A Shift in Our World Paradigm

by Sue Van Hook, Board President

For years I have planted the seed of an idea in the minds of students that two hundred years of promulgating Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution via natural selection may be off. The idea that organisms compete for space, light, water, nutrients, food and shelter paralleled the patterns of people doing the same thing, especially in times of scarcity. Those individuals who procured necessities went on to pass their genes to their offspring, thereby increasing their fitness (not physical fitness, but their genetic contribution to the population). This made sense within the paradigm of warring populations. If nature was at war with itself, men were justified in waging wars. These wars were not only man against man, but man against trees, man against waterways, and man against the air we breathe. And so, we find ourselves in an existential crisis of ecological cycles off balance, wrecking havoc with the land, water and air and all life that relies on elements in balance.

What has been true for me is a paradigm of symbiosis rather than competition. Lynn Margulis, who is rightly recognized for new evidence for the cell endosymbiont theory she published in 1967, first opened my eyes to the ubiquity of mutual relationships among vastly different species from the commonly known pairings of algae and fungi to make lichens, oxpeckers gleaning parasitic insects from the skin of rhinos and termites cultivating their fungal gardens for the necessary enzymes to digest the wood they consume. The path forward for Margulis wasn’t forged without considerable defense of her ideas and examples of cellular organelles derived from ingested but not digested bacteria.

Another such struggle by a woman has recently made its way into the common vernacular. Dr. Suzanne Simard, forest ecologist, author of Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, has been credited with unraveling the mystery of the underground mycelial network in the wood wide web. Her research in the forests of British Columbia and Oregon demonstrates the complex interconnectedness between trees of different ages and species and their symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi. Collaboration has existed since the first aquatic fungi and algae partnered to move to land. What excites me is that we are ready to perceive species as not only benefitting one another, but actually caring for their own offspring and the other members of their forest communities as Simard describes. We are ready to consider all species as equals. The paradigm shift toward collaborative human communities is underway as we increasingly recognize its necessity for survival.

At MFFC we honor opportunities to explore the collaborative balance within ecosystems and with humans as we strive to maintain natural resilience in healthy forests and fields. The entire watershed just over the crest of Old Town Road is about as secluded a place as one can find. There are so many places to sit and listen to what other species have to tell us.

For more information about Simard’s new book, please read Chris Hubbard’s review of Finding the Mother Tree on page 16 in this issue.