Finding The Mother Tree – Review
Finding the Mother Tree is about connections. It illuminates both the unseen threads that bind forests together, and the relationships between people, governments, and forests that are so often misguided.
It is hard to overstate Dr Suzanne Simard’s contribution to the modern understanding of how fungal networks function within a forest. As is illustrated in her book, back when she began investigating this it was something that was seen as unnecessary at best and at worst, bad science. Not only did she face huge difficulties in taking on the established forestry industries, but she faced just as much push back due to her gender. It was not common for a woman to stand up in front of a room of men and tell them, in not so many words, that they were wrong, that they had woefully misunderstood the forests, and that this was going to lead to dreadful consequences down the line.
She was, of course, correct. She was one of the first scientists to prove that trees shared and exchanged nutrients through the fungal network that grew in the soil. That they depended on this. That they did not function solely in competition with each other for resources, but in fact co-operated. This led to an understanding of forest ecologies that was far richer, and far bigger than anyone had previously imaged. Suddenly trees became mothers, sheltering and feeding their saplings in ways that we would more commonly associate with animals.
She coined the term ‘Mother Tree’ when realising that certain trees in the forest appeared to be more integral and important to the network than others. These trees were usually the eldest, and were the mothers of many of the trees in their local areas. It was proven that these trees also maintain the highest number of connections to other trees in the forest. Like the busiest hub in a transport network.
Equally enjoyable and moving is the story of Simard’s personal life that she weaves throughout the book. I particularly loved the stories of the older generations in her family that lived and worked in the forests of British Columbia, sending giant trees down the sides of mountains in log flumes. Some of them missing fingers from chainsaw mishaps, others sporting injuries from miscalculating where a tree would fall. She was able to transport me to world that is now lost to memory with a sensory vividness that is rare among scientific literature.
If you wish to learn more about our forests, about how we can best protect them, and about the woman who revolutionised our understanding of them, then Finding the Mother Tree is a must read.
References
[1] Diana Markosian, Photo of Dr Suzanne Simard (2021) Emergence Magazine <https://emergencemagazine.org/interview/finding-the-mother-tree/> Accessed on 02 September 2021
