Overview

With humor, humility, and awe, one woman attempts to restore 200 acres of farmland long gone-to-seed in the Blue Ridge Mountains, facing her own limitations while getting to know a breathtaking corner of the natural world. When Paula Whyman first climbs a peak in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in search of a home in the country, she has no idea how quickly her tidy backyard ecology project will become a massive endeavor. Just as quickly, she discovers how little she knows about hands-on conservation work. In Bad Naturalist, readers meander with her through orchards and meadows, forests and frog ponds, as she is beset by an influx of invasive species, rattlesnake encounters, conflicting advice from experts, and delayed plans--but none of it dampens her irrepressible passion for protecting this place. With delightful, lyrically deft storytelling, she shares her attempts to coax this beautiful piece of land back into shape. It turns out that amid the seeming chaos of nature, the mountaintop is teeming with life and hope.

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9781643262178

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Reviews

"""How can someone who knows nothing about ecological restoration successfully rehab 200 acres of retired farmland? In Bad Naturalist, her self-deprecating, humorous, and thoroughly engaging book, Paula Whyman tells us exactly how. She describes the many pitfalls, explains how she triumphed over them, and details the many benefits of persevering, both for herself and for her mountaintop ecosystem. Why should landowners read this book? Because they own--and need to restore--most of the landscape, an awesome responsibility whose meaning Whyman has distilled for us.""--Doug Tallamy, New York Times bestselling author of Nature's Best Hope ""A brilliant, richly layered exploration of the natural world, Paula Whyman's gripping tale embeds the reader on a mountaintop, sweeping us through the landscape and her life while braiding memoir, biodiversity, expertise, and doubt, along with inevitable setbacks that she counters with sheer determination. Whyman, a 'pretty good' naturalist, is the perfect guide to today's urgent questions, proposing some unexpected answers and delivering it all in unputdownable prose, with a sense of humor and a joyful spirit."" --Jordan Goodman, author of Planting the World: Joseph Banks and His Collectors, an Adventurous History of Botany ""With dry humor and an always engaging voice, Paula Whyman takes us on an entertaining and unexpected journey restoring a wild Virginia mountaintop. Bad Naturalist is a master class in ecology, humility, and perseverance, that will have you thinking about mid-life larks, plants, and gardens, in a whole new light."" --Susan Coll, former president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and author of Real Life and Other Fictions"

"""With dry humor and an always engaging voice, Paula Whyman takes us on an entertaining and unexpected journey restoring a wild Virginia mountaintop. Bad Naturalist is a master class in ecology, humility, and perseverance, that will have you thinking about mid-life larks, plants, and gardens, in a whole new light."" --Susan Coll, former president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and author of Real Life and Other Fictions"

""In Bad Naturalist, Whyman writes with grace and good humor about the wonderful stubbornness of the natural world--and of her attempts to restore it. Down-to-earth yet poetic, impeccably researched and intensely personal, Whyman's charming, good-natured prose is a joy to read. Bad Naturalist feels like a conversation with your best friend, your quirky neighbor, and the most remarkable adventurer you've ever met. At once the story of an amateur naturalist and a moving family history, Whyman chronicles her all-too-human foibles and her even more human determination in this thoughtful, wry nonfiction debut.""--Courtney Sender, author of In Other Lifetimes All I've Lost Comes Back to Me ""How can someone who knows nothing about ecological restoration successfully rehab 200 acres of retired farmland? In Bad Naturalist, her self-deprecating, humorous, and thoroughly engaging book, Paula Whyman tells us exactly how. She describes the many pitfalls, explains how she triumphed over them, and details the many benefits of persevering, both for herself and for her mountaintop ecosystem. Why should landowners read this book? Because they own--and need to restore--most of the landscape, an awesome responsibility whose meaning Whyman has distilled for us.""--Douglas Tallamy, New York Times bestselling author of Nature's Best Hope ""A brilliant, richly layered exploration of the natural world, Paula Whyman's gripping tale embeds the reader on a mountaintop, sweeping us through the landscape and her life while braiding memoir, biodiversity, expertise, and doubt, along with inevitable setbacks that she counters with sheer determination. Whyman, a 'pretty good' naturalist, is the perfect guide to today's urgent questions, proposing some unexpected answers and delivering it all in unputdownable prose, with a sense of humor and a joyful spirit."" --Jordan Goodman, author of Planting the World: Joseph Banks and His Collectors, an Adventurous History of Botany ""With dry humor and an always engaging voice, Paula Whyman takes us on an entertaining and unexpected journey restoring a wild Virginia mountaintop. Bad Naturalist is a master class in ecology, humility, and perseverance, that will have you thinking about mid-life larks, plants, and gardens, in a whole new light."" --Susan Coll, former president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and author of Real Life and Other Fictions

Author Information

Paula Whyman is the author of Bad Naturalist and a finalist for the Philip D. Reed Environmental Writing Award. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post and The American Scholar, and in journals including McSweeney's Quarterly, Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, and The Hudson Review. Her earlier book, You May See a Stranger, is an award-winning linked short story collection. She has been in residence at MacDowell, Yaddo, VCCA, The Studios of Key West, and Oak Spring Garden Foundation. Her work on this book was supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council. She spends her time on a mountain in Virginia with her husband and a mercurial standard poodle. You can find her at paulawhyman.com, and keep up with news from the mountain via her Bad Naturalist newsletter.

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