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Paula Whyman

Conservation, Memoir, Wildlife

Apr 08: Creating A Dream Home On a Wild Blue Ridge Mountaintop in Virgina

April 8, 2026

Author Paula Whyman’s venture to restore her mountain wilderness

Bad Naturalist with author Paula Whyman

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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Conservation, Memoir, Nature, Non Fiction, Writers on Writing

Feb 26: Bad Naturalist – Paula Whyman

February 26, 2025

One Woman’s Attempt to Restore 200 Acres of Farmland in the Blue Ridge Mountains

Bad Naturalist with author Paula Whyman

With humor, humility, and awe, writer Paula Whyman faces her limitations, while getting to know a breathtaking corner of the natural world.

When she first climbed a peak in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains looking for a home in the country, she had no idea how little she knew about hands-on conservation, or how quickly her tidy backyard ecology project would grow into a massive endeavor.

From Bad Naturalist: One Woman’s Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop we explore some of Paula’s many challenges, failures, and successes as she learns hour by hour how to work with nature and its seasons, with indigenous versus invasive growth, and nature … the ultimate boss.

Meet Paula Whyman

Paula Whyman’s new book, Bad Naturalist: One Woman’s Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop, is a blend of memoir, natural history, and conservation science. Her short story collection You May See a Stranger, earned praise from The New Yorker, a starred review in Publishers Weekly, and won the Towson Prize for Literature. Paula Whyman’s 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. 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.

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