AGAIN AND AGAIN, as I used to be studying the current ebook “Bad Naturalist” by Paula Whyman, I saved pondering: Good factor I solely have a few acres of land. Whyman tackled 200 acres on a Virginia mountaintop, dreaming of reshaping it, she writes, into “a local plant paradise, a mannequin of conservation, a meadow that might encourage Julie Andrews to interrupt into tune.”
However the pure world usually has different issues in thoughts than those on our to-do listing, doesn’t it? On any scale, all the teachings nature delivers—classes like ones about invasive vegetation, or concerning the unstoppable ahead march of succession, concerning the impossibilities of imposing ideas like management or perfection—are classes hard-earned, and I talked with Paula, who shared a few of her takeaways from years of ecological experiments on the land.
Paula Whyman is an writer, together with of the award-winning ebook of brief tales titled “You Could See a Stranger.” Nowadays she lives within the Blue Ridge foothills in Virginia on the piece of land that’s the topic of her newest ebook, “Bad Naturalist: One Lady’s Ecological Training on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop” (affiliate hyperlink).
Plus: Remark within the field close to the underside of the web page to enter to win a replica of “Bad Naturalist.”
Learn alongside as you take heed to the Could 26, 2025 version of my public-radio present and podcast utilizing the participant beneath. You may subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify (and browse my archive of podcasts right here).
‘bad naturalist’ with paula whyman
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Margaret: How’s that wild Virginia mountaintop, Paula?
Paula: It’s fairly wild.
Margaret: As I form of hinted out within the introduction, I form of determine/commiserate, though I’ve this tiny place, with loads of the identical classes. So it was type of enjoyable for me—not enjoyable, however I suppose distress loves firm [laughter]. Among the classes are startling ones, I suppose, that we discovered from nature.
So let’s simply have a mini-backstory to set the scene for folks. You and your husband had been approaching changing into empty-nesters, I believe, and also you form of had been in search of your subsequent house, and also you ended up shopping for a spot that didn’t also have a home, however had 200 acres on a Virginia mountaintop [laughter]. So inform us when did that start and the little mini-version of the scene setting?
Paula: Certain. Effectively, a number of years in the past we had been in search of a spot, such as you stated, and we had been in search of a home and a small piece of land where-
Margaret: [Laughter.] I’m sorry I can’t assist myself.
Paula: I do know. Effectively, my husband is an Eagle Scout and he wished to spend extra time outdoor, and I wished to have the ability to plant an enormous vegetable backyard and possibly increase a couple of sheep. And after I say a couple of, I imply three, not 300. And I additionally wished to plant a small native meadow. After I say small, I imply possibly an acre, as a result of I had been studying concerning the significance of native vegetation.
As a child, I used to be actually into bugs and wildlife, and that’s form of how I got here to my curiosity in conservation and ecology. And naturally, I discovered from studying Doug Tallamy’s “Nature’s Finest Hope,” how essential vegetation are the correct vegetation, native vegetation are for the wildlife that I cared about. So I assumed, O.Okay., I’m going to plant a small native meadow wherever we find yourself, and I’ll put my writing shed subsequent to it, and I’ll watch the birds fly round and I’ll watch the flowers sway within the breeze. And it was all very idealistic and delusional. [Laughter.]
So we ended up on this specializing in an space within the Northern Blue Ridge in Virginia, and we had been out at some point taking a look at houses and somebody stated, “Oh, whilst you’re right here, you simply should see the view on high of this mountain. It’s unbelievable. You gained’t see something round right here prefer it.” So O.Okay. So we went to this place the place to start with, it was August. It was extremely popular and vivid, and there was no highway going all the way in which as much as the highest of this mountain. There was form of a gravel highway on the backside. So we parked and hiked a couple of mile up. And once we received out of the woods, we had been form of on this open space, besides it was arduous to see as a result of the vegetation had been throughout our heads. It was form of a farm that had been allowed to go to seed for fairly some time.
And there have been these 6-foot-plus yellow flowers [above, Paula in their midst before bloom; below, detail of yellow crownbeard blooms] that I couldn’t determine as a result of I didn’t actually know flowers. And there was only a path that was mowed slim, simply large sufficient for us to stroll by means of all of this dense vegetation, whereas all of the bees buzzed round us and all these unfamiliar chicken sounds. And we stand up to the highest and I look out and there may be this huge, rolling panorama, some steep slopes—little or no flat, some rolling—with all of those yellow flowers so far as I may see, and forested slopes falling away. And I appeared out at that, what I later discovered was about 75 acres of open meadow outdated fields, and I assumed, O.Okay, my plan to plant a small meadow appears now very unambitious [laughter].
And my husband had the same excited response, not for a similar causes. He was taking a look at it from the Eagle Scout perspective: “I can camp right here, I could make trails,” and all that stuff. And in that second, I principally determined to go for it; that this mountaintop was going to be my challenge and I used to be going to deliver native vegetation again right here, not pondering within the second that I knew little or no about vegetation and that traditionally I’m a horrible gardener. I plant issues and so they don’t come again [laughter]. So it was not a pure factor for me to determine, however I assumed, O.Okay., no, this place wants my assist and I’m going to determine tips on how to do it.
Margaret: Proper. And naturally, step one actually that we don’t even understand goes to be step one—and I skilled it right here after I got here right here 35 or extra years in the past, to solely couple of acres. However loads of the identical issues have introduced themselves to me through the years which have revealed themselves to you within the ebook. We don’t know something about, such as you stated, yellow flowers. Effectively, who’re they? What are they? And are they annuals, perennials or biennials? Are they native or non-native? We don’t know something at first.
And we begin to study, and we don’t learn about succession. Are these going to remain, or is one thing else going to return subsequent? And so many classes. And naturally we now have the image in our thoughts, such as you had been saying, about, “I’m going to make a meadow,” however even a meadow shouldn’t be a completed factor. Like, “Oh, it’s carried out.” [Laughter.] Proper? It evolves and modifications. So that you needed to type of take inventory and get acquainted, with the state of the place, what was there, the baseline, I believe as you name it.
Paula: Precisely. I needed to actually study the mountaintop. I wanted to study the topography, I wanted to study the vegetation. And that was an enormous leap for me, as a result of I don’t have a background in vegetation. So the very first thing I did was begin contacting consultants, as a result of fortunately there have been many sources, nonprofit conservation organizations, scientific analysis institutes, authorities companies that might ship folks out. They might stroll with me on the land and they might level issues out to me. And that approach I acquired a crash course in ecology. Actually, sadly, I discovered to determine invasive vegetation first, most likely [laughter].
Margaret: Proper, precisely. Precisely. And that’s what I particularly wished to essentially discuss. And I laughed at one level within the ebook, you say you form of renamed the place “Unintended Penalties Farm,” as a result of each from the historical past of who’s been there earlier than and what they did, after which all of the human interventions and so forth, and the efforts that you simply’re planning to make. And also you’re making an attempt to determine—even as soon as you possibly can determine the invasives and so forth—”Oh, we’ve received to do away with these.” Effectively, however, can we actually, and which of them are most essential to cope with? Have you learnt what I imply? There’s so many questions, it’s like a triage ward. The questions are simply… It’s like, O.Okay., what’s the largest emergency? We’ve got to determine that out. We will’t do all the pieces, can we?
Paula: No, completely. And it was actually enjoying a recreation of whack-a-mole continually. Sure, I’d be involved with one thing over on one facet of the meadow after which a half-mile away, one thing horrible could be occurring [laughter] that I’d discover out about when it was too late for me to cease it. So as an illustration, a few weeks in the past, I’ve this big weed wrench, and I spend a day pulling about three-dozen autumn olives that had been between 3 and 5 toes tall.
Margaret: Considered one of your invasive woody vegetation, the autumn olive, Eleagnus. And it’s a horrible invasive as a result of it has makes so many seeds and the birds transfer them round, and it’s a nasty one.
Paula: And so they had been like so many different invasives, planted deliberately in loads of locations. And so they even deliberately planted a range that might take advantage of seeds, as a result of they thought that might be a great factor. In order that’s what we’re coping with. However then I pulled these up, after which I walked up the hill and I noticed in one other spot a bunch of jimsonweed vegetation arising the place I didn’t know that we had them. In order that was going to be a challenge for one more day.
And issues like that occur on a regular basis. I can’t do all the pieces. So I do should prioritize. And I form of attempt to cope with issues that may be handled straight, like invasive bushes, just like the tree-of-heaven, Ailanthus, the Paulownia, after which the autumn olive. I attempt to cope with these as a result of it’s straightforward to search out them. They are often handled a few times, after which they’re carried out, though we all the time have extra, proper? [Laughter.]
However issues like vines I discover very troublesome, like Japanese honeysuckle, we now have that all through among the fields. And this is likely one of the issues that I discovered within the technique of this challenge, that conservation, no less than ecological restoration, was going to be about trade-offs. I used to be continually going to be making troublesome choices about what to assist when it meant probably harming one thing else. So if I attempt to undergo the fields now and deal with the Japanese honeysuckle, I’m additionally going to kill loads of milkweed [below] and goldenrod and little bluestem. And so I’ve to make choices about the place and when is it O.Okay. to try this? And I’ve a extremely arduous time with that as a result of I don’t prefer to kill something good.
Margaret: And I actually determine with that, by way of utilizing herbicide or no matter. And I haven’t actually, and now I’ve in my so-called meadow—which is a small meadow above my home—it needs to be a shrubland now. It’s on the stage of succession after so lengthy of a once-yearly mowing type of a factor. It was a bluestem-dominated small meadow, slightly bluestem meadow. And it needs to be Rubus, and I don’t know whether or not they’re technically blackberries or what they’re precisely. I’ve by no means keyed them out, however it simply needs to be a thicket of Rubus.
And figuring these issues out and deciding, properly, O.Okay, what do I do? Do I mow it for X variety of years to essentially discourage the woodies, or do I’m going to the herbicide? And in that case, it wouldn’t be broadcast spraying, however what do I do? And as you say, there might be unintended penalties. And as you write within the ebook, we’re continually having to return to phrases with imperfection, aren’t we?
Paula: Sure. That was additionally very troublesome for me [laughter], a troublesome lesson to study. I actually thought somebody was going to return to me and say, “O.Okay, first you do that, then you definitely do this…”
Margaret: Proper? Like a recipe ebook; like we’re making a recipe, or we’re constructing one thing, and there’s a system. No, and also you additionally say, having to do with the invasives, that you simply stopped saying “eliminating invasives” and began saying “managing invasives.” And I believe that’s a vital level, is that when we actually dig in and begin making an attempt to do a few of these issues, we acknowledge that there are limitations, there are actually forces greater than us at work. And we now have to consider the trade-offs, as you’re saying, and what the very best final result is, which isn’t 100%, proper?
Paula: Yeah, precisely. And I actually wanted to study that lesson concerning the invasive vegetation as a result of I used to be type of letting it take over my life, and my thoughts. I used to be having goals concerning the tree-of-heaven marching… [laughter].
Margaret: Oh pricey. Oh pricey.
Paula: Yeah, no, it wasn’t good. And nonetheless, I can’t assist it after I’m on the freeway; they develop alongside the median, and that’s what I see, Ailanthus all over the place. And naturally now we now have noticed lanternflies, so it’s even worse that we now have Ailanthus bushes, however we’re not going to essentially cease them from coming. We will solely handle them.
Margaret: And one other attention-grabbing factor that you simply confronted, and it’s one thing that I’ve confronted right here, too, with a distinct species, talking of woody form of “invasives” or issues that seem like invasive: Typically they’re not non-natives. Typically they’re simply pioneer species. You discovered about pioneer species because of the tulip poplar, the Liriodendron, which is a local tree.
Paula: Sure, precisely. And we now have some fields the place tulip poplars have tried to take over, and we actually try to maintain these out of the meadow for lots of causes. And other people would possibly say, properly, why don’t you simply let it go to closed-canopy forest? However this mountaintop, a big a part of it, has most likely not been closed-canopy forest for tons of of years. And its pure inclination is extra possible savannah. So we’re making an attempt to take care of as a lot of it that approach as we are able to. So we spend loads of time, my husband truly spends loads of time, chopping poplar bushes and likewise black locust bushes. These are the 2 pioneers. Sassafras considerably, however I like the sassafras bushes and I gained’t reduce them.
Margaret: However boy oh boy, once they wish to make form of a thicket, an outcrop, I don’t even know what you’ll name it, they’re fairly lusty. They’re lovely. So lovely. Particularly within the fall, after all. Right here, the pioneer species—my property is surrounded by state forest—is black birch, a specific kind of birch. And at first after I wished to mow much less and fewer and fewer, and I ended mowing to form of the outer fringes all the way in which out to the fence, and I form of let issues sow in. I’ve received loads of native witch-hazel self-sowns and different issues, different woody vegetation, and once more, lowering the mowing. And what got here in had been these younger bushes. And I used to be like, “Oh, look, there are native black birch.” And properly, the factor is that they develop actually quick and there’s loads of them [laughter]. And such as you stated, with the tulip poplar, you’re going to fairly shortly have a tulip poplar forest, or I’m going to have a black birch forest.
Paula: Precisely.
Margaret: And in order that wasn’t precisely the thought, however it’s actually arduous to edit typically. It’s arduous to know that. And once more, coming to know pioneer species, and the concept that in nature—within the succession course of—there are these leaders which might be on the vanguard, these ones that exit first and mark the territory. Proper?
Paula: Sure. I simply don’t need, even with native vegetation, I don’t desire a monoculture.
Margaret: Effectively, precisely. And that’s what I imply, however to start with, I didn’t even know what pioneer species had been, I imply, I didn’t know something like that. And after I began to learn about native vegetation, I assumed, “Oh, they’re all good. That’s all excellent. They’re on the nice facet, after which there’s the bad guys.” However once more, there’s this fuzzy grey space within the center the place, as you say, proper? So we study these refined, extra refined, classes alongside the way in which in these experiments that we’re loopy sufficient to be doing [laughter].
Paula: And I’ve had the same downside with blackberry that it’ll in a short time take over a subject, after which you’ve gotten a shrubland, such as you had been saying. And I attempted other ways of coping with that. We principally have settled on mowing or bush hogging, which is form of mowing on steroids, however it’s not excellent. It’s going to develop again. And mowing can truly encourage that woody bramble, however I didn’t wish to spray it. And that’s what I used to be suggested to do. And I stated, “No, I’m not going to spray it as a result of so many bees and animals use this plant. That’s not why I’m right here.” I did wish to burn it as a result of you possibly can burn woody stuff if you happen to burn within the fall. However the Division of Forestry has been so brief staffed and-
Margaret: Right here, too. And we’ve had… Final yr, we had a drought yr, as an illustration, and so there was no burn season within the fall final yr the place I’m, due to a drought and issues like that. I imply, it’s not such as you simply go do it everytime you really feel prefer it. No, it’s very particularly supervised, particularly in your bigger scale.
Paula: Yeah. I imply, there’s a course that I may take to turn out to be a licensed burn supervisor, however I believe even when I had been to try this, I’d not really feel comfy supervising a burn on the mountain. It’s simply too dry and extremely erodible.
Margaret: That’s massive. You name your self the “Bad Naturalist,” [laughter] and so I wish to ask you about that. However I additionally wished to say what could be essential for gardeners who’re transitioning no matter quantity of area, as a result of once more, I discover the identical classes on one-One centesimal of the area that you’ve got; I’ve come throughout the identical classes you’ve gotten. And I believe it doesn’t matter how massive or small the area. What could be among the standout bits of recommendation or no matter classes discovered that you’d need folks to be fascinated about as they consider a extra ecological method to half or all of their property?
Paula: Effectively, I believe step one, no less than for me, was to concentrate. Take note of what’s rising round you, the place you reside, and be interested in what these vegetation do. How do they help the native pure group? And take into consideration is there one thing in there that possibly isn’t pulling its weight that you simply don’t actually care about?
Don’t do away with your favourite decorative, however begin small and choose one nook of your yard or one pot if you happen to’re planting in pots or your window field, and plant one native plant that does one thing that may interact your pursuits. So if you happen to’re into birds, or if you happen to’re into butterflies, plant a local plant that may attraction to these creatures.
As a result of it’s so motivating, if you do one thing like that and also you see bees or butterflies or whichever pursuits you coming to that plant, and that if you happen to hadn’t carried out that, it wouldn’t have occurred. It occurred due to you. So this small factor made a distinction. So my entire factor is: Don’t put a lot stress on your self to make massive change abruptly. Begin small. Take steps and select one thing that you simply actually care about.
Margaret: So form of virtually in a approach concentrate on a approach at first, so that you simply get that sense of connection and success and so forth that you simply get to look at the change you wish to see occur. You hopefully get to look at it occur.
Paula: Yeah. So as an illustration, if you happen to wished to plant milkweed, as a result of it might entice monarchs, when you see a monarch there, properly additionally take into consideration planting aster or goldenrods, in order that the grownup monarchs have one thing. And then you definitely’ll actually have this good little mini-ecosystem that helps these butterflies by means of their entire lifespan.
Margaret: So go from that first little nugget of a lesson and increase outward from there.
Paula: Precisely.
Margaret: O.Okay, in order that’s one for certain: to begin small and one thing that you simply actually care about; a spotlight.
Paula: And I believe that that’s form of if you see that you simply did one thing like that, that you simply made one thing occur, it’s empowering, and it results in subsequent steps, it results in eager to do extra.
Margaret: And you bought loads of recommendation and assist, and also you didn’t comply with the primary one that stated, “Do that or do this; broadcast spray the entire place,” or no matter. You didn’t do these issues, however you probably did solicit recommendation. And isn’t that essential, don’t you assume it was completely worthwhile?
Paula: Completely. I’d say positively examine the sources the place you reside, as a result of many counties and cities and states have packages that help planting of natives, even capturing rainwater, every kind of packages like that. They might begin with free recommendation or they may even partly subsidize the planting of native vegetation.
Margaret: And there’s organizations like membership organizations, like Wild Ones with chapters throughout the nation, the place you’ll find neighbors who’ve first-hand expertise in your space, that type of factor. So form of networking and getting skilled recommendation I believe is super-important, too.
Paula: Sure, precisely. And in our case, the Soil and Water Conservation District additionally was prepared to return out and have a look and provides recommendation, and there’s a corporation known as Blue Ridge Prism, which though Blue Ridge is within the identify, they get folks from everywhere in the world tuning into their webinars about invasive vegetation.
Margaret: Effectively, I’m glad to speak to you. I used to be glad to learn the ebook, and congratulations on that, “bad” naturalist or in any other case. And should the journey proceed; that’s what it’s all about. So thanks for making time right now to speak, and I hope I’ll speak to you once more.
(All photographs from Paula Whyman; used with permission.)
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