“But man is part of nature, and his war
against nature is inevitably a war against himself.” Rachel Carson
Working in the logging industry, Suzanne Simard introduced the concept of cooperation among trees; it was based on a discovery for which she was mocked and shunned. Her finding had the potential to turn forest practices upside down.
Policies and practices in forestry had been
established on the basis of competition as the key to the survival of trees.
Decades ago, Suzanne Simard’s discovery on
the way birch trees support the health of the fir trees was the beginning of an
ongoing journey that would study the kind of interaction the field of forestry
had ignored for so long: cooperation among trees.
You may wonder how trees cooperate with each other when all you’ve heard in school was about competition.
Just as Albert Frank was fiercely criticized
when he introduced the concept of symbiosis, Suzanne Simard was dismissed when
she explained the need to let birch trees coexist with fir trees to support the
health of the desired fir trees. Birch trees were considered “weeds”; therefore,
policies to spray and kill those trees had always been in place.
Thankfully, Simard found another job at the
University of British Columbia and she continued to work hard on her path of
research, asking questions that challenged the blindsided system and paved the
way to comprehend how trees communicate with each other.
Suzanne Simard’s research showed that trees connect underground with the roots of other trees through an intricate network of fungi (the mycorrhizae), and their health and resilience depend on this complex web.
In her
book Finding the Mother Tree, Simard details the story of her research and threads
into it her own life experiences, delving into her childhood, youth, family
relationships, motherhood, and other relevant matters, like her cancer diagnosis
and treatment.
I appreciate how she was able to integrate so
many subjects into a thought-provoking book, and I could empathize with her on
every aspect of her journey.
“I have
come full circle to stumble onto some of the indigenous ideals: Diversity
matters. And everything in the universe is connected—between the forests and
the prairies, the land and the water, the sky and the soil, the spirits and the
living, the people and all other creatures.”
Suzanne Simard also focuses on the role of Mother trees. These are the oldest trees in a forest, and they are pivotal to the survival of young seedlings and various other trees, for they provide nourishment, making the forest strong and resilient. Mother trees are the foundation that underpins the integrity of a forest, and they are vital to the diversity of the woods.
Simard reveals the power of her scientific
observations by adding poetical reflections:
“Imagine
the flow of energy from the Mother Trees as powerful as the ocean tide, as
strong as the sun’s rays, as irrepressible as the wind in the mountains, as
unstoppable as a mother protecting her child. I knew that power in myself even
before I’d uncovered these forest conversations. I’d felt it in the energy of
the maple in my yard, flowing into me as I contemplated Dr. Malpass’s wisdom
about embracing the mystery of life, sensing that magical emergent phenomena
when we work together, the synergy that reductionist science so often misses,
leading us to mistakenly simplify our societies and ecosystems.”
After she survived her breast cancer treatment, she asked for some kind of reassurance to get on with her life, but all she encountered was the mystery of life, so she used her knowledge and passion for trees to create The Mother Tree Project.
“Our
goal is to further develop an emergent philosophy: complexity science. Based on
embracing collaboration in addition to competition—indeed, working with all the
interactions that make up the forest—complexity science can transform forestry
practices into what is adaptive and holistic and away from what has been overly
authoritarian and simplistic.”
Perhaps this book will confirm what your
intuition perceives in your own interactions with trees and forests; or it may
offer you a new window of contemplation, immersed in a deeper understanding of
the trees, inviting you to cherish those moments of communion.
“There
is no moment too small in the world. Nothing should be lost. Everything has a
purpose, and everything is in need of care. This is my creed. Let us embrace
it. We can watch it rise.”
Feel free to visit The Mother Tree Project:
To keep marveling at the ways trees
communicate, check this video by Suzanne Simard:
You may want to read my writing on Entangled Life if you haven't had a chance to read it yet:
https://juliahoneswritinglife.blogspot.com/2021/12/entangled-life.html
