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{ 8 } SNJ Today | OCTOBER 13, 2021 OCTOBER 13, 2021 | SNJToday.com { 9 }
THE GREAT OUTDOORS

Mother Trees How a researcher tapped into the wisdom

of forest communities—and helped
change forest management strategies.

NATURE AROUND US J. Morton Galetto, CU Maurice River

he first time I visited the primeval what’s in our homes are created from trees.
forest of Bear Swamp (Commercial Our ancestors warmed themselves with
TTownship) was back in the late wood-fueled fires and cooled themselves in
1980s. My husband and I went in on a their shade. Our vessels were made (many
cloudy day without a compass. We saw still are) from wood. A number of our
huge old growth trees and marveled at medicines derive from trees. And trees also
what we thought was a magnolia. An old sequester carbon, releasing clean air and
forest somehow has a magical effect on adding moisture to the atmosphere.
people. But without the presence of the More people than you might guess are
sun or a compass we got lost in the magic, willing to admit a spiritual connection to
and our joy turned to mild panic. We navi- trees. In fact many societies have an epis-
gated out by following the back-up beep- temology that is grounded in them. Poets,
ers from a sand plant’s front-end loaders. photographers, and artists clearly hold our
From there we walked a railroad right-of- leafy companions in great regard. Some of
way back to our car. our most treasured poems, novels, and sto-
In 2007 I visited a different section in ries are tree-themed. And think about peo-
Downe Township with Steve Eisenhauer. ple’s reactions to trees, especially to large
We saw giant trees, many of which were trees being felled. Visitors flock to national
in their final century of life. Snow and forests that have behemoth stately trees or On a walk in Bear Swamp, Downe Township, led by Natural Lands a hiker climbs into
wind had destroyed much of their crowns colorful autumn leaves. Wildlife watching the huge hallow of a fallen tree. This dead tree will support fungal decomposition.
but they were still omnipresent and and trees are virtually synonymous.
stately in their haggard elegance and, as I’m going to accept that I’m preaching grow. The free-to-grow concept viewed around this concept. Botanists before her
I would soon learn, more beneficial than to the choir, accept that you know the vir- the forest complex as competitive rather recognized that plants were in a life-and-
first presumed. tues of trees, and focus on Simard’s book than cooperative. So lumbering operations death interchange with fungus—a mutual-
Whenever we sponsor a giant tree and her conclusions. I didn’t expect her would clearcut forests and then agencies ism, with each relying on the other for an
walk with CU Maurice River members it exposition to be intertwined with her life, would require them to replant. exchange of nutrients. Yes, some fungus
fills to capacity a short time after being but the associations she makes between At face value this would seem wise and is detrimental, but many have a beneficial
announced. When we’re on the trail and her life and her discoveries help the read- warranted, but the devil is in the details. and essential connection.
we see a massive tree, people are usually er to connect more easily with her ideas Since trees were thought to compete for The reader follows Simard’s discovery
eager to encircle it. So when Suzanne and findings. space and nutrients, a monoculture of process when she first pulled up saplings
Simard, professor of Forest Ecology at Simard grew up in a lumbering fam- the most desired varieties was planted and found networks of fungal threads on
the University of British Columbia, wrote ily in British Columbia where trees and after a clearcut. And to guarantee that the roots of trees that were doing better
and released Finding the Mother Tree, it the harvesting of trees rule. Her grand- monoculture, a herbicide developed in the than those without the thread-like struc-
seemed likely that it would be popular. father had a log flume on the sides of the early 1970s, Roundup (glyphosate), was tures—hyphal branches. She began to
She had given TED Talks (Technology, mountain and the family wrestled with used to kill any herbaceous competitors study the fine details of these hyphal links;
Entertainment, Design) on YouTube and the dangers of moving trees via booms on before planting the replacement forest. It most are microscopic. And she suspected
been interviewed many times after she Canada’s Lake Mabel. They balanced on was assumed that trees would grow more that they were integral to successful
published a study in the journal Nature. springboards to fell huge giants, like west- swiftly, to be harvested again in 100 years, growth in a forest.
In fact James Cameron’s mystical film ern white pines that would take two men without any competition. This was consid- Foresters presumed that birches were
Avatar was inspired by her work, and two days to cut through. It was strenuous ered to be a well-managed forest. a drain on the more financially desir-
more recently the bestseller, Overstory, and dangerous work, the kind of work Simard’s internships with a logging able Douglas fir, and thus increased their
loosely based one of its fictional charac- that builds respect for a forest. These trees company gave her the job of checking investment in monoculture over mixed
ters on her work. were cut with manpower and harvesting clearcuts and reporting back on the health forests. Simard saw these reforested plots
I thought that Finding the Mother was selective as opposed to clearcuts. of the new monoculture forest. Her find- as failing.
Tree would be well-received but I hardly It was in Simard’s blood to become ings were dismal—a large percent of the As her life and professions evolved
expected it to become a New York Times a forester. However, during the later new trees were sickly, if not dead. she was able to further test her theories,
bestseller. Surely there is something in our years of obtaining her forestry degree she She suspected that trees had an inter- especially after she joined the academic
psyche, dare I say, that links us to trees and became disenchanted with the massive dependence and that this interdepen- world. She set up test plots of monocul-
forests. Surely there is good reason for us to modern-day operations, primarily because dence was linked to mycorrhizal fungus. ture vs. three species growing together.
feel conjoined. Our homes and so much of of the “agency policies” that were free-to- She devoted her life to making discoveries By using carbon-13 and carbon-12 tracers