Short Video: Mother Trees Connect the Forest
Just came across this gorgeous video and wanted to share. Such a powerful metaphor on so many levels: http://www.scoop.it/t/ecopsychology/p/1196891933/video-mother-trees-connect-the-forest
Don't trees only talk to each other in the movies? Professor Suzanne Simard shares her latest research regarding forest ecosystems here. Amazingly, we find that in a forest, 1+1 equals more than 2, as all trees are interconnected with the largest, oldest, "mother trees" serving as hubs. The underground exchange of nutrients increases the survival of younger trees linked into the network of old trees in this fascinating, real-life model of forest resilience and regeneration...
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So good to see this, Bonnie, thanks! No wonder I feel like I am in the midst of a family when I go to an empty spot in the middle of a ring of redwood trees and sit there!
I really liked her point at the end of the video where she points out that even in death the mother trees or larger trees are giving back nutrients and more to the network they had fed for so long. Speaks well for leaving the land in fallow.
Wonderful video. Great corrective to the usual neo-Darwinian ideology. Thanks for posting it.