Submitted by the Lopez Island Library

The Lopez Library will show the 45-minute documentary Intelligent Trees at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 19, in the community room. A discussion will follow, led by Del Guenther, president of the San Juan Islands chapter of the Washington Native Plant Society. “Intelligent Trees” shows a side of trees that most of us have never seen before. German forester Peter Wohlleben (author of “The Hidden Life of Trees”) and forest ecologist Suzanne Simard of the University of British Columbia have been studying plant intelligence for decades. The film follows the pair as they venture into the forest to study trees and complex root systems. Trees of a certain species, they say, actively support one another by growing in ways that avoid blocking each other’s light and sending out chemical warning to other trees when attacked by insects. In this way, trees talk, care for their young and form family ties. This program is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Lopez Library and the Washington Native Plant Society.