The Mother Tree Project & Program – British Columbia, Canada

The Mother Tree Project & Program (MTPP) is a research and outreach initiative housed in UBC’s Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship, rooted in the idea that forests are deeply interconnected systems, not just collections of individual trees.

The Mother Tree Project was conceived following three decades of research on tree connections within forests by Dr. Suzanne Simard in British Columbia and researchers in other parts of the world.

The project was launched with the intent of exploring how connections and communication between trees, particularly below-ground connections between Douglas-fir Mother Trees and seedlings, could influence forest recovery and resilience following various harvesting and regeneration treatments.

The project was designed to explore these relationships across different climates, in order to understand how climate change could influence these processes and affect the outcomes of the treatments.

The Mother Tree Project & Program’s (MTPP) empirical approach has always integrated scientific inquiry with ancestral Indigenous knowledge. Since its inception, the MTPP’s research strategy has prioritized serving First Nations communities, recognizing their profound, holistic understanding of the natural world and the interconnectedness of all living things. By embracing Indigenous values such as community-based management, where decisions are made collectively to ensure the well-being of both environment and community, the MTPP ensures its research recommendations consistently focus on biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation, and sustainable living practices for future generations.

The MTPP collaborates with over 12 First Nations communities throughout British Columbia and continually seeks to expand these connections.

https://mothertreeproject.org