DiscoverE: Finding the Mother Tree: An Evening with Dr. Suzanne Simard

PRESENTERS: DR. SUZANNE SIMARD, FOREST ECOLOGIST, AND GARRETT ORMISTON, GIS & STEWARDSHIP SPECIALIST
“Galvanizing . . . As Simard elucidates her revolutionary experiments, replete with gorgeous descriptions and moments of fear and wonder, a vision of the forest as ‘intelligent, perceptive, and responsive’ comes into focus . . . A masterwork of planetary significance.” —Booklist

Join us as the Museum’s Garrett Ormiston welcomes Dr. Suzanne Simard for a discussion of her new book,Finding the Mother Tree. Dr. Simard argues that trees not only provide timber and pulp, but also form a complicated, interdependent circle of life. Forests are actually social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities. Indeed, Dr. Simard’s research proposes that trees perceive and recognize neighbors, compete and cooperate, learn and adapt their behaviors, remember the past, and have agency about the future.

After their discussion, Ormiston and Dr. Simard will open the floor to questions from the audience. We hope you’ll join us for an evening that may profoundly change your view of trees and their connections to one another.

Dr. Suzanne Simard is Professor of Forest Ecology in the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry. One of the world’s leading forest ecologists, she is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence. Her work has influenced filmmakers (the Tree of Souls of James Cameron’s Avatar) and authors (Richard Powers’s Pulitzer Prize–winning The Overstory), and her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide.

Garrett Ormiston is a naturalist, plant enthusiast, and horticulturalist, and serves as the GIS & Stewardship Specialist in the Natural Areas Division of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Signed copies of Finding the Mother Tree will be available to audience members through the Museum’s partnership with Loganberry Books.

This event is part of our month-long celebration of the summer solstice. Learn more.