Finding the Mother Tree

A scientific memoir as gripping as any HBO drama series… Just as she disinters earthy mushrooms and the finest of filaments, so she lays bare the human heart with moving simplicity… It is her gallant mission in the book and in her life - and one essential to combating the climate crisis - to make science more humanly engaged – Kate Kellaway * Observer *Finding the Mother Tree is the kind of story we need to be telling, a new way of communicating that the world desperately needs to hear… A reminder to listen to our wilder selves, and to remember, with humility, how little we know of the complexities of the natural world – Tiffany Francis-Baker * Guardian *This book is 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 – Jonathan C. Slaght * The New York Times *A masterwork of planetary significance * Booklist (starred review) *[Simard] is an intellectual force… Simard’s results are so revolutionary and controversial that they have quickly worked their way into social theory, urban planning, culture and art… We have a lot of rethinking to do about the economic and political models that, since Darwin, have been taken to be natural – Kate Brown * Independent *Finding the Mother Tree has come at a crucial moment… With biodiversity on a knife edge, the need to appreciate and understand the complexity and brilliance of the natural world could not be more important – Rosie Boycott * Financial Times *Vivid and inspiring… a radical new understanding of plants – Eugenia Bone * Wall Street Journal *Speaking with Simard felt like coming to the headwaters of a vast system of ideas, both innovative and ancient… To read Finding the Mother Tree is to imagine the view from a 250-foot redwood. The recognition that we’re all connected is one of the great gifts of the memoir * Los Angeles Times *[Suzanne Simard] forever transformed our views of the world and the interconnectivity of our environment. Finding the Mother Tree is not only a deeply beautiful memoir about one woman’s impactful life, it’s also a call to action to protect, understand and connect with the natural world – Amy AdamsA vivid and compelling memoir of [Simard’s] lifelong quest to prove that the forest is more than just a collection of trees * The New York Times *

Dr. Suzanne Simard was raised in the Monashee Mountains of British Columbia. She is Professor of Forest Ecology in the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry, and has earned a global reputation for her research on tree connectivity and communication and its impact on the health and biodiversity of forests.