Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

Suzanne Simard, the world’s leading forest ecologist and the scientist who forever changed how people view trees and their connections to one another, comes a moving, deeply personal journey of discovery.

Suzanne Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence who has been compared to Rachel Carson, and whose work has influenced James Cameron and Richard Powers.

In Finding the Mother Tree, Simard brings us into her world and shows us that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp, but are a complicated, interdependent circle of life, and that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks.

Trees perceive one another, learn and adapt their behaviors, recognize neighbors, and remember the past. They have agency about the future, elicit warnings and mount defenses, and compete and cooperate with one another just like humans do. At the center of this vast network are the Mother Trees: mysterious, powerful forces that connect and sustain those that surround them.

Simard uses her own journey to demonstrate that scientific inquiry exists beyond data and technology, that it is about understanding who we are and our place in the world. Through Simard’s life we see that the Mother Tree that nurtures the forest the way that families and communities influence human societies, and how these inseparable bonds enable all survival.

About the Author

SUZANNE SIMARD was born in the Monashee Mountains of British Columbia and was educated at the University of British Columbia and Oregon State University. She is Professor of Forest Ecology in the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry.

Author Residence: Nelson, BC, Canada