Finding the Mother Tree

Scientist Suzanne Simard tells the story of her life, focusing on the development of her love for trees and her studies about the ways trees communicate and thrive. Simard is an early voice against clear cutting and she dares to challenge the scientific giants in her field, sparking resistance initially but eventually gaining followers.

One of the first clues came while I was tapping into the messages that the trees were relaying back and forth through a cryptic underground fungal network. When I followed the clandestine path of the conversations, I learned that this network is pervasive through the entire forest floor, connecting all the trees in a constellation of tree hubs and fungal links. A crude map revealed, stunningly, that the biggest, oldest timbers are the sources of fungal connections to regenerating seedlings.

Simard, Suzanne. Finding the Mother Tree (p. 5). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

The old trees nurture the young ones and provide them food and water just as we do with our own children. It is enough to make one pause, take a deep breath, and contemplate the social nature of the forest and how this is critical for evolution. The fungal network appears to wire the trees for fitness. And more. These old trees are mothering their children.

Simard, Suzanne. Finding the Mother Tree (p. 5). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

The scientific evidence is impossible to ignore: the forest is wired for wisdom, sentience, and healing. This is not a book about how we can save the trees. This is a book about how the trees might save us.

Simard, Suzanne. Finding the Mother Tree (pp. 5-6). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

I have come full circle to stumble onto some of the indigenous ideals: Diversity matters. And everything in the universe is connected—between the forests and prairies, the land and the water, the sky and the soil, the spirits and the living, the people and all other creatures.

Simard, Suzanne. Finding the Mother Tree (p. 283). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

We have the power to shift course. It's our disconnectedness—and lost understanding about the amazing capacities of nature—that's driving a lot of our despair, and plants in particular are objects of our abuse. By understanding their sentient qualities, our empathy and love for trees, plants, and forests will naturally deepen and find innovative solutions. Turning to the intelligence of nature itself is the key. It's up to each and every one of us. Connect with plants you can call your own. If you're in a city, set a pot on your balcony. If you have a yard, start a garden or join a community plot. Here's a simple and profound action you can take right now: Go find a tree—your tree. Imagine linking into her network, connecting to other trees nearby. Open your senses. If you want to do more, I invite you into the heart of the Mother Tree Project to learn techniques and solutions that will protect and enhance biodiversity, carbon storage, and myriad ecological goods and services that underpin our life-support systems. Opportunities are as endless as our imagination. Scientists, students, and the general public who want to take part in this interdisciplinary research deep in the forest and be part of a citizen-science initiative, a movement to save the forests of the world, can find out more at http://mothertreeproject.org. Vive la forêt!

Simard, Suzanne. Finding the Mother Tree (p. 305). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Much more difficult reading than I had expected. This book demands a lot from the reader, and rewards well.

Difficulties... Technically: there's a lot of science, often tightly condensed. Stylistically: the book is a tapestry—okay, okay, I'll say it: a mycorrhizal network—of memoir, ecology, research, policy, education, inspiration, frustration, hope, and more; context-switching was often jarring, as was remembering all the personae and arborae. Emotionally: ugh; so much bullying from whitemale knowbetter pieceoshits, plus the other difficulties in her life, plus all the omnipresent destruction of trees and forests and ecosystems.

Difficult, finally, on a personal level: I'm deeply hardwired as both a cooperator and a skeptic. Even though I know how her research ends, it's different when reading about the experiments themselves: I found myself painfully conflicted between rooting for her and finding nits to pick in her experimental design, because intellectual honesty demands stricter rigor when I want something to be true. (See Feynman's First Principle.) Satisfyingly, most of the times I had a question, she addressed it within a few pages. Other questions, time and research will tell. Also satisfyingly, and this is not much of a spoiler, cooperation wins out at the end. Fuck yeah.

A great read for anyone remotely interested in forestry or ecology! It's part autobiography, part scientific narrative, and accessible enough for anyone to follow. It really shows the complexities of forest management and the forest itself.