a closer look at tree bark, with michael wojtech

Michael Wojtech of Know Your Trees dot com and author of “Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast” (Amazon affiliate link) can answer those questions, plus this one: Can you actually learn to identify trees by their bark (an especially useful skill now through spring, when many are leafless)? Hint: The answer is yes.

Michael left a 15-year business career to pursue his love of natural history and writing, and earned his Master’s in Conservation Biology from Antioch University New England. His thesis, on tree bark, became the basis for the field guide. Though the book’s plant ID section covers trees of the Northeast, much of the material inside speaks to the characteristics and function of bark anywhere–so it’s fascinating wherever you live.

Michael joined me from his home deep in the woods of Massachusetts—occasional crackly static of the phone line we reached him at attests to that, sorry!—to talk about bark on my radio show and podcast on November 9, 2014 show; the transcript follows.

Q. I loved reading about how this project began, Michael, with your master’s thesis project–and then grew, grew, grew. Tell us a little about its genesis.

A. I’d like to say it was an epiphany, and came all at once, but it did come quite gradually. I’m a transplant to New England; I had moved from the Pine Barrens of New Jersey to study at Antioch, and I was immersed right away in this