Trees as sentient beings - Farsight Forums

In fact, many reforestation efforts are considered successful when a large number of trees are replanted in areas where clearcutting has rendered large tracts of land treeless, even if those replanted trees are essentially turning a once-diverse forest into a monocropped "farm" of trees. At the TEDSummit 2016, forest ecologist Suzanne Simard seemed to lay the idea to rest that a forest is merely a collection of trees that can be thought of as fully independent entities, standing alone even while surrounded by other trees and vegetation. Simard, who has put in about three decades of research work into Canada's forests, wants us to change the way we think about forests. "A forest is much more than what you see," she says. In the video below, she talks about how trees communicate with each other, and how they can even recognize their own kin.