TREES KNOW…

Trees have it all figured out. That is, until we interfere with, and screw it all up, for them.

Do you know that trees prosper with one another through underground communication and trade systems that put our human systems to shame? When left alone to grow and live naturally, trees share resources and speak to other trees, allowing them to grow faster, live longer, stay healthy and generally thrive. As saplings, they are born into a family of trees that will take care of them, until they are able to share with others.

The communities of trees that have been studied in North America do not bear one shred of likeness to our competition infested ways of living and working in our human culture.

It was found that when commercial clear cutting replaced diverse forests with homogeneous plantations, evenly spaced in upturned soil stripped of most underbrush, the trees failed to thrive like before. Without any competitors, the thinking went, the newly planted trees would thrive.

Instead, they were frequently more vulnerable to disease and climatic stress than trees in old-growth forests. More particularly, it was noted that up to 10 percent of newly planted Douglas fir were likely to get sick and die whenever nearby aspen, paper birch and cottonwood were removed.

The planted saplings had more space, and they received more light and water than the trees in the older, more crowded forests. In other words, there was no competition. What was going on?

In the ground, trees and fungi form relationships known as mycorrhizas, where threadlike fungi envelop and fuse with tree roots, helping them extract water and nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen in exchange for some of the carbon-rich sugars the trees make through photosynthesis.

Suzanne Simard, a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia, has studied webs of root and fungi in the Arctic, and temperate and coastal forests of North America, for nearly three decades.

Her knowledge of these mycorrhizal networks has inspired a whole new line of research that has overturned longstanding misconceptions about forest ecosystems.

“By analyzing the DNA in root tips and tracing the movement of molecules through underground conduits, Simard has discovered that fungal threads link nearly every tree in a forest — even trees of different species. Carbon, water, nutrients, alarm signals and hormones can pass from tree to tree through these subterranean circuits. Resources tend to flow from the oldest and biggest trees to the youngest and smallest.

Chemical alarm signals generated by one tree prepare nearby trees for danger. Seedlings severed from the forest’s underground lifelines are much more likely to die than their networked counterparts. And if a tree is on the brink of death, it sometimes bequeaths a substantial share of its carbon to its neighbours.”

It is interesting to note that since the first edition of "On the Origin of Species" in 1859, Charles Darwin’s theories have been relied upon by biologists to support competition and individualism among humans. This theory supports the perpetual contest for life among disparate species, the struggle of each organism to survive, and the laser like focus on the drive of our selfish genes.

This thinking has invaded our consciousness to such an extent that we have abandoned many of our natural inclinations to create communities and thrive in relationship with others.

I think it is high time we shed our old beliefs that pit us one against the other. Look at the state of our world, our society and our health. Stress and our dysregulated body systems cause havoc within, and without. It seems that our outer world and our inner world are reflections of one another.

Perhaps it is time we refreshed our focus on survival to one of “thrival” by:

1) Looking more to our families and friends for support when we need it and creating networks in which everyone can benefit.

2) Focusing more on cooperation and sharing among our business connections, instead of our own interests.

3) Study the living and working systems in which we operate and generate group efforts over individual output.

Thank you, Suzanne Simard, for your fascinating research into the natural kingdom of trees and their symbiotic relationships with everything around them. We have much to learn from you and our friends, the trees.

I am now inspired to come back, in my next life, as a tree! Or, at least, live like one in this beautiful life I have taken on.

You?