives. Diana Beresford-Kroeger, a world expert on trees, has woven together ecology, myth, horticulture, spirituality and science to show how their future is ours. From hedgerows that contain an entire chain of life to trees that can breathe, heal, nurture and even communicate, each of these forty interlocking essays shows us the enormous significance of the global forest, of which we are all a part. 'Beautifully written . . . As I walked to work this morning, I began to see the trees with a newfound respect and awe' New Scientist 'Has the potential to do for trees what Rachel Carson's Silent Spring did for peregrines . . . Easy to read, each of her short essays could inspire a week's meditation . . . amazing' BBC Wildlife 'Did you know that oak trees create their own sunscreen? That a child can receive protection from leukaemia simply from holding a green walnut? Or that each species of tree is responsible for about 40 species of insects? . . . this book invites the reader to see with new eyes, to wonder and to begin to understand' The Tablet

Diana Beresford-Kroeger

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