Apr 08: Creating A Dream Home On a Wild Blue Ridge Mountaintop in Virgina
Author Paula Whyman’s venture to restore her mountain wilderness
How does someone who knows nothing about ecological restoration successfully rehab 200 acres of retired farmland on top of wild mountain?
Well, Paula Whyman didn’t know the answer to that either, but she plunged ahead regardless and ultimately wrote about her journey in Bad Naturalist: One Woman’s Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop. It’s part memoir, part conservation science, and part cautionary tale about “buyer beware of big dream about fantasy land”.
Facing her own limitations with self-deprecating humor, we discuss Paula’s story of perseverance, frustration, learning, discovery, determination, and wonder as she met unforeseen challenges, highs, lows, and the unexpected enormity of clearing invasive foliage and restoring her own mountain top to create a natural ecosystem.
The supreme lesson: Nature is always the boss!
Meet Paula Whyman
Paula Whyman’s Bad Naturalist: One Woman’s Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop is a blend of memoir, natural history, and conservation science. Paula Whyman’s nonfiction has been featured on NPR, and in the Washington Post, The American Scholar, and The Rumpus. She is co-founder and editor-in-chief of the literary journal Scoundrel Time. Her stories have appeared in journals including McSweeney’s Quarterly and Virginia Quarterly Review, and her fiction was selected for the anthology Writes of Passage: Coming-of-Age Stories and Memoirs from The Hudson Review.
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