Finding the Mother Tree

Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

By: Suzanne Simard

Narrated by: Suzanne Simard

Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • From the world's leading forest ecologist who forever changed how people view trees and their connections to one another and to other living things in the forest—a moving, deeply personal journey of discovery

“Finding the Mother Tree reminds us that the world is a web of stories, connecting us to one another. [The book] carries the stories of trees, fungi, soil and bears—and of a human being listening in on the conversation. The interplay of personal narrative, scientific insights and the amazing revelations about the life of the forest make a compelling story.”—Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass

Suzanne Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide.

In this, her first book, now available in audio, Simard brings us into her world, the intimate world of the trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truths—that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp, but are a complicated, interdependent circle of life; that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities with communal lives not that different from our own.

Simard writes—in inspiring, illuminating, and accessible ways—how trees, living side by side for hundreds of years, have evolved, how they learn and adapt their behaviors, recognize neighbors, compete and cooperate with one another with sophistication, characteristics ascribed to human intelligence, traits that are the essence of civil societies—and at the center of it all, the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful forces that connect and sustain the others that surround them.

And Simard writes of her own life, born and raised into a logging world in the rainforests of British Columbia, of her days as a child spent cataloging the trees from the forest and how she came to love and respect them. And as she writes of her scientific quest, she writes of her own journey, making us understand how deeply human scientific inquiry exists beyond data and technology, that it is about understanding who we are and our place in the world.

©2021 Suzanne Simard (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

*WINNER of the 2021 Banff Mountain Book Prize in Mountain Environment and Natural History*

*WINNER of the National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature*

*WINNER of the 2022 BC and Yukon Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award*

*SHORTLISTED for the 2022 BC and Yukon Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Book Prize*

*SHORTLISTED for the 2021 Science Writers and Communicators of Canada Book Award*

*FINALIST for the 2023 SCWES Book Awards*

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER

One of:

Vogue's "13 Books to Help You Reconnect with Nature"

Electric Lit’s “7 Books by Women Writers About Humanity’s Relationship to Trees”

“Simard has spent decades with her hands in the soil, designing experiments and piecing together the remarkable mysteries of forest ecology . . . elegantly detailed . . . deeply personal . . . A testament to Simard’s skill as a science communicator. Her research is clearly defined, the steps of her experiments articulated, her astonishing results explained and the implications laid bare: We ignore the complexity of forests at our peril.”—The New York Times

“Simard’s memoir describes the intersecting webs of her career and private life that brought her to rewrite not only the forestry canon but our understanding of nature itself. She is an intellectual force whose powerful ideas overshadow her name . . . Like Charles Darwin’s findings, Simard’s results are so revolutionary and controversial that they have quickly worked their way into social theory, urban planning, culture and art. Simard’s work knocked 19th-century notions of inevitable competition off their pedestals. If a forest is a commons where the fate of the weakest is tied to that of the strongest, then we have a lot of rethinking to do.”—The Washington Post

“[Simard] shares the wisdom of a life of listening to the forest . . . a scientific memoir as gripping as any HBO drama series.”—The Observer

Take The Time to Dig In

My eyes are opened to things I never knew to look for after spending time, deep into the pages of this vital book, with Dr. Simard and her tenacious work on behalf of our forests.

As one who lost every seeming stitch of life on four lushly wood acres in the Sierra mountains in the Creek Fire of 2020, I have stood heartbroken among the blackened and craggy remains of long loved tree friends and wondered how, or if, the forest would ever return. It won’t in my lifetime. If I’m lucky, my now grown children will see it in its fullness again by the end of their lives, if we all wake up to climate change and make the concerted efforts we surely must if our own species is to survive.

This is a treasure map for seekers of fortune. In it lies the breath we breathe and guides us to the knowledge necessary to sustain it, protect it, love it, and pass it on as the good stewards of the earth we are charged with being. We occupy this sphere in space with other vital beings and we are all locked into a dance dependent on one another. As I write this fires are raging again, in the summer of 2021, across the West and Pacific Northwest of the US and Canada, and trees and forests are in flames.

Please read Dr. Simard’s massive research woven into a riveting tale and ponder it. Then share the knowledge you gather, like the Mother Trees do, and perhaps we can save our tree friends, our oceans, our beauty, our air, and each other.

Eye-opening research!

I really liked learning of this exemplary research and the battles the author experienced and overcame by hard work, determination and courage. In presenting this novel research and amazing findings it has motivated me as a restoration ecologist to appreciate the intricacies of the ecological community. I did not like hearing about the family break culminating in becoming a Lesbian, as if it was an accomplishment. I am really saddened for her girls and former husband.

So glad I found this book!

I loved this book. I'm so glad I found it. It's read by the author which I loved. Really great book.

Inspiring and informative

I learn about the way trees interact incide the soil, and also about the life of a researcher, teacher and forest lover, and about the forests of the North, different from the tropical latitudes I am used to

Amazing

This has been the most amazing find. It has taught me alot more of how to expand my green thump. How love and knowledge of things can help something, that might die off grow with alittle bit of love and support. Thank you so very much.❤️

Be inspired!

Although there was a lot of detail in this book it never bored me. The story is very inspiring and helped me to learn a lot about nature. I would highly recommend this book - especially the audible version.

pioneer

love her nerdy passion, and contribution, mixed with her personal story and sacrifice. sending her my love and thankfulness. inspired to teach how all is connected and to further my own hobby research into earth, gut and blood. sure we have yet to grasp how our bodies work with fungi just as trees have their secrets so do we. takes brave pioneer to venture where no one gone before, often at great personal cost and challenge. thank you suzanne

The most important story

Deeply moving , beautifully written and filled with scientific and ancient knowledge about how the forest and all the living creatures that inhabit it collaborate to create a healthy environment. The kind of book everyone should read to change perceptions and attitudes we so badly need if we are to survive as a human species on this planet we were given to care for.

Amazing!!

It's easy to get lost in this book! Thank you for sharing your story in such a generous and genuine way.

Please tell me more is coming

Incredible. Please tell us more is coming. I didn’t want this to end. Thank you.