Join a fascinating discussion with Suzanne Simard, visionary forest ecologist and author of Finding the Mother Tree. Simard reveals how forests thrive not as plantations but as diverse, interdependent communities. From the “wood wide web” of fungi communicating underground, to mother trees nurturing their kin, her research shows that cooperation, not just competition, sustains forest resilience.

We explore how Indigenous management practices once aligned with ecological cycles, and how today’s clearcuts and monocultures leave forests vulnerable to disease and wildfire. Drawing, too, on her family’s century-long history of responsible woodcutting in British Columbia, Simard offers hope: ecosystems are regenerative. By restoring reciprocity with the land through forest management or even balcony gardens, individuals and communities can participate in the ongoing global reorganization of the human relationship to the earth.

This episode calls us to reimagine our relationship with nature as one of kinship and mutual care. 

We’d love to hear your thoughts about the podcast, please send us a note at podcasts@garrisoninstitute.org to let us know what you think.

Produced by The Garrison Institute and The Podglomerate.