Trees

The Weeping Willow Tree

Watch the video of In Suzanne Simard’s TED talk “How trees talk to each other” it was fascinating to learn about how trees communicate through underground pathways. We’ve often heard that trees compete for sunlight, and the tallest ones that reach the most sunlight at the higher canopy are the strongest. However, Simard uncovers a whole other world that exists amongst trees, saying that the foundation of the forest is actually the roots and soil, where trees communicate underground. She says that “trees are not just competitors, but cooperators.” This also applies to different tree species not being separate but interdependent.

It is incredible hearing about how mother trees communicate with seedlings, nourishing them with wisdom and nutrients. In the TED talk, Simard shares; “Trees talk. Through back and forth conversation, they increase the resilience of the whole community.” Trees are not meant to only live in a forest with trees that are the same as each other. They need a diverse environment to thrive. Trees not only communicate with the same types of trees, but with all the trees in the underground network. Simard describes this saying; “The forest was like the Internet too—the world wide web. But instead of computers linked by wires or radio waves, these trees were connected by mycorrhizal fungi.”

Thinking of the forest as a world wide web, we can connect the idea of the internet to this. We as humans communicate, learn, and share through the internet. Social media can often seem like a competitive world. However, it is also true that through social media we can create network around the whole world and encourage collaboration while nurturing and growing from other people. Just like trees, diversity is incredibly important for humans and finding connection across a diverse community is integral to our world.

In recent years, we have had increasingly more natural disasters and forest fires. Climate change makes people think more about all areas of nature including trees. Deforestation has also been increasing and a large issue in the environment. Simard says that “forests have enormous capacity to self-heal.” However, the way humans have interrupted the natural patterns of nature through cutting trees and planting simple forests with not much diversity is a huge problem. Nature is diverse and a forest needs to have many species because trees are interdependent. Human nature is the same, diversity is at the centre of the planet. Understanding our interdependence as humans and also as living being on the same earth as animals and plants, would mean we don’t need competition, only collaboration like Simard says about trees.

As a child, I lived in a neighbourhood in London where there were trees everywhere. My family and I used to go for walks in the woods and parks every week. There was one particular place that we called the “Secret Garden.” I thought it was a magical place. There was a giant weeping willow at the edge of the woods. Its beautiful branches and long leaves reached to the ground where it moved in the wind brushing against the grass. We used to sit under that tree every weekend, my sister and I climbing the tree running around, playing hide and seek amongst the branches. When I have visited as I’ve grown up, the tree still enchants me each time.