A photograph of Suzanne Simard sitting at the based of a tree

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Interviews

How one woman discovered the secret life of trees

Uncovering the Wisdom and Intelligence of the Forest

Finding the Mother Tree

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 
 
'A scientific memoir as gripping as any HBO drama series' Kate Kellaway, Observer 
 
A dazzling scientific detective story from the ecologist who first discovered the hidden language of trees 
 
No one has done more to transform our understanding of trees than the world-renowned scientist Suzanne Simard. Now she shares the secrets of a lifetime spent uncovering startling truths about trees: their cooperation, healing capacity, memory, wisdom and sentience. 
 
Raised in the forests of British Columbia, where her family has lived for generations, Professor Simard did not set out to be a scientist. She was working in the forest service when she first discovered how trees communicate underground through an immense web of fungi, at the centre of which lie the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful entities that nurture their kin and sustain the forest. 
 
Though her ground-breaking findings were initially dismissed and even ridiculed, they are now firmly supported by the data. As her remarkable journey shows us, science is not a realm apart from ordinary life, but deeply connected with our humanity. 
 
In Finding the Mother Tree, she reveals how the complex cycle of forest life - on which we rely for our existence - offers profound lessons about resilience and kinship, and must be preserved before it's too late.

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

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

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

A masterwork of planetary significance

[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

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

Vivid and inspiring... a radical new understanding of plants

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

[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

A vivid and compelling memoir of [Simard's] lifelong quest to prove that the forest is more than just a collection of trees

The moving and remarkable story of one of the greatest ecological discoveries of our time. Writing with humility and passion, Suzanne Simard's unravelling of the secret life of trees is changing the scientific mindset. Finding the Mother Tree is a crucial step towards healing our planet

Isabella Tree, author of Wilding and The Living Goddess

Few scientists make much impact with their PhD thesis, but, in 1997, Suzanne Simard did just that ... What was then a challenge to orthodox ideas is today widely accepted

Finding the Mother Tree is a rare and moving book - part charming memoir, part crash course in forest ecology. And yet, it manages to be about the things that matter most: the ways we care for each other, fail each other and listen to each other. After the last year and a half, its lessons about motherhood, connection and the natural world are more timely than ever

Few researchers have had the pop culture impact of Suzanne Simard

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, author of Braiding Sweetgrass

Suzanne Simard has a completely beguiling way of writing. I love how she combines brilliant scientific explanation with emotion and feeling

Patrick Barkham, author of Wild Child and The Butterfly Isles

Suzanne Simard is a total legend - someone who transformed the world in the way of James Lovelock, or Lynn Margulis

Revolutionary on both the scientific and the spiritual level. It is so extraordinary that it is, frankly, hard to believe - until you see the data, the science, the rigour, and the many independent affirmations of her findings... Simard is one of [Nature's] most insightful and eloquent translators

Raised in the hardy forest communities of British Columbia, scientist Suzanne Simard overturned conventional beliefs in proving that trees and plants are connected underground by an immense web of fungal mycelia, at the centre of which lie the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful entities that sustain the forest. 
 
Finding the Mother Tree is the story of a lifetime spent uncovering startling truths about trees: their perceptions, behaviours, healing capacities, language, memory and wisdom. Simard's landmark work has been immensely influential, revealing the complex cycle of forest life - on which we rely for our existence - and offering profound lessons about resilience and kinship.

Suzanne Simard

The Indiana Jones of trees returns... Inspiring... few people can speak about trees with quite as much conviction as Simard... She is a Canadian national treasure and global environmental icon

Practical as well as passionate... a combination of personal memoir, scientific explanation and praise for indigenous and ancient traditions

[Simard] is the pioneering Canadian ecologist who has changed the way we think about forests... this book will attract anyone who is fascinated by forests and their remarkable capacities

That trees relate to one another is an idea once thought outlandish but now widely accepted. . . . Simard writes with great affection of the bustling rhythms of forest life. . . . She expresses a hope that she may help, through her work, to validate the holistic native worldviews that see an interconnectedness between all living things

Suzanne Simard has helped transform our understanding of the profound intelligence and interconnectedness of trees

New Scientist, best new popular science books of March 2026

This passionate study from ecologist Simard reveals how preserving forests’ natural cycles of death and renewal is key to their longevity. . . . Throughout, Simard artfully highlights the importance of honoring natural cycles by reflecting on her daughter’s coming-of-age and her mother’s reaching the end of her life. The result is a resonant and urgent call for change

Renewal and Resilience in the Natural World

When the forest breathes out, we breathe in. When the forest thrives, we thrive. 
 
The world-renowned forest ecologist Suzanne Simard has transformed our understanding of the profound intelligence and interconnectedness of trees. In When the Forest Breathes, she uncovers how the deep-rooted cycles of renewal that sustain the forest can also help us to protect our entire global ecosystem. 
 
Raised in a family of loggers committed to sustainable stewardship of the land, Simard has watched as timber companies leave the forests of her native British Columbia vulnerable to wildfires and drought, threatening the crucial biodiversity that they support. But her groundbreaking research for the Mother Tree Project – one of the most ambitious forest ecology experiments of its kind – has the potential to chart a new course. The forest, she reveals, is a living symphony of finely honed cycles of birth, growth, death and rebirth that hold the key to protecting the natural world. Working closely with local Indigenous communities, whose sustainable practices have been largely ignored, Simard examines how holistic, regenerative forestry that preserves the cycles of the forest can help solve the global climate crisis. 
 
Weaving together scientific discoveries and luminous storytelling, Simard’s book is a call to rediscover our kinship with the natural world, and listen to the lessons of the forest.

Suzanne Simard

Praise for When the Forest Breathes

The Indiana Jones of trees returns... Inspiring... few people can speak about trees with quite as much conviction as Simard... She is a Canadian national treasure and global environmental icon

Practical as well as passionate... a combination of personal memoir, scientific explanation and praise for indigenous and ancient traditions

[Simard] is the pioneering Canadian ecologist who has changed the way we think about forests... this book will attract anyone who is fascinated by forests and their remarkable capacities

The Indiana Jones of trees returns... Inspiring... few people can speak about trees with quite as much conviction as Simard... She is a Canadian national treasure and global environmental icon

Practical as well as passionate... a combination of personal memoir, scientific explanation and praise for indigenous and ancient traditions

[Simard] is the pioneering Canadian ecologist who has changed the way we think about forests... this book will attract anyone who is fascinated by forests and their remarkable capacities

The Indiana Jones of trees returns... Inspiring... few people can speak about trees with quite as much conviction as Simard... She is a Canadian national treasure and global environmental icon

Practical as well as passionate... a combination of personal memoir, scientific explanation and praise for indigenous and ancient traditions

[Simard] is the pioneering Canadian ecologist who has changed the way we think about forests... this book will attract anyone who is fascinated by forests and their remarkable capacities

Books by Suzanne Simard

Articles featuring Suzanne Simard

How one woman discovered the secret life of trees

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