June book review- Finding the Mother Tree

Date: Tuesday 8 June

  Finding the Mother Tree  by Suzanne Simard

[Uncovering the wisdom and intelligence of the forest]

 

What do you see when you visit a forest or wood? It depends on where you are of course. Plants and animals, and lots of other stuff too. Every wood or forest is unique, but how do they actually work?

Suzanne Simard wondered that too. She was raised in the massive forests of the Monashee Mountains in British Columbia, part of a family of foresters of Quebecoise descent.  In this highly readable book she tells the story of her life, her scientific work, and her discovery of how woods and forests actually work. 

Understanding how trees communicate between each other, how they collaborate and cooperate using the intricate network of fungal links in the soil beneath their outspread branches, we owe to her research. Although her brilliant doctoral research was published in Nature in 1969 it was largely ignored by both the scientific and forestry establishments.  Suzanne was of course young, female, and asking awkward questions about why current forestry practices were wrecking vast areas of the natural forest. Her subsequent discoveries have serious implications for both how we understand how woods and forests work and should be managed and provide real questions about the currently widespread intensive forestry practice.  

Whether you are a scientist or a forester, or simply someone who enjoys a gripping account of how one inspiring young lady fought against all the odds (and a few grizzly bears) to reveal one of the best hidden of nature’s secrets, then Finding the Mother Tree is essential reading.   Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard is published by Allen Lane (Penguin Random House) ISBN 978-0-241-38934-8

 

Review written by Bob Talbot June 2021 

 

 

 

Previous Posts