December 16, 2021 “Finding the Mother Tree: Uncovering the Wisdom and Intelligence of The Forest” by Suzanne Simard, 2021.

 

Trees are important to the health of the earth.

   I’ve been reading a book titled, “Finding the Mother Tree: Uncovering the Wisdom and Intelligence of The Forest,” by Suzanne Simard, 2021.

   This book is so nerdy that I’m surprised that I’m so far into it, but I really enjoy it and have been talking about it to others when I can, whether they are environmentally conscious or not. Although it appears highly technical, it’s very well written and entertaining, pulling the reader through a subterranean network world of fungi and tree-to-tree communication. !! Right there a turn off! 

   I saw your eyes roll to the back of your head. You don’t want to read another word about this biology book because you hated the subject in school, didn’t you? Well, Simard can broach the subject so well, it’ll make you admit you really liked biology when all your friends didn’t.

   I didn’t think it was possible either, and I liked biology. I mean, I don’t know what three-fifths of all the words in this book actually mean, and I’m too lazy to look them up -- even on-line, but this book is an autobiography too about Suzanne (Susie) becoming a world renown forest scientist in the logging industry, by being curious, listening, and eating dirt from a young age ... and being threatened by grizzly bears more than once.

   Well, that and more. She said she ate dirt from the moment she could explore on her own. She wrote that her mother had to deworm her regularly, and this being the case obviously, set herself apart from other kids. But there weren’t many other kids in the rain forests of British Colombia where she grew up in the early 1950s; her family being loggers there since the early 1920s. Yes, tree murderers. It’s her ancestry.

   There are many reviews of the book, almost all rating it 4.3 stars, but I found his one to be the best so far: https://besharamagazine.org/newsandviews/review-finding-the-mother-tree/

   I don’t recall how I found it, but do remember I impulsively purchased it for my wife, then after ordering it, thought it may have not been such a great idea, given her displeasure whenever I cut down a tree here along Mikinaak Creek.

   The wife cites the trees environmental benefits of removing carbon dioxide from the air, storing carbon in themselves and soil, and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. Then she’ll go on about how so much of the woodlands around here are being cut down and plowed under. And if I love trees as much as I say I do, why do I cut trees down? I must be a liar. So now maybe this new book will prove her point, unfortunately. 

I even sometimes praise them aloud as I walk among them, proud in the fact I was an important element in their existence.

   I know trees greatly benefit the earth; it’s the primary reason I’ve planted trees for close to fifty years. My feelings only counter hers in as much as I figure I have personally planted well over seventy thousand trees on this little quarter-section. I’ve seen them grow and reproduce a hundred-fold. I’ve seen some wither and die from disease, periodic pest infestations, and drought. I sometimes praise them aloud as one would their children when I walk among them, proud in the fact I was an important element in their existence. So I feel I can cut a few trees down whenever I need to and not impact their numbers significantly; I remain adamant.

   In fact, reading Simard’s book I think I find it supporting the tree planting scheme I inadvertently created in the early 1990s, by overlaying two tree plantations of various species, two years apart, on 80-acres of it where long circuitous rows of now 40-foot red pine, white spruce, paper birch, and hybrid poplar intersect each other. Within that, other areas have grown into virtual islands of one solid species or another. 

   Although its design doesn't strictly meet a forester’s preferences said a woodland stewardship plan writer recently, it is an excellent example of diverse woodland habitat and openings that serve both flora and fauna.

   I've learned that it takes at least five years for white spruce seedlings to show any significant growth during ‘normal’ northwest Minnesota growing seasons; the last several years here in northwest Minnesota experiencing varying stages of drought, and the spruce reflecting it. Normally, they begin to bulk out after six or seven years; their branches extending outward and upward. They grow two-feet a year if moisture and nutrients permit, often squeezing out and overtaking their competitors. 

   Until I read this book, I thought this year's high temperatures and lack of rain in this particular township would seriously impact all the trees, but it was quite the opposite due from what I've read, to their underground network of nitrogen and carbon being passed between different species all across the quarter into later younger plantations. Some trees experienced phenomenal growth far exceeding my expectations; I think they all did pretty good.

   Below some of the 20-year old red pine groves stand virtual hollow-eyed skeletons of red willow who have been deprived of sun by the pine's close of ranks. Stands of tamarack, spindly seedlings themselves close to a decade ago, are now over fifteen feet tall, create translucent jungles of safe habitat for grouse, rabbits and deer before their fall orange-colored needles drop at the onset of winter. 

   Once-warm deer beds leave impressions melted against the grass where the animals rested chewing their cud of brush and a neighbor's rye and wheat stubble in a nearby field. A dozen or so sharptail grouse swiftly arise cackling their surprise from cover there, one after another, and startle me, walking too close to their covey.

Track of a gray wolf

   Unless a person walks a flatland landscape, merely viewing it from a passing car, they cannot grasp the difference even young trees can make to their perception. My adult stepsons who have hunted and explored here for the past fifteen years, have remarked how strange it is for them to sometimes have to think where they are on the field as the trees (and willows) have grown so much from the year previous. Wolves and coyotes seek deer and  rabbits there; fox seek mice and rabbits and grouse hidden in the snow; one has but to follow their tracks telling their story.

   “Looking For The Mother Tree” fits it all together, as the trees age. This land has laid for 33 years undisturbed by agriculture and managed to an extent by fire: https://queticosuperior.org/blog/we-badly-need-good-fire-new-film-oshkigin-spirit-of-fire/ as has happened here.

   This book is pretty involved for a limited brain like I have, but I’ve found it intriguing at the same time. Suzanne Simard is a good writer too, better than most scientific writers publishing their research. Her associations with fir and birch and the fungi connecting them; her support of bio-diversity in stands versus clear-cutting and doing away with unnecessary applications of herbicide, etc held my attention. Good stuff. You might like this book too — or not. I guess there's always that possibility.