Guest speaker/Cortes Currents - Dr Suzanne Simard was the feature speaker at the Forest Trust for the Children of Cortes Island Society AGM on Saturday. During the course of her brief talk, Dr Simard discussed some of the innovations she values on Cortes Island and also the Mother Tree Network’s plans here. This is an edited transcriptof her talk, starting with the introduction by Forrest Berman Hatch

Forrest Berman-Hatch: It’s my honor to introduce Dr. Suzanne Simard, who I'm sure many of you are familiar with. Simard has been courageous in her outspoken, defence of old growth forests. She was on the front lines at Fairy Creek and she's inspired many in our generation. For generations, environmentalists have been trying to speak on behalf of the wild places, and now Dr. Simard is showing the world that these places speak for themselves and perhaps quite literally.

Her research shows us how to listen. I believe, I speak for many of the Children's Forest alumni when I say we are both lucky and honored that she has joined us today to help further a project that is really close to a lot of our hearts. So thank you for being with us here.