Richard Preston: the Wild Trees February 8, 2010

Journalist Richard Preston (The Hot Zone, Demon in the Freezer) profiles several scientist-acrobat-daredevils who scale giant redwoods to observe the teeming life at the top. Three hundred feet from the ground, branches fuse together to form a separate ecosystem: lichens, salamanders, even other trees live out their lives in the canopy of the world's tallest trees.