Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

It’s likely that you have encountered Suzanne Simard’s astounding discoveries about trees: her work influenced the movie “Avatar” and has been described in Richard Powers’ novel The Overstory as well as in TED talks she has delivered. Now, for the first time, she describes her personal story and her life with trees, which are one and the same. Raised in a British Columbia family of loggers and spending her childhood summers on a houseboat, Suzanne grew up to become the most eminent forest ecologist of our time as she learned and painstakingly documented that trees communicate with one another. One surprising way this occurs is through a particular fungus on and in the extensive root systems of aspens, hemlocks, spruces, and cedars with a “Mother tree” at the heart of each network. Some Mother trees touch the earth with their branches, developing roots at the point of contact that produces new saplings. After reading this book, beautifully illustrated with color photographs, I view trees differently, gazing up at their leafy crowns while I wonder about what occurs below the ground and how we can best preserve these essential, beautiful parts of our planet.