Half memoir, half incredible research into trees. I loved both aspects of the book. ( )

Simard has changed our view of the world (with help of course). Belongs with the giants of conservation writing, Leopold, Carson, Wilson. Although her prose may not be as great her message is just as important. ( )

My love of nature and curiosity of how nature works, attracted me to this book. I see trees as precious and majestic so I was excited to learn more about these amazing creatures. My husband is responsible for planting an endless amount of trees on our property, so I was interested to learn more about what we may be cultivating. Suzanne Simard’s book, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, was much more than I expected. Suzanne intelligently shares the science of how forests function, which she learned through extensive study and her own research. Her book also reads like a memoir, which really made me connect to her life-long work.

The book opens with Suzanne talking about her upbringing in which her family was involved in the logging business. I don’t know anyone who cuts down trees for a living, but I presumed such people didn’t care much about replanting trees or the damage this caused the environment. This presumption does not apply to the Simard family. Suzanne’s time spent cataloging trees instilled her appreciation for trees, and her attention to the forest in which the trees grew led her on an amazing scientific and personal journey. She helped me remember that we need to log trees for our sustainability, while also replanting trees for the sustainability of the forests. What we take, we must give back.

I loved the vulnerability Suzanne shared about her life. Her love for her work with trees and her personal life of family, marriage, and children are completely intertwined. She experienced devastating loss and amazing highs as she worked hard to change the minds of policy makers. The entire book is wonderful. My favorite part of course, is her discovery of the mother tree and how it correlated with her significant life events. Suzanne’s writing is emotional and powerful. This book left me feeling hopeful, sentimental, and proud for her and her life’s accomplishments.

I purchased the audiobook of Finding the Mother Tree from Audible. Narration by the author, Suzanne Simard, was perfect. A book this magnificent can only be read by the author.

I have photos and additional information that I'm unable to include here. It can all be found on my blog, in the link below.
A Book And A Dog ( )

Some day I hope forest ecologist Suzanne Simard runs into botanist Hope Jahren. These women have a lot in common.

They share an unceasing curiosity and respect for the living world. They sacrificed a lot to become scientists. They experienced the loneliness and frustrations of being female scientists, and they made significant contributions to knowledge, although Simard’s discoveries may ultimately prove to be much, much bigger.

Simard’s scientific revelations include an understanding the role fungi root networks play in helping trees share nutrients under stressful conditions.

Foresters assumed that if you clearcut a forest it can be regenerated well enough by replanting new trees in their stead.

Simard showed why kindred species in forests — like the alder or birch in fir stands — should be left alone. Because trees cooperate even as they compete for light, water, and nutrients.

While Simard’s book is packed with elegant descriptions of the forests and mountain ranges she studies, in “Lab Girl” I think Jahren more keenly assays the mental landscape and why it is so hard to make a difference.

And Jahren is funny where Simard is sober, well, most of the time.

In this book in addition to her science Simard shares her personal evolution as a woman, mother, and to a minor degree as a lover.

Her youth was stained by the volatile marriage of her parents and their ultimate divorce. Her own marriage goes off the rails when her academic ambitions and her husband’s preference to live in the backwoods clash.

In this telling her personal enlightenment is gruesomely hijacked by a painful and frightening bout of breast cancer, culminating in surgery and chemotherapy.

As in her childhood, during this period the forests and to a lesser extent her lab help restore her balance. She loses her brother to a terrible farm accident before she has a chance to reconcile with him after a drunken argument. But nothing prepares her for the disorientation that accompanies the cancer treatments.

I have a few complaints with the book.

Simard sets up a parallels between her own suffering and the plunder of the beautiful BC forests, between the role “mother trees” and the mothering role in her life, and between the sacredness of nature’s family and the family she misses from her childhood. Her children are like her little sprouts.

Can’t fathers be nurturing, too?

I can certainly identify with the sense of loss as we grow older and our families fragment.

She also lets herself be consumed by nostalgia for the good old days when the forests were managed by First Nations. Contemporary paleontology shows that hunter-gatherers were terraformers, too, if not quite as dramatic as our civilization turned out to be.

Simard gives long and lavish descriptions of her forest haunts. Sometimes I wished she’d cool it with the adjectives. I’ve been to forests, too. And sometimes they are just plain monotonous.

The sidebars give this story a messianic and melodramatic tinge. I find the science and the trail of discovery plenty exciting enough.

And I should thank both Simard and Jahren for insisting that I focus more closely on the micro aspects of nature. It is more beautiful and complex than imaginable. ( )

Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I didn't find this book as satisfying as I had hoped. Through other popular science texts, I had already become familiar with most of Dr. Simard's groundbreaking and important findings. (What this book does deliver well are detailed descriptions of many of the experiments she conducted to reach them.) Much of the biographical material was handled unevenly, in my opinion. If it's the botanical and ecological science you want, perhaps some other books might serve you better. ( )