24/12/2025
Nature landing us another lesson
Ecologist Suzanne Simard has changed how we see forests.
In the 1990s, Simard was studying Canadian forests when she noticed something strange: when loggers removed birch trees to help Douglas firs grow, the firs didn’t thrive. In fact, they struggled. Curious, she began tracing where nutrients were going — and what she found overturned a century of forest science.
Using radioactive carbon tracing, Simard showed that trees were sharing nutrients underground — not just within a species, but across species. Birch trees were passing carbon to fir trees through networks of mycorrhizal fungi — microscopic threads that connect tree roots. These fungal networks form a vast, hidden web beneath the forest floor, linking trees in systems that act less like individuals and more like communities.
She found that older, larger trees — often birches — served as central hubs, redistributing resources and stabilizing the ecosystem. When these trees were removed, the entire network weakened. Forests didn’t just lose biomass — they lost connection.
Simard’s discovery challenged the long-held view of forests as places of fierce competition. Instead, she revealed a system based on cooperation, signaling, and mutual support — a living network where trees share water, nitrogen, carbon, and even warning signals about pests and drought.
Her research reshaped forestry, conservation, and our understanding of how nature works: not as a fight for survival, but as a web of interdependence — mostly hidden beneath our feet.
To learn more, read Simard’s book:
"Finding the Mother Tree." Knopf, 2021.
