Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

by Suzanne Simard

compared with pathogenic and saprophytic fungi, mycorrhizal fungi were just not considered important.

The mycorrhizal symbiosis was credited with the migration of ancient plants from the ocean to land about 450 to 700 million years ago.

Colonization of plants with fungi enabled them to acquire sufficient nutrients from the barren, inhospitable rock to gain a toehold and survive on land. These authors were suggesting that cooperation was essential to evolution.

Then why did foresters place so much emphasis...

Suillus was a mycorrhizal fungus too.

Williams Lake,

Kelly’s

Jean

Stryen Creek,

Stein ...

Ly...

Lill...

Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii).

Jean,

Nlaka’pamux people.

The Coast Salish people think trees have personhood too.

“The Coast Salish say that the trees also teach about their symbiotic nature. That under the forest floor, there are fungi that keep the trees connected and strong.”

bluebunch wheatgrass—seeds

Queen Anne’s lace

Robyn

Don,

Haha

I had a message but didn’t yet know how to convey it in an engaging story.

Kamloops.

Robyn

Jean

Mum,

Grannie Winnie

Bill,

Dad

Mar...

Auntie Betty

Haha

Simile

lodgepole pine surrounded by dead aspen, Douglas fir among lifeless birches, spruce free of neighboring huckleberries.

Barb,

Barb

Williams Lake

Corva...

digging more deeply into exactly how deciduous and coniferous trees ...

Kaml...

Tiffany,

Onward Ranch,

Don

“All the research I’m showing today is published in peer-reviewed articles.”

Gunning for fast early growth by weeding out native plants in hopes of future profits was not going to end well. For anyone.

half the free-to-grow pines now have some infection or injury that will eventually kill or maim them.”

She doesn’t give us is name. Might as well declare war?

Joe,

Don’s model had forecast that productivity of century-old pine forests would dwindle by half where alders were no longer present to add nitrogen back to the soil.