A former arm wrestler and bar brawler, David Milarch became enchanted, then obsessed by the biggest trees in the world. Dubbing them “champions” and cofounding the Champion Tree project, Milarch reinvented himself as a green guru, vowing to find and clone these robust specimens worldwide.
The Man Who Planted Trees by Jim Robbins tells his unlikely story, though as a biography, it’s sometimes hard to see the subject for the trees: Sequoias, yews, and hemlocks keep stealing scenes. And perhaps that’s the way Milarch would like it.
