Finding the Mother Tree discussion

[Becky]

Please add your comments about Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest here.

Thanks,
Becky

[Sher]

Hello Everyone:
My copy of this book arrived, and my husband promptly read it- well he is almost done, and I can begin July 1st. He’s giving it high praise.

Curious who else will be reading and discussing with me this month…. Thanks, Sher

[Cindy Ann]

I'm traveling across the US (east to west) in July, but hoping to read it while on the road. It looks really good.

[Sher]

Hi Cindy Ann— that sounds good. Please post if you get a chance and let us know what you think of the book. I’ll post impressions as I go along. Safe and pleasant travels…

[Julie]

I waited for it’s release. I. Love. This. Book. I hope to have more time to comment over the weekend.

[[deleted user]]

My hold came in from the library, but I think I'm going to buy it. It looks wonderful. I grew up in timber country and worked on NW forest protection in my 20s after witnessing the environmental, social and economic destruction Weyerhaueser and Georgia-Pacific wreaked on my community from their unsustainable logging in the 70s and 80s. I worked with the OSU scientist she talks about and did her graduate work under--Dave Perry. He was wonderful. Hope to start diving in this week-end.

[Julie]

I love this book because I love forests. Suzanne Simard asks the right questions about the forest and runs good research projects. Finally, scientists are breaking into a whole view of the life of the forest instead of simply managing the board feet of the forest. What she finds is remarkable. That trees and forests and mycelial networks are as fascinating and complex as anything we've ever seen.

I was surprised at first that this book is written like a memoir. Once I was several chapters in, it made total sense. The life of Suzanne Simard and the forest are not separate. I look forward to your comments as you read this month.

[Emily]

I'm eagerly waiting to receive my copy from the library. Should be available in the next couple of days so I'll be ready to start on the 1st!

[Amanda]

My copy is ready for pick up today!
I have a long weekend starting July 1st and can't wait to begin reading it then.

[Sher]

Fun to see everyone is so enthusiastic about our July book. I've read The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World. and
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, so I will be really interested to see what the July book brings to the topic. :)

[Julie]

Sher, I liked some of the ideas brought forth in Hidden Life of Trees, but I think the book is a mess and needs to be sent back for editing. Entangled Life is great so far. I’ve read 1/2 of it. I like how it asks so many questions on the edge of science. Questions that upcoming generations will answer. Suzanne Simard has been asking questions and the finding answers through years of research. She is currently conducting research over several forest ecosystems in BC from south to north in part to study climate change effects. She is a quiet super heroine.

[Stephanie]

Hi there - I just started this book the other day. I finished chapter 6 this morning and am just IN LOVE with this book!! I really love how it is written.. the author really puts the reader at ease even though she is taking us through the intricacies of her discoveries.

[Stephanie]

Julie - I felt the same way about Hidden Life - I didn't finish it, the author's presentation did not pull me in as I had hoped.

[Sher]

Stephanie-- great to see you here; I'm so glad you found us! I'll start the book tomorrow.

Julie:
I had trouble finishing _Hidden Life_, because the topic was presented in such a way that it felt too touchy-feely- too anthropomorphic for me. Yet, some of the main ideas have stayed with me. It was hard to review because it was such a mixed bag. I generally don't like memoir style writing.... so I am worried about _Finding the Mother Tree_, but I sure will relax and give it a try.

[Julie]

Sher, exactly ditto on Hidden Life!

[Cara]

I'm glad there was so much interest in reading this for book of the month! I have my copy and hope to start reading it this weekend. Julie, Stephanie, and Sher: I felt very similarly about Hidden Life of Trees. I have much higher hopes for Finding the Mother Tree.

[Sher]

Hi Cara- I am glad you will be joining us. Perhaps our first discussion together though we have been chatting elsewhere around the site.

[Becky]

Unfortunately, I'm 5th in the queue to get this at my rural library, so it's doubtful that I'll see it still in July. I may still read it when it becomes available, depending on how everyone feels about it here, though!

[Stephanie]

I am just starting Chapter 14 - was holding back on sharing too much but interested in everyone's thoughts so far. I love that the author is describing her experiments, she's very thorough.

[Sher]

Hi Stephanie
I am slow getting starting. We have been dealing with a lot of fires and issues here-- I hope to start soon! Sorry--Sher

[Iris]

I listened to a long interview with Simard (Point Reyes Bookstore) and look forward to reading the book. There’s a 6 week wait through the library so I may buy it.

[Sher]

Hello:
I’ve made it up through C 5, and I am really enjoying her story and the history of her family and the photographs. Much of the material is familiar since I read _Entangled Life_, but it’s presented through an interesting memoir, and she makes more of an attempt to explain why some of these things happen within the fungal network.

[Amanda]

I'm about where you're at, Sher, finishing Chapter 5. I agree, having read Entangled Life - the terminology and subjects are similar but presented in a way that's much more tangible to me. Hands on. Semard's work, experiences and observations in the field are more enjoyable for me to read than the referencing of many studies and researchers. She's conducting the studies and I love being along for the progress. I'm enjoying her storytelling and the sense that I feel these stories are leading us to discovery.

[Cindy Ann]

I totally agree about the accessibility and enjoyment factor in reading this book compared to Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures. Her family connection to the land, both historical and current is a joy to read and she almost makes the research sound like investigating a mystery. I like her openness about her ethical conflicts with her job requirements and the policies behind those requirements.

[Cindy Ann]

Almost finished. Taking a break for reading to watch her TED talk and review the other resources on https://mothertreeproject.org/about-m...

How is it we don't make learning about Nature a priority? To read about her lifelong campaign to change the minds of foresters is frustrating. I'm glad some influential people finally listened to what she learned, but the part I'm reading now describes how Indigenous People already knew all about how interconnected the forest was, and how colonists ignored it all. Sigh.

[Cara]

I have read through Chapter 10 and am loving this book so far. As others have said, I think that reading about the author's experience in the field and her family background adds a lot to the book and provides a nice balance to the scientific material. Though many of these concepts are somewhat common knowledge today, it feels very meaningful to read about the original experiments that provided evidence for the connections between trees through fungal networks (though they were known already to many Indigenous peoples, as Cindy Ann pointed out).

I have really appreciated reading about her experiences as a young woman scientist and how she writes candidly about her insecurities and worries, though she was -- and is -- obviously a very competent and groundbreaking researcher. To have her doctoral research published in Nature... wow!

I'm also struck by how involved her whole family was in her early research. What a treat to have her parents and siblings helping out with field work -- seems like that would be very unusual these days.

Still trying to wrap my head around the idea of cooperation as such a foundational force in nature. I love the idea but it is so counter to how we were taught to think about evolution, forest succession, etcetera.

[Sher]

Cara:
I was writing a responses to you and both my donkey and my young hunting dog came over and bumped the iPad, and the post disappeared! So, if you see this twice—sorry.

Actually- they want my attention— oops -let me go inside and try this again

[Sher]

Cara:
A few reflections-- if an older tree helps a sick tree or young trees survive, then is that still evolution as we learn about it in the Beak of the Finch for example? The species still survive even if the helping individual dies. I also thought about bees and then (ants and the idea of the superoganism) - this seems to go against evolution ( maybe), but In this case many beings help the species survive. If cooperation helps the species survive, then it seems to still work, or is that the issue that is startling, because we think of survival more in terms of individual action and change...?

It may be that research will reveal more and more cooperation between animals in nature--

Will we survive through cooperation?

[Sher]

Cindy Ann wrote: "Almost finished. Taking a break for reading to watch her TED talk and review the other resources on https://mothertreeproject.org/about-m...

How is it we don't make learning abo..."

Cindy Ann- I really enjoyed exploring this page you linked. I also enjoyed meeting our author and hearing her speak. How we manage the forest in a dramatically changing climate is so important.

[Amanda]

I enjoyed her TED Talk after finishing reading the book. I'll check out the link to the mother tree project.
Cara, I agree about the involvement of her family as research assistants throughout. Truly a life labor of love and dedication, involving those around her.

I hope men will enjoy this book just as much, but I really felt that it reaches out to us women, through her perseverance as a female in a male-dominated field, and through maternal experiences and instincts, to the mama grizzly, and the nurturing name of Mother Tree.
I loved this line on p. 198: "What we do in these early years of (seedling) development, after all, determines future resilience. Just like it does with children."

Excellent descriptions of interconnectedness on p. 294.

[Ray]

Sher wrote: "Cara:
A few reflections-- if an older tree helps a sick tree or young trees survive, then is that still evolution as we learn about it in the Beak of the Finch for example? The species still surviv..."

My entomology professor used to say that for bees, the hive is the unit of selection. I tend to agree since they are all clones. The genetics all come from the queen. I am sure that the same is true of ants or termites.

Large colonies of mushrooms and other fungi may all be one organism, connected by the underground network of mycorrhiza, and some trees are similarly colonial.

[Cara]

Ray wrote: "Sher wrote: "Cara:
A few reflections-- if an older tree helps a sick tree or young trees survive, then is that still evolution as we learn about it in the Beak of the Finch for example? The species..."

Sher and Ray, those are great points! Something else that helped me understand the idea of cooperation was the discussion about mother trees selectively helping their kin (but also other trees, too). On page 270 she writes:

"These old trees were not only favoring their kin, they were also ensuring the community in which they were raising their kin was healthy."

So, healthy forests benefit everyone.

Overall, I just loved this book so much. I am looking forward to watching Simard's TED talk and then might try to put together some more thoughts.

[Cara]

Amanda wrote: "I hope men will enjoy this book just as much, but I really felt that it reaches out to us women, through her perseverance as a female in a male-dominated field, and through maternal experiences and instincts, to the mama grizzly, and the nurturing name of Mother Tree."

Amanda, I had similar thoughts. I loved that aspect of the book -- and that Simard didn't diminish those parts of herself or her work. But I very much hope that men will read and learn from it, too.

[Julie]

My July has been so busy that I haven’t had time to reread and comment more on this wonderful book. I appreciate and agree with all of your responses. If you’re seeing our messages, but haven’t read this book yet, I highly encourage you to add it TBR or read it now. Simard can also be found on Ted and YouTube too. Trees! We need them!

[Rebecca]

Hello all! Just finished & I wish I had read this before Entangled Life & The Hidden Life of Trees, so I would get to discover what Suzanne found along with her in this book.
I love her respect for the trees & how well she bridges imagination, philosophy & science. It was also wonderful to learn about the life of an awesome woman in science & I appreciated her honesty about her introversion, mistakes & difficulties - I held my breath all throughout her retelling of the conferences & the trip to the forest with the policy makers!

[Sher]

Hi Rebecca:
Thanks so much for posting and sharing your enthusiasm for this book and for the author. I also appreciate your reflections regarding how it might have been if you had read this book before Entangled Life and Hidden Life of Trees. I asked the same question. :)

[Iris]

What I like about this Nature Literature group is that the book selections so often help bridge the chasm between the scientific writers and the reading public. I wouldn't choose to read her doctoral dissertation but Simard's book helps me to understand the function of the mychorrizal connections among trees and the importance of preserving the soil in order to foster a healthy ecosystem. This literature is essential to educating those of us who advocate for sustainable forestry, farming, fishing, ranching and other environmental policies.

[Sher]

Iris wrote: "What I like about this Nature Literature group is that the book selections so often help bridge the chasm between the scientific writers and the reading public. I wouldn't choose to read her doctor..."

Yes Iris- well said. The books we seem to choose do bridge the gap nicely between the hard core science and what the nature lit lover really needs to know and reflect upon. Thanks for sharing your observation!