Essential tree reading
Donning a pair of bluetooth headphones while working for days on a very large White Oak, I had the pleasure of listening to Suzanne Simard's book, Finding the Mother Tree.
It was perfect, listening to her talk about trees and all the ways they need each other, all while shoveling soil (and pavement) off of a White Oak's root flare then pouring carbon down into deep vertical mulching holes. It was nice to have a drum beat, a sense of validation, in my efforts — listening to a scientist uncover the intelligence of forest communities while I toiled to return an urban tree's soil to forest-like conditions.
Suzanne Simard in her element, courtesy of suzannesimard.com
As Simard described the ways trees feed one another, despite not being genetically related, I couldn't help but feel a compassionate ache for all these trees that are growing alone in our urban setting, cut off from other trees by hardscapes, driveways, parking spaces, or compacted soils. The mycorrhizal network necessary for a healthy microbiome cannot survive in these low oxygen, low carbon environments. Furthermore, the lack of oxygen can encourage the growth of anaerobic fungi and bacteria, which in turn will attack a stressed tree.
So many trees are isolated as a result of our human practices. In addition to hard surfaces and compacted soils, we plant grass and have lawns that grow over trees' root systems. Grasses use a different mycorrhizal network — arbuscular — than trees, and are actively changing the chemical balance of soils to encourage their success. We pick up sticks, throwing precious carbon into heaps to be collected by the city or tree companies. We rake and bag leaves, robbing root systems of precious nitrogen, phosphorous, and insulation for the soil. We mow lawns, cutting down any small tree seedlings trying to grow in their mother's shade. We allow English ivy to grow as a ground cover, and who knows what that plant does to the soil’s ecosystem.
The list is long, unfortunately.
The more I listened to Simard, the more I felt compelled to never again plant a tree that will be alone. That is not how they have evolved over hundreds of millions of years. They need community. Just like us.
If trees and humans are going to live together within our own communities, they need us to recognize that when we see a tree we are really only seeing half of a living being. The other half is below ground, stretching far beyond the reach of a canopy, far more connected than we previously thought.
Please read the book, and think about the tree or trees in your yard. Their community lies beneath your feet, and their community needs a lighter touch if we want these beings to stick around after all our developing settles.
I look forward to donning those headphones again, scooping vertical mulching mix into oxygenated soils, in the shade of our beautiful, giant, precious plant communities. Let me know what you think I should read next and let’s keep reading together.
In Asheville, you can buy Suzanne Simard’s book from one of our local independent booksellers: Firestorm Books & Coffee, Malaprop’s, or check in with two used bookshops, Bagatelle Books or Downtown Books & News to see if they have a gently used copy yet. You can also order online via Bookshop.
