Trees as a Way of Life: An Arborist’s Story

An arborist’s lifelong journey reveals the deep connections between people and trees.
Bruce Allison has spent decades listening to trees and making sense of what they tell us. In this intimate and absorbing memoir, he deftly weaves personal stories, botanical insights, and moments of wonder and revelation into a captivating ode to trees.
Trees as a Way of Life follows Allison on his journey from seedling to sapling to maturity, as he explores a eucalyptus grove as a boy in Bonita, California; learns the tree ethic as an apprentice arborist in Baltimore, Maryland; and establishes his own tree care company in Madison, Wisconsin. After more than fifty years as a professional arborist, he tells stories of stewarding the trees at the Wisconsin State Capitol and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin, among other sites, and describes formative encounters with notable tree-loving clients, including American Girl creator Pleasant Rowland and Epic Systems founder Judith Faulkner. As he tells his own story, Allison incorporates the voices and stories of renowned naturalists like Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and Rachel Carson.
Allison also uses his own tree encounters as jumping-off points for deep dives into individual species, memorable moments in tree history, and tips and tricks for tree care and maintenance. As only an accomplished arborist and educator could, he provides a detailed-yet-accessible tutorial on trees, from the upper canopy of stem and crown, through the veil of bark, to the hidden underground landscape of tree roots and fungi.
In the tradition of the international bestseller The Hidden Life of Trees, this book carries readers root by root and limb by limb to a deeper understanding of the trees that feed us, protect us, shade us, and inspire us. In an engaging narrative style that blends the personal, the scientific, and the poetic, Allison’s story is an intimate love letter to trees, a master class in understanding and appreciating them, and an invitation to readers who also long to make trees a way of life.