When the Forest Breathes: Suzanne Simard on Regeneration and Relationship

Forests are not collections of individual trees. They are living communities shaped by cooperation, memory, and cycles of renewal that stretch across generations.

In her new book, When the Forest Breathes, forest ecologist Suzanne Simard deepens the groundbreaking work that transformed our understanding of forest ecosystems. Expanding on the research she first brought to wide public attention in Finding the Mother Tree, Simard offers both a scientific and personal vision for how forests regenerate and what is lost when we disrupt the relationships that sustain them.

Drawing from decades of research, as well as close collaboration with Indigenous communities whose stewardship practices long recognized forest interdependence, Simard challenges the industrial model of forestry that treats trees as isolated competitors. Instead, she reveals a dynamic system in which older trees support younger ones, nutrients and information move through underground fungal networks, and kinship influences growth, resilience, and survival.

The excerpt below brings us into a striking thread of this research: the discovery that Douglas fir seedlings recognize and benefit from growing near their relatives. Through the work of her former graduate student, Simard illuminates how trees adjust their behavior based on who surrounds them, reshaping how we understand competition, cooperation, and regeneration in forest systems.