Do you have a favorite tree? Or could you even name a dozen that are the most important to the world?
That's the task environmental historian Daniel Lewis took up, in search of stories about trees of critical importance to the world (hint: they are not all alive today). His list and the supporting argument for including each tree appears in Lewis's book Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of Our Future.
Redwoods and California's ancient bristlecone pine made the list. The author visits to talk about the stories of the trees, and the larger stories they tell about the environment and our use of it.