"Finding the Mother Tree" by Suzanne Simard is a fascinating and thought-provoking exploration of the complex and interconnected world of forest ecology. The author, a renowned forest ecologist, takes readers on a journey through the forests of British Columbia, sharing her research and discoveries about the underground networks that connect trees and the role of "mother trees" in the ecosystem.

Simard's writing is engaging and accessible, making complex scientific concepts easy to understand. She seamlessly interweaves her personal journey and experiences with her research, making the book an enjoyable and informative read. The book is also richly illustrated with photographs and diagrams, which help to bring the author's findings to life.

One of the most striking aspects of the book is the way it challenges the traditional view of forests as isolated individuals and instead presents them as interconnected communities. The author's research on the role of "mother trees" in the forest ecosystem is particularly illuminating and provides a new perspective on the importance of conservation efforts.

Overall, "Finding the Mother Tree" is a must-read for anyone interested in ecology and the natural world. Simard's writing is engaging and informative, and her research provides a new and thought-provoking perspective on the way we think about forests and the interconnectedness of life on earth.

Fascinating and informative, I learned a lot from this lovely book.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fascinating non-fiction book about the author's extensive work into discovering the connection between mycorrhizal networks and trees. Whilst quite technically / academically written in places, as a non-scientist I still found it very accessible and interesting. I also liked the memoir-style sections where Suzanne talks about her family and overcoming grief, relationship breakdown, cancer diagnosis and so on. Heartfelt and passionate, it is clear that Suzanne has dedicated her life to her amazing work on trees.

No one has done more to transform our understanding of trees than the world-renowned scientist Suzanne Simard. Now she shares the secrets of a lifetime spent uncovering startling truths about trees: their cooperation, healing capacity, memory, wisdom and sentience.

Raised in the forests of British Columbia, where her family has lived for generations, Professor Simard did not set out to be a scientist. She was working in the forest service when she first discovered how trees communicate underground through an immense web of fungi, at the centre of which lie the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful entities that nurture their kin and sustain the forest.

Though her ground-breaking findings were initially dismissed and even ridiculed, they are now firmly supported by the data. As her remarkable journey shows us, science is not a realm apart from ordinary life, but deeply connected with our humanity.

In Finding the Mother Tree, she reveals how the complex cycle of forest life - on which we rely for our existence - offers profound lessons about resilience and kinship, and must be preserved before it's too late The emotions, the restlessness was all playing in front of me. Everything was flawless about the book, including the title.

The Yucatan jungle is on either side of the road as I finish reading Finding the Mother Tree. Throughout my four-hour journey through the Mexican south, I’ve been idly looking at the dense foliage and thinking about the mutuality of the life systems before my eyes. We pass by a section of obliterated forest where young palms have been planted in rows. They are sparse and most seem to be yellowing at the tips, a few are grey, clearly dead. The sight sickens me.

Suzanne Simard is a young forester working for a logging company in British Columbia when she encounters a similar scene. Forestry regulations required a ‘clear-cut’ of the native bush and trees when an area is logged for timber. This way new trees can be planted – a single species, in straight lines, at optimal distances, making for easy logging when the trees mature. A policy known as ‘free-to-grow’. However, the newly established spruce seedlings that Simard finds are sick.

The first spruce seedling I checked was alive, but barely, with yellowish needles. Its spindly stem was pathetic. How was it supposed to survive this brutal terrain? I looked up the planted row. All the new seedlings were struggling—every single sad little planting. Why did they look so awful? Why, in contrast, did the wild firs germinating in [the] old-growth patch look so brilliant?

Finding the answers to these questions and those that follow becomes the focus of Simard’s life work.

Finding the Mother Tree is much more than an extended essay on forestry. Simard shares the experiences of her family who have worked in the forests of British Columbia for over a hundred years. We learn from the old loggers about the importance of plant diversity and the rough and difficult job logging was before the advent of specialised machinery. She shares pictures of her family at work, illustrating the old ways; there’s a particularly good one of them balancing on logs by the Skookumchuck Rapids. Photographs illustrate key points in her life too, her childhood, her treks into the wilderness and shots of her children. A personal touch that also serves to add credence to the scientific arc of her research.

She knows that the answer to those yellow seedlings lies in the soil. As a child, she watched with fascination as the family dug a trench to rescue a dog that had fallen into the outhouse pit and was amazed by the distinct layers of soil that they cut through. She was a dirt-eating child, which no one found strange, and was particularly fond of a bit of rich, tasty hummus. She examines the roots of the sick trees and finds them bare whilst those of the healthy new shoots in the old forest are covered in a web of mycelium growing within the nutritious humus. She’s not surprised. Not only that, the mycelium connects the roots of the pine to that of the birch. They are supporting each other and facilitating their mutual growth.

Clearly not cut out to work for logging companies, Simard finds a job as a researcher first in the Forestry Service then as a Professor at the University of British Columbia. Within both institutions, she sets about devising experiments that scientifically prove what she instinctively knows. What she discovers is sometimes referred to as the ‘worldwide wood’ of underground mycelium connections.

Early on in her career, she discovers that ‘in the case of birch, killing it improved the growth of some of the firs but caused, even more, to die—the opposite of [forester’s] expectations.’ She finds a stasis exists between fungi that threaten woodland and those that feed it when the forest is left undisturbed.

The rest of her career is spent expanding on these findings and trying to convince policymakers to change their approach as a matter of urgency as swathe after swathe of ancient forest is logged and replanted with a doomed regime. She’s considered a maverick and being a young woman doesn’t help. She is laughed at and mocked but as an introvert with a passionate belief in her theories, her resolve rarely wavers. Even as she matures, her experiments never fail to delight her; when they exceed her expectations, we share her joy.

The book continues as it began with a mixture of biography and biology. She takes us on walks through the high mountains, on car rides through the Rockies, on trails with her friends. Each one illustrates how her thoughts are progressing and how the next question to be answered arises from her ability to notice what’s around her. She tells us about her marriage and children, the devastating consequences of her work-life balance on her family and her experience of breast cancer. It’s a rare writer who can relate their personal life in such a way as to enhance a scientific narrative. It appears that observing her relationships and the trials of life only serves to help her define more clearly the direction of her research. For her, life and work are as seamlessly interwoven as the trees in her forests.

It becomes compelling reading as Simard’s descriptions of the landscape are evocative and authoritative. She not only knows the names of all the plants, she understands their growing requirements and how they fit into the ecosystem. For instance, we are informed about the biology of the huckleberry. We know that the sweetest berries are low slung and picked on an august day. We can almost taste them in a pie based on Granny Winnie’s recipe, cooked on a tiny stove out on the trail.

We live through a few moments of high tension arising from Simard’s intrepid exploration of the wilderness in her quest for answers. She hangs in a tree for hours with a mother bear on patrol beneath her; being on her own in the back of beyond she’s trailed by wolves; she skis frantically over icy trails trying to exorcise her thoughts about the cancer she was facing.

Through her progressive questioning, Simard discovers that trees communicate underground through an intricate web of fungi. At the centre of this web is an individual “mother tree” which helps to coordinate a support system that, while favouring her own offspring, also nurtures other trees in the forest community, thus creating a healthy, complex ecosystem. A dying mother tree will pass on nutrients to the community retaining carbon within the forest rather than leaving it to disperse.

Simard increasingly respects the ancient ways of the Native people who lived in harmony with the land long before her family of settlers arrived. She admires them for their acute observational skills, for honouring nature and for giving back as well as taking.

We can compare the condition of the land where it has been torn apart, each resource treated in isolation from the rest, to where it has been cared for according to the Secwepemc principal of k̓wseltktnews (translated as “we are all related”) or the Salish concept of nə́ c̓aʔmat ct (“we are one”).

We must heed the answers we’re being given.

When the truth about climate change becomes apparent, Simard’s next hurdle is to persuade policymakers to adapt their practices to mitigate the worst effects of global warming on the forests. She believes that planting to fit the new circumstances can be achieved by working with the established interrelationships within the forest.

Despite all the setbacks and the scepticism she has met throughout her career, Simard ends on a note of optimism.

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.

After closing the book, I gaze out of the bus window. I’m faced with a barren landscape of failed planting. But in some areas, small stands of young trees have grown together and look healthy. And these trees are of different species, linking up for mutual support, I now know. With luck, these lonely clumps will merge and the jungle will be in balance once more. I am grateful to Simard for telling me so much and for enabling me to see below the surface.

Review by Deborah Gray

This was a fascinating study of how trees communicate through the mycelium network, maintaining healthy forests and fighting climate change.
A great mixture of scientific writing & a personal memoir. The author talks of her life, family and experiences and research of forestry in Canada.
A book you will learn a lot from and one I would recommend.
My thanks go to the publisher, author and Netgalley in providing this arc in return for honest review.

This book is a memoir of a scientist who devoted her career to studying trees after she realised that traditional logging practices in her native Canada resulted in unhealthy looking trees. She discovered that trees are all connected via mycorrhizal fungi and are able to communicate with each other. Even more astonishingly, older trees are able to care for younger trees and even able to recognise which saplings have grown from their own seeds! The parallels with humans are clear.

The book covers the author’s scientific experiments in easy-to-understand detail, as well as her struggles in getting the industry to accept her findings. It also looks at her own story, her relationship with trees, her family and health problems, as well as why she chose the career that she did.

Although the book is quite science heavy, it is explained in clear, accessible language and having the stories of the author’s family life interspersed does prevent the book from becoming too dry. However, there is a lot of both science and memoir so readers who may prefer one over the other need to be prepared for this. It is a fascinating, thought-provoking book that really makes you appreciate the wisdom of nature. The author is clearly very passionate about her subject. I really enjoyed this book - it showed me that everything in nature has a purpose, even things that appear initially to be unimportant. I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the web of nature and it’s intricacies.

With thanks to Netgalley and Allen Lane for providing a free review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I wasn't sure I'd enjoy this book but I genuinely did, although it may not seem like it because of the middling score. I’d recommend this mainly for eco-minded people, biologists and fans of nature. Generally this is an autobiography of a researcher who spent a career in forestry and moved into research about how the various living things in a forest interact with each other, directly and indirectly. It is really a fascinating topic and presented in a relatively easy to understand way, sort of like a Brian Cox or Neil Degrasse Tyson sort of television show aimed at the general public.

The lengths that that author went to demonstrate the many experiments was quite in-depth and explained in a way that most people would be able to understand. There’s a bit of personal journey in the book, which isn’t what I was really expecting but shows that the author really cares very deeply about her work (obviously, or she wouldn’t be doing it!).

A harsh review would say that the salient points for ecologically-minded readers could be boiled down to a few pages. However one could make the point that this book is sort of like reading any diet book where you could ‘skip to the end’ and look up the stripped-down facts in a quick search online - but to understand the work, research and motivation behind those facts you really do need to read the whole book. I was pleasantly surprised by this book.

Thank you to #NetGally for this copy of #FindingtheMotherTree

What a humble and humbling book! I learnt myriads of things about the behaviour of trees and loved the technical descriptions of Suzanne Simard's research. It is no mean feat to make a book both scientifically precise and so highly personal, and Suzanne Simard achieves it beautifully. In that way, it reminded me of astrophysicist Sara Seager's The Smallest Lights in the Universe, especially in the parts where Suzanne explains how much of a struggle it is for female academics to juggle their work and their family life. The respect with which Suzanne Simard treats trees and nature in general, as well as the length she's prepared to go to in order to convince other people to show them the same respect, are nothing short of inspiring.

This was a fascinating memoir and and study of how trees communicate through the mycelium network. Part science writing, part life story, the author gives us a very personal history of her family and her own experiences of forestry in Canada. Her journey to discovering the 'Wood Wide Web' is intriguing and well written. Some people may not like the mix of genres, as it is neither strictly a memoir nor strictly science writing, but I found it worked well.

It took me a while to get through this book because I don't always read as speedily with non-fiction. But I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The writing was really beautiful and evocative and I loved the threading of Suzanne's story and life experiences through the story of discovery. I do think she should be more cautious of bears though!

Very well written and thoughtful, educational without ever being close to dull. For anyone who wants to know more about the world we live in.

An extraordinary and hugely important read, delving into the way trees communicate and the implications for creating healthy forests and combating climate change. Learning how trees connect and better understanding the importance of biodiversity has been a lifelong study for the author and her findings have led to more responsible forestry in many places. A very compelling read.

I love this book and how Simard interweaves her family history with how her knowledge around how trees create communities grew. However, I would love it even more if there were some diagrams of the instruments she used in her experiments and maybe of how the experiments look out in the field (mapping which trees were under which conditions). Absolutely fascinating and a crucial book for these times when so much depends upon understanding and respecting our planet.

I have to admit I'm a true nemophile and happiest and most at peace when surrounded by natural forests and woodlands. I find trees fascinating, especially their wisdom, their way of connecting, building communities and protecting and nourishing each other. I had read The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben a couple of years ago, which was concise and full facts, insights and included beautiful photographs of various trees and forests and also I loved Overstory by Richard Powers. It is fascinating that this author, Suzanne Simard, was a driving force and source of inspiration behind both of those books. Whilst this book was in places more scientific than the others I enjoyed it. This lovely book provided additional insights to the lives of trees, and especially the role of the Mother Trees with their families interwoven with the biography of the author and the role of her family forestry. Some beautiful photographs in this book, but I would have like some more, especially when I considered previous books on similar topic. Overall I found the book to be highly enjoyable, and I would recommend it to tree lovers everywhere. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard⁣
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Have you heard of the “wood wide web”? A phrase coined to describe the way that the forest is intimately linked through mycorrhizal networks that share nutrients between different species of trees through their root networks. ⁣
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In the 1990’s Simard’s research was published in the journal ‘Nature’ and editors nicknamed her findings with the phrase. Subsequently this has inspired other biologists and nature writers, including; Robert Macfarlane’s Underland, Peter Wollheben’s The Hidden Life of Trees and Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life. In The Overstory Richard Powers modelled his character Patricia on Simard. ⁣
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A list of some of my most treasured nature reads inspired by the same incredible woman. ⁣
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Simard shows that the forest is in constant cooperation and communication. Trees do not compete for light and nutrients but work together for the well-being of the whole. Thus setting an inspiring example for us mere humans. ⁣
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Simard’s book is the source of tree knowledge, the wellspring of scientific tree research. Her groundbreaking work is described in a way that is clear and easy to follow, interspersed with her personal life journey. Neither of these threads have been a walk in the park for her. Her journey is one of frustration and discovery, of love and loss, of connection to others and our home on the earth. I am in awe of her bravery, her wisdom and her ability to communicate this in such a readable way.

A few years ago I read The Overstory by Richard Powers, a book that changed the way I see trees, and nature in general. One of the characters in the novel, Dr Pat, was inspired a real person, Suzanne Simard. When Suzanne Simard's book was publisher earlier this year, I knew I had to read it. And I did this summer and absolutely loved it! The book is about Simard's lifelong quest to find out about the networks between trees  in order to be better to the trees and the forests. She comes from a family where felling trees for timber was a tradition handed down from generation to generation. When it was her turn, she noticed that the way forests were clear cut and replanted was not sustainable and she wanted to find out why the naturally growing forests seemed so much stronger than the plantations humans tried to raise. She found out that trees communicate via mycorrhizal connections and that this even happens between different species. The scientific community had always believed in natural competition but Simard discovered that collaboration between different plants and species was also possible. In a healthy natural forest Mother Trees nurture and 'teach' their young, but also other trees in the community, so that all trees can be strong and healthy together. All of this is told as part of her fascinating life, and the personal aspects only add to the riveting narrative. This book made me realise again that every little thing in nature has a function, a reason to be there, and if we were more respectful, patient, and observant, and willing to learn from nature more, just as Simard is, we could learn a lot about how to be better to nature, and maybe even to each other.

The Wood-Wide Web - Subterranean Exchange, Caring and Wisdom

This fascinating book blew my mind. Suzanne Simard is a child of a multi-generational logging family living in the forests of British Columbia at the time when logging practices were far more in tune with nature than the disastrous monoculture system that is favoured today. She grew up watching, learning, exploring, and observing the circle of life in the forest, and as she probed deeper and deeper into its mysteries she became aware that there were far more questions than answers.

There was never any doubt in her mind about what she wanted to do with her life.
At university she studied and qualified in forest sciences, and was employed by a large forestry company, the first woman to work for them. She was tasked with the job of assessing established forestry plantations where she quickly discovered that all was not well with the single-species planting method used, and is still in use, today to the exclusion of all other plant and wildlife species.

Through a lifetime of painstaking observation and study of plant behaviour and communication, and by designing hundreds of peer-reviewed experiments to prove without doubt that plant roots plug into extensive fungal mycorrhizal networks to courier water and nutrients to their own – and other – species as required. It is now generally accepted that trees are stronger, healthier and more disease-resistant if planted amongst other species.

Simard has also observed that plants can send “warning signals” through the network (referred to as the Wood-Wide Web!) in the face of disease or perceived danger, and also that the large, older “mother trees” in the forest link into their own seedlings and “care” for them until they are self-sufficient. These observations have split the scientific community down the middle. The jury is still out.

She continually stresses that what she refers to as the aboriginal people (not referring specifically to Australia but to all so-called “native people” such as American Indians) had an innate and intimate knowledge of how to tread lightly on the earth for the earth’s – and their own – mutual benefit. Modern mankind has done itself a grave disservice by ignoring this encyclopaedic store of knowledge.

This fascinating book recounts in often very moving prose the author’s love affair with nature and how this intertwines with her own often challenging life story.
She was a woman in a man’s world, and in bravely challenging the management practices of the time, it was doubly hard for her to persuade, and prove to, the forestry companies that they had in effect done what society, worldwide has done and is still doing - declaring war on the natural ecosystem for their own consumer-driven bottom line. She proved that forests with their complex adaptive systems are wired for healing, that everything is interconnected, and that nature, with its wondrous intelligence and patience, will heal itself if given half a chance. But, and a big BUT, there’s only so much hurt that the earth can bear – here the increasing threat of climate change comes to mind

I’ve been a tree hugger most of my life, so this review can hardly be called objective! My heart would give the book five stars, but I’m giving it four and a half as my head tells me that some people may find the often detailed descriptions of the many scientific experiments she conducted – and is still conducting – a bit beyond them.

Lastly, to quote the author in the book’s introduction: “This is not a book about how we can save the trees. This is a book about how the trees might save us.” Let’s all take note of this fact.

Bennie Bookworm.

The Elite Reviewer Group received a copy of the book to review.

An absolutely fascinating read, I went out and bought the hardcover after 2 chapters. Would highly recommend

'Finding the Mother Tree' is a wonderful memoir. Suzanne Simard is a brilliant scientist, and writes beautifully. She narrates growing up in the countryside and the woods, where her family worked for generations, getting a job with a logging company and starting doing research - progressing to becoming a published researcher and a professor. She also writes about her personal tragedies very movingly.
It is quite science-heavy but I found it reasonably easy to understand and to follow, and I feel I really learned a lot! She doesn't try to take shortcuts when it comes to explaining the science, and what she has found is remarkable - the way trees share information and resources, the way everything is interconnected... It's a beautiful read.

(Twitter)
A beautiful memoir here from @DrSuzanneSimard ‘Finding the Mother Tree’. As we learn more and more about the inter-connectivity of trees and how they communicate we must have more respect. Upcoming film two of my fave actors. @AllenLaneBooks @PenguinUKBooks