Praise for Finding the Mother Tree

"Simard’s science fascinates, and so too does her life. This is an engaging memoir of scientific discovery."

Library Journal, starred review

“This book promises to change our understanding about what is really going on when a tree falls in the forest, and other pressing mysteries about the natural world.”

Michael Pollan, New York Times best-selling Author

“It completely overturned my view of nature.”

Kristin Ohlson, New York Times best-selling author

“Suzanne Simard’s research into the secret, communicative life of North American forests is utterly compelling.”

Charlotte Gill, Professor in the Creative Writing Program at the University of British Columbia

“I can think of no one better suited to bring more humanity into the process of science.”

J.C. Cahill, Professor of Plant Ecology at the University of Alberta

“What Simard is revealing here has implications and potential on the scale of mapping the human genome. Simard is one of this planet’s most insightful and eloquent translators.”

John Vaillant, best-selling author of The Tiger, Jaguar’s Children, and The Golden Spruce (winner of the Canada Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction)

“The stories Simard tells, and the insights she draws from them, will inspire readers and change the way they think about the world around them.”

Catherine Gehring, Professor of Biology at Northern Arizona University

“The interplay of personal narrative, scientific insights, and the amazing revelations about the life of the forest make a compelling story. These are stories that the world needs to hear.”

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology, State University of New York; director of SUNY-ESF Center for Native Peoples and the Environment; winner of the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award for Braiding Sweetgrass

“This book will have profound implications for our human relationships with the natural world. Given that our understandings and assumptions direct our behaviors and interactions, the insights presented by Dr. Simard point toward a complete paradigm shift in the ways we humans interact with forests, trees and other species.”

Nancy Jean Turner, Professor of Ethnobotany, State University of New York

“As a nature filmmaker, I am done with the old story of predator vs. prey. The real story of nature is billions of intersecting transactions to keep ecosystems flourishing. Suzanne Simard has pioneered this scientific research that is groundbreaking and soul searching. She proved that Mother Trees take care of their kin; that forests are communities that transfer nutrients in the underground mycorrhizal network, a shared economy with no greed. It took a woman scientist to discover this in a male-dominated science. There is a reason they call it Mother Nature.”

Louis Schwartzberg, Moving Art, Los Angeles, director and producer

“For anyone who simply enjoys a walk in the woods and wonders what makes the forest work.”

Thomas Horton, Professor of Mycology, Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, at State University of New York, Syracuse

"A TED talk that inspired me is Suzanne Simard’s “How Trees Talk to Each Other.” It made me think of ant colonies, which I wrote about in my book. There are no bosses. Every ant knows what his job is and gets it done. That’s the way I try to run my company. No micromanagement: Hire independent, motivated people and leave them alone.”

Yvon Chouinard, Co-founder of Patagonia