Suzanne Simard > Quotes

“Such a marvel, the tenacity of the buds to surge with life every spring, to greet the lengthening days and warming weather with exuberance, no matter what hardships were brought by winter.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“Plants are attuned to one another's strengths and weaknesses, elegantly giving and taking to attain exquisite balance. There is grace in complexity, in actions cohering, in sum totals.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“I don’t presume to grasp Aboriginal knowledge fully. It comes from a way of knowing the earth—an epistemology—different from that of my own culture. It speaks of being attuned to the blooming of the bitterroot, the running of the salmon, the cycles of the moon. Of knowing that we are tied to the land—the trees and animals and soil and water—and to one another, and that we have a responsibility to care for these connections and resources, ensuring the sustainability of these ecosystems for future generations and to honor those who came before. Of treading lightly, taking only what gifts we need, and giving back. Of showing humility toward and tolerance for all we are connected to in this circle of life. But what my years in the forestry profession have also shown me is that too many decision-makers dismiss this way of viewing nature and rely only on select parts of science. The impact has become too devastating to ignore. We can compare the condition of the land where it has been torn apart, each resource treated in isolation from the rest, to where it has been cared for according to the Secwepemc principal of k̓wseltktnews (translated as “we are all related”) or the Salish concept of nə́c̓aʔmat ct (“we are one”). We must heed the answers we’re being given.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“We can continue pushing our earth out of balance, with greenhouse gases accelerating each year, or we can regain balance by acknowledging that if we harm one species, one forest, one lake, this ripples through the entire complex web. Mistreatment of one species is mistreatment of all.

The rest of the planet has been waiting patiently for us to figure that out. Making this transformation requires that humans recommect with nature -- the forests, the prairie, the oceans -- instead of treating everything and everyone as objects for exploitation.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“When Mother Trees—the majestic hubs at the center of forest communication, protection, and sentience—die, they pass their wisdom to their kin, generation after generation, sharing the knowledge of what helps and what harms, who is friend or foe, and how to adapt and survive in an ever-changing landscape. It’s what all parents do.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“Ecosystems are so similar to human societies—they’re built on relationships. The stronger those are, the more resilient the system. And since our world’s systems are composed of individual organisms, they have the capacity to change. We creatures adapt, our genes evolve, and we can learn from experience. A system is ever changing because its parts—the trees and fungi and people—are constantly responding to one another and to the environment. Our success in coevolution—our success as a productive society—is only as good as the strength of these bonds with other individuals and species. Out of the resulting adaptation and evolution emerge behaviors that help us survive, grow, and thrive.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“We chattered about the implications for farms: if legumes passed nitrogen to corn, for instance, we could mix crops and stop having to pollute the soil with fertilizers and herbicides.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“How had the trees weathered the changing cycles of growth and dormancy, and how did this compare to the joys and hardships my family had endured in a fraction of the time?”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“There is a necessary wisdom in the give-and-take of nature—its quiet agreements and search for balance. There is an extraordinary generosity.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“There is no moment too small in the world. Nothing should be lost. Everything has a purpose, and everything is in need of care. This is my creed. Let us embrace it. We can watch it rise. Just like that, at any time—all the time—wealth and grace will soar.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“from a different fungal species. More than a million exist on earth, about six times the number of plant species, with only about 10 percent of fungal species identified”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“I’d learned to deal with conflict by running from it. I was terrible at standing my ground, never mind giving talks.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“A crude map revealed, stunningly, that the biggest, oldest timbers are the sources of fungal connections to regenerating seedlings. Not only that, they connect to all neighbors, young and old, serving as the linchpins for a jungle of threads and synapses and nodes. I’ll take you through the journey that revealed the most shocking aspect of this pattern—that it has similarities with our own human brains. In it, the old and young are perceiving, communicating, and responding to one another by emitting chemical signals. Chemicals identical to our own neurotransmitters. Signals created by ions cascading across fungal membranes.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“The scientific evidence is impossible to ignore: the forest is wired for wisdom, sentience, and healing.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“The older trees are able to discern which seedlings are their own kin. The old trees nurture the young ones and provide them food and water just as we do with our own children. It is enough to make one pause, take a deep breath, and contemplate the social nature of the forest and how this is critical for evolution. The fungal network appears to wire the trees for fitness. And more. These old trees are mothering their children. The Mother Trees. When Mother Trees—the majestic hubs at the center of forest communication, protection, and sentience—die, they pass their wisdom to their kin, generation after generation, sharing the knowledge of what helps and what harms, who is friend or foe, and how to adapt and survive in an ever-changing landscape. It’s what all parents do.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“We have the power to shift course. It’s our disconnectedness—and lost understanding about the amazing capacities of nature—that’s driving a lot of our despair, and plants in particular are objects of our abuse. By understanding their sentient qualities, our empathy and love for trees, plants, and forests will naturally deepen and find innovative solutions. Turning to the intelligence of nature itself is the key. It’s up to each and every one of us. Connect with plants you can call your own.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“But Douglas fir and ponderosa pine were both better than the spruce and subalpine fir at minimizing water loss, helping them cope with the drought. They did this by opening their stomata for only a few hours in the morning when the dew was heavy. In these early hours, trees sucked carbon dioxide in through the open pores to make sugar, and in the process, transpired water brought up from the roots. By noon, they slammed their stomata closed, shutting down photosynthesis and transpiration for the day.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“The mushroom is the visible tip of something deep and elaborate, like a thick lace tablecloth knitted into the forest floor.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“I loved maps; they led to adventure, discovery.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“This Mother Tree was the central hub that the saplings and seedlings nested around, with threads of different fungal species, of different colors and weights, linking them, layer upon layer, in a strong, complex web”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“I was lucky to become one of the first in the new generation of women in the logging industry, but what I found was not what I had grown up to understand. Instead I discovered vast landscapes cleared of trees, soils stripped of nature's complexity...”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“The trees soon revealed startling secrets. I discovered that they are in a web of interdependence, linked by a system of underground channels, where they perceive and connect and relate with an ancient intricacy and wisdom that can no longer be denied. I conducted hundreds of experiments, with one discovery leading to the next, and through this quest I uncovered the lessons of tree-to-tree communication, of the relationships that create a forest society. The evidence was at first highly controversial, but the science is now known to be rigorous, peer-reviewed, and widely published. It is no fairy tale, no flight of fancy, no magical unicorn, and no fiction in a Hollywood movie.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“The forest itself is part of much larger cycles, the building of soil and migration of species and circulation of oceans. The source of clean air and pure water and good food. There is a necessary wisdom in the give-and-take of nature—its quiet agreements and search for balance. There is an extraordinary generosity.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“Studies show time and again that cooperation is commonly chosen in groups, even when betrayal of others could lead to a better individual reward.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Uncovering the Wisdom and Intelligence of the Forest

“No, I was pregnant and needed to stay quiet to protect my child, the most precious thing in my life.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“What mattered was that loggers once stopped and carefully gauged and evaluated the character of individual trees to be cut. Transportation by flumes and rivers kept cuttings small and slow, whereas trucks and roads exploded the scale of operations.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“We’d like to design our city in a way that mimics the patterns of mycorrhizal connection,” wrote a city planner from Vancouver.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“Jean’s resplendent tree wasn’t shaking like mine; either Jean was more courageous than I was—of which I had little doubt—or the tree was stouter. A true elder. Leading, commanding, dignified. Its crown deeper and more imposing than those of its neighbors. Providing shade for the younger trees below. Shedding seed evolved over centuries. Stretching its prodigious limbs where songbirds roosted and nested. And where wolf lichens and mistletoes found crevices in which to root. Letting—needing—squirrels to run up and down its trunk in search of cones to store in middens for later meals. And to hang mushrooms in the crooks of branches to dry and eat. This tree alone was a scaffold for diversity, fueling the cycles of the forest.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“Maybe even more important was the fungi’s ability to reproduce rapidly. Their short life cycle would enable them to adapt to the rapidly changing environment—fire and wind and climate—much faster than the steadfast, long-lived trees could manage. The oldest Rocky Mountain juniper is about 1,500 years old and the oldest whitebark pine around 1,300, in Utah and Idaho, respectively. Meanwhile the”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

“One of the first clues came while I was tapping into the messages that the trees were relaying back and forth through a cryptic underground fungal network. When I followed the clandestine path of the conversations, I learned that this network is pervasive through the entire forest floor, connecting all the trees in a constellation of tree hubs and fungal links.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest