Velocity measurements by a two-component laser-Doppler anemometer have been made in a wind-tunnel flow over a forest of aeroelastically scaled model trees. Mean velocity profiles close above three different model canopies exhibit typical ‘shear-layer’ inflections that are similar, as are the turbulence characteristics, when scaled by characteristic dimensions of the shear layer.A wavelet-based conditional sampling technique is used to generate pseudo-instantaneous flow-field vector maps that are concurrent with significant tree bending events. These diagrams show clear evidence of canopy penetration by coherent gusts.A discussion is offered, of the relationship between the development of coherent gusts and conventional descriptions of mixing layer instability.