Die Weisheit der Wälder

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of Finding the Mother Tree offers a powerful vision for saving our forests based on nature’s deep-rooted cycles of renewal.<BR> <BR>"A masterclass on the inner workings of forests. . . . This is science as an act of love for the world.” —Zoë Schlanger, author of The Light Eaters<BR><BR>Early one spring morning, I went back to the forest. I wanted to learn what the mother trees could teach me about survival and adaptability, about living and dying.<BR><BR>Raised in a family of loggers committed to sensible forest stewardship, trailblazing ecologist Suzanne Simard has watched as timber companies leave forests at higher risk for wildfires, water crises, and plant and animal extinction. But her research has the potential to chart a new course. The forest, she reveals, is a symphony of finely honed cycles of regeneration—from mushrooms breaking down logs to dying elder trees passing their genetic knowledge to younger ones—that hold the key to protecting our forests. Working closely with local Indigenous communities, whose models of responsible forestry have been largely dismissed, Simard examines how human interventions—particularly destruction of the overstory's mother trees—endanger new growth and longevity. If we can honor the tools that trees have honed for sharing intergenerational wisdom, she argues, we can protect these sacred places for many years to come.<BR><BR>As she considers how older living things facilitate the conditions for new growth to flourish, Simard faces parallel rhythms of loss and regeneration in her own life, watching her two daughters grow into adults and savoring her final days with her ailing mother. Animated by wonder for our forests and the intricate practices of caretaking that have long sustained them, When the Forest Breathes is a vital reminder of all the natural world has to teach us about adaptability, resilience, and community.

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER<BR><BR>'A scientific memoir as gripping as any HBO drama series' Kate Kellaway, Observer<BR><BR>A dazzling scientific detective story from the ecologist who first discovered the hidden language of trees <BR><BR>No one has done more to transform our understanding of trees than the world-renowned scientist Suzanne Simard. Now she shares the secrets of a lifetime spent uncovering startling truths about trees: their cooperation, healing capacity, memory, wisdom and sentience. <BR><BR>Raised in the forests of British Columbia, where her family has lived for generations, Professor Simard did not set out to be a scientist. She was working in the forest service when she first discovered how trees communicate underground through an immense web of fungi, at the centre of which lie the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful entities that nurture their kin and sustain the forest. <BR><BR>Though her ground-breaking findings were initially dismissed and even ridiculed, they are now firmly supported by the data. As her remarkable journey shows us, science is not a realm apart from ordinary life, but deeply connected with our humanity. <BR><BR>In Finding the Mother Tree, she reveals how the complex cycle of forest life - on which we rely for our existence - offers profound lessons about resilience and kinship, and must be preserved before it's too late.

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • From the world's leading forest ecologist who forever changed how people view trees and their connections to one another and to other living things in the forest—a moving, deeply personal journey of discovery<BR><BR>“Finding the Mother Tree reminds us that the world is a web of stories, connecting us to one another. [The book] carries the stories of trees, fungi, soil and bears--and of a human being listening in on the conversation. The interplay of personal narrative, scientific insights and the amazing revelations about the life of the forest make a compelling story.”—Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass<BR><BR>Suzanne Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide.<BR><BR>In this, her first book, now available in paperback, Simard brings us into her world, the intimate world of the trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truths--that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp, but are a complicated, interdependent circle of life; that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities with communal lives not that different from our own. <BR><BR>Simard writes--in inspiring, illuminating, and accessible ways—how trees, living side by side for hundreds of years, have evolved, how they learn and adapt their behaviors, recognize neighbors, compete and cooperate with one another with sophistication, characteristics ascribed to human intelligence, traits that are the essence of civil societies--and at the center of it all, the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful forces that connect and sustain the others that surround them. <BR><BR>And Simard writes of her own life, born and raised into a logging world in the rainforests of British Columbia, of her days as a child spent cataloging the trees from the forest and how she came to love and respect them. And as she writes of her scientific quest, she writes of her own journey, making us understand how deeply human scientific inquiry exists beyond data and technology, that it is about understanding who we are and our place in the world.

Von der weltweit führenden ForstwissenschaftlerinDie Forstwissenschaftlerin Suzanne Simard nimmt uns mit in ihre Welt, ins Zentrum des Waldes, und zeigt, dass Bäume viel mehr sind als bloße Rohstofflieferanten: Lebendige Wesen mit hochspezialisierten Aufgaben, die soziale Strukturen bilden und über ein Geflecht aus unterirdischen Netzwerken miteinander kommunizieren. Sie lernen, passen ihr Verhalten an die Bedingungen ihrer Umwelt an, erkennen Nachbarn, haben Erinnerungen und sogar einen Sinn für Zukunft. Sie konkurrieren miteinander und unterstützen sich gegenseitig auf erstaunlich hochentwickelte Weise - Eigenschaften, die normalerweise menschlichen Gesellschaften zugeschrieben werden. Im Zentrum von Simards Forschungen stehen die 'Mutterbäume': alte, mächtige und geheimnisvolle Bäume, welche die anderen um sie herum versorgen, verbinden und beschützen. Während sie ihre wissenschaftliche Suche nachzeichnet, die zu ihrer bahnbrechenden Entdeckung des 'Wood Wide Web' führte, erzählt Suzanne Simard auch von ihrer eigenen Reise. Von ihrer Kindheit in den Wäldern von British Columbia, von Liebe und Verlust, von Beobachtung und Veränderung und von der zutiefst menschlichen Eigenschaft, verstehen zu wollen, wer wir wirklich sind und welchen Platz wir in der Welt einnehmen. So verstehen wir letztlich nicht nur, was eine der spannendsten Wissenschaftlerinnen der Gegenwart antreibt, sondern auch, dass uns mehr mit den Wäldern dieser Welt verbindet, als wir denken. Denn um zu überleben, sind wir aufeinander angewiesen.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER<BR><BR>SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2026 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CONSERVATION WRITING<BR><BR>'The Indiana Jones of trees' Guardian<BR><BR>When the forest breathes out, we breathe in. When the forest thrives, we thrive.<BR><BR>The world-renowned forest ecologist Suzanne Simard has transformed our understanding of the profound intelligence and interconnectedness of trees. In When the Forest Breathes, she uncovers how the deep-rooted cycles of renewal that sustain the forest can also help us to protect our entire global ecosystem. <BR><BR> Raised in a family of loggers committed to sustainable stewardship of the land, Simard has watched as timber companies leave the forests of her native British Columbia vulnerable to wildfires and drought, threatening the crucial biodiversity that they support. But her groundbreaking research for the Mother Tree Project - one of the most ambitious forest ecology experiments of its kind - has the potential to chart a new course. The forest, she reveals, is a living symphony of finely honed cycles of birth, growth, death and rebirth that hold the key to protecting the natural world. Working closely with local Indigenous communities, whose sustainable practices have been largely ignored, Simard examines how holistic, regenerative forestry that preserves the cycles of the forest can help solve the global climate crisis.<BR><BR> Weaving together scientific discoveries and luminous storytelling, Simard's book is a call to rediscover our kinship with the natural world, and listen to the lessons of the forest.