City lights can kill trees (it stops them sleeping at night)

TREES in Britain’s cities are dying early because they are struggling to sleep amid the glare of streetlights, an expert has claimed.

Forester Peter Wohlleben claims trees, just like humans, need darkness at night in order to rest but their circadian rhythms are disrupted by light pollution, keeping them awake and stressing their systems.

Speaking at the Hay Festival, Mr Wohlleben, a former government forest ranger in Germany, said trees in cities were suffering trauma which vastly shortened their lives when they are separated from “families” and forced to live in urban solitude.

He said: “Street trees are like street kids. Trees have to sleep at night like we do and trees which stand near streetlights which burn the whole night die earlier because it’s like burning a light in your bedroom.”

Mr Wohlleben believes that much like humans, tree “parents” live with their children and “suckle” them for hundreds of years. The trees of ancient forests, he claims, talk to each other via vast underground root systems to send warnings about pests and disease.

His views are so controversial that German forestry officials have launched a petition against his book The Hidden Life of Trees.