Forest ecologist Suzanne Simard discusses the “wood wide web,” her mother tree concept, backlash, and a new research push to change logging practices.
A forest can look static from above, but under the soil it may be busy with communication. That belief sits at the heart of forest ecologist Suzanne Simard’s work, including her widely known “mother tree” concept and the idea that trees can share resources through fungal networks.
Simard’s breakthrough dates to 1997. when she published findings showing that trees exchange food and nutrients via an underground web of fungi linking their roots.. The journal Nature later summarized the notion with the phrase “the wood wide web. ” a label that helped bring her research into the wider scientific conversation and beyond it.
In 2021, Simard took her research further in a book aimed at broad audiences: Finding the Mother Tree.. Her work. it was reported. struck a chord with readers who were hungry for evidence that nature is shaped by community and connection. drawing comparisons to the way public interest has followed ideas such as James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis.. But that attention also accelerated scrutiny.
For some researchers, the core claim that trees share resources was too strong.. Simard described the backlash as arriving in waves—first a smaller reaction in the late 1990s. largely involving scientists in the UK who questioned whether the evidence was sufficient.. She said she rebutted those concerns, and they eventually faded.. In her account, criticism intensified again after Finding the Mother Tree.
Simard’s latest book. When the Forest Breathes. presented as a sequel to Finding the Mother Tree. revisits these themes while emphasizing her ongoing scientific project.. She is an academic at the University of British Columbia in Canada. where she leads the Mother Tree project. described as a major research programme focused on understanding how trees relate within forest ecosystems.
Asked about what a “mother tree” actually means. Simard described it as an organizing idea: she says she found that trees form communities and that they are connected below ground through fungal networks capable of shuttling resources.. In her framing. photosynthate—sugar produced by photosynthesis—can move between trees. and the “mother tree” is the most connected individual because it sits at the intersection of many fungal linkages.
Simard also argues that the mother tree concept points to forest regeneration, not only immediate exchange.. She said mother trees help facilitate the recovery of forest ecosystems by supporting seedlings that can tap into the networks associated with older trees.. In that view, regeneration is less like starting over from scratch and more like rebuilding on existing underground infrastructure.
The wood wide web, Simard said, is not limited to identical species.. In work associated with the Nature publication. she described studying connections between paper birch and Douglas fir—two distinct tree species—and finding that they could share resources.. She said the direction and timing of transfer depended on each tree’s photosynthetic ability and on seasonal conditions such as spring. summer. or fall. as well as whether trees were shaded.. The tree with greater capacity, in her account, can provide more to the tree with higher need for photosynthate.
A key part of the controversy. Simard said. was about evidence and interpretation—particularly whether the fungal networks persist long enough to support the conclusions drawn about resource sharing.. She said some critiques targeted the durability of the network and suggested there was overinterpretation of its importance.. Other objections, she reported, framed her work as discounting the role of competition in forests.
Simard’s response. as she described it. was to address criticisms point by point while maintaining that forest ecosystems involve many kinds of interactions. including competition alongside connection.. She said the intensity of the criticism left her “flattened” and that she was able to regain perspective by returning to the rainforest and speaking with Indigenous people.. In that account. learning about Indigenous dream culture and reverence for trees—and the connection to the spirit world through trees—reinforced her determination to continue her research because it speaks. as she put it. to a global human interest in relationships in nature.
Simard said she still considers herself “very much a scientist. ” and she framed her work as using the scientific method while also acknowledging its limitations.. She noted that peer-reviewed publication can lend credibility. but she also aims to reach people with a deeper understanding of how humans relate to the world.. She described her decision to write books as partly driven by a belief that scientific messages were not reaching as far as they should.
She also defended her use of storytelling.. Simard said that to reach people. it helps to capture their imaginations. and that scientific writing—while efficient at delivering information—does not always carry narrative weight.. In her view. a story can keep audiences engaged. especially when the story is about how the science was done and what it reveals about human connection to the natural world.
Behind her books is the Mother Tree project itself.. Simard described it as a study spanning roughly a thousand kilometres and crossing a climate gradient from hot. dry forests to cold. wet forests.. The intent. she said. is to use the gradient as a representation of how climate can become more arid. and to make predictions about how forests may change.
To test those ideas, Simard said her team is running comparisons involving forest structure and the presence of old trees.. She described leaving “mother trees” behind in some areas while doing logging in others. including experiments that compare letting a forest grow on its own to harvesting approaches such as thinning smaller trees. creating small canopy gaps. and taking out a substantial portion of forest cover while leaving patches intact.
In results she highlighted, Simard said that leaving old trees behind can matter significantly.. In particular, she pointed to protecting carbon pools and safeguarding biodiversity, especially species that depend on old-forest habitats.. She also emphasized the practical implication that maintaining old trees could be part of how forests remain resilient.
Her work has also found its way into popular culture, most notably through the film franchise Avatar.. Simard said she had not seen the movie. but she received a call indicating that the filmmakers were looking at her work to guide ideas.. She described Avatar as far beyond science now. but suggested it captures an intuitive message about interconnectedness that children often grasp immediately.
Simard connected this back to her own childhood experience.. She said that when she was young. the trees felt like friends—an ease of relationship that. she added. she felt was later challenged when she studied forestry and was taught that trees behave like individuals that can be grown for their traits and then cut down.. In her view, this misses how forests operate as systems.
She said returning to her earlier knowledge required both personal conviction and scientific demonstration. Her goal, she stated, is not only to understand connectedness, but to show it in a way that could change forestry practices.
Changing forestry is central to Simard’s mission.. She said forestry has become increasingly extractive and that old-growth forests have suffered major losses.. Even so. she reported movement in public attitudes as people see how industrial logging has transformed landscapes and push industry to change.. She also stressed that, in the process of changing practices, the world has already lost a great deal.
For readers watching the debate between ecological science. public storytelling. and how forests should be managed. Simard’s message is clear: the underground and the above-ground parts of forest life are linked. and the way people treat old trees may determine what comes next.. In Misryoum’s science coverage of the interview. her argument is carried through both her research findings and the ongoing effort to translate them into choices that affect ecosystems now.
Suzanne Simard mother tree concept wood wide web forest ecology fungal networks old-growth forests forestry practices