Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

Suzanne Simard, a professor and member of the department of forest and conservation sciences at the University of British Columbia, describes her life’s work in her memoir Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest. Published in 2021, the memoir traces concurrent developments in Simard’s scientific and personal lives. Simard explores themes of generosity, feminism in the sciences, and the interconnection of forests and human society. This summary references the 2021 hardcover version published by Knopf.

Summary

Simard begins her career employed by a logging company tracking the growing habits of clear-cuts in the forests of British Columbia. Simard’s family history—generations of hand-fallers who respected and connected with the forests—inspires her to seek a way to work with the forests that doesn’t depend upon harmful, capitalistic practices. She earns a job at the Forest Service under the direction of Alan Vyse and gains experience in conducting field experiments. Though these early experiments focus on herbicide usage and free-to-grow policies, Simard finds the experience in conducting scientific experiments crucial.

Simard applies for graduate studies at Oregon State University in Corvallis and moves there to pursue her master’s degree. There, she meets her future husband Don, and the two establish a life together that moves between Corvallis and Canada depending on their research. As Simard’s research experience grows, she becomes more outspoken against the Forest Service’s forestry practices. She presents research that underlines the cooperative nature of the forest. However, she encounters gender bias from forestry policymakers and is ostracized from their community. Simard nevertheless continues to pursue this path of inquiry. She struggles against the similarly misogynistic comments of her brother, Kelly, until his unexpected death. Simard marries Don and commits herself to her research.

Simard’s main research for both her master’s and doctoral degrees focuses on the generous and cooperative nature of interspecies mycorrhizal networks. She studies the relationships between alder and pine, and later birches and fir, to confirm that these different species share resources through their root systems. Simard gives birth to two daughters as her influence grows in the field. She is offered a professorship at the University of British Columbia, allowing her to leave the Forest Service and conduct research that directly combats their practices.

Moving out of the forest and to Vancouver to pursue this professorship, jeopardizes her marriage, and several years later she divorces Don. Her research expands to include charting a map of the forest’s mycorrhizal network with her graduate students. She begins a relationship with Mary, an old friend from Corvallis. Simard is diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, leading her to have a mastectomy. While undergoing chemotherapy, Simard continues to oversee research into mycorrhizal networks. She begins formulating her concept of “Mother Trees,” which proves highly influential to the cultural understanding of tree behavior.

After Simard is declared cancer-free, she returns to her research and university work. She begins including her eldest daughter, Hannah, in her field experiments to teach Hannah about the interconnected and generous nature of their native forests. Simard currently conducts research on her Mother Tree project and other projects focused on the wider implications of interspecies cooperation. Her cultural influence includes popular TED Talks, the concept of the Mother Tree as depicted in James Cameron’s film Avatar, and the adaptation of Finding the Mother Tree into a film starring Amy Adams.