Suzanne Simard with Lynda Mapes — When the Forest Breathes
Forest ecologist Suzanne Simard explores tree communication, fungal networks, and intergenerational forest wisdom in conversation with Seattle nature journalist Lynda Mapes.
Why we picked this
Simard's research — that forests are socially connected organisms sharing resources through fungal networks — changed how ecologists think about trees, and her new book extends that work into questions about regeneration and loss that go well beyond dendrology.
Suzanne Simard’s discovery that trees communicate through underground fungal networks — sharing carbon, water, and chemical warnings through what she called the “wood wide web” — reshaped forest ecology when it first appeared in Nature in 1997. Her 2021 bestseller Finding the Mother Tree brought that science to a broad audience. In When the Forest Breathes, she turns to what the forest does across time: how mushrooms breaking down old logs, and elder trees transmitting knowledge to younger growth, create cycles of regeneration that industrial forestry has systematically disrupted. The evening pairs her with Lynda Mapes, a Seattle nature journalist and Pulitzer finalist who covers the Pacific Northwest’s natural and cultural history, ensuring the conversation stays grounded in local landscapes.
The talk draws on Simard’s work with Indigenous communities in British Columbia, where traditional forest management practices encode the same relational knowledge her laboratory research has been documenting. The intersection of Indigenous ecological knowledge and Western science has become one of the more intellectually generative zones in contemporary biology, and Simard is one of its most credible guides.
For Pacific Northwest audiences, this is also a conversation about home — about what old-growth actually means, what’s already been lost in Washington and British Columbia, and what regeneration looks like when it’s given a chance.