Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

by Suzanne Simard

We think that most important clues are large, but the world loves to remind us that they can be beautifully small.

She’d cared for us day by day, in little ways that added up. Come to think of it, the lichens and mosses and algae and fungi were also steady as could be, gradually building up the soil, quietly in tandem. Things—and people—working together so that something noticeable could occur.

Regardless of the presence of discrete mycorrhizal networks, all the plants in this forest belonged to one another.

What am I if I don’t give back?

the earth sometimes simply cannot bear—cannot recover from—too enormous an injury. There is only so much hurt it can take. Some connections are too broken, the blood too drained, even for the magnificent, healing roots and tenacity of a powerful Mother Tree.