59. “Rewilding A Mountain” with Paula Whyman, Bad Naturalist
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Welcome to episode 59 of the Nurtured by Nature podcast, today I’m delighted to be joined in conversation by Paula Whyman, author of the recently published book, Bad Naturalist.
Having been inspired by Isabella Tree’s Knepp estate in the UK, and Douglas Tallamy’s Homegrown National Park Movement in the US, Paula set out to find a small rural escape in the hope of establishing a small meadow. However, Mother Nature had slightly bigger plans for Paula and in 2020 she found herself face to face with the opportunity to become the guardian of 200 acres of impoverished and neglected Virginia mountaintop where many invasive species were causing havoc to this precious regionally important ecosystem.
Despite being a self confessed terrible gardener who knew nothing about plants, Paula has thrown herself heart and soul into her partnership with this mountain and the meadows and forests she now cares for and hopes to restore. With the advice and help of both locals and experts she has already begun to tip the balance in favour of the numerous native plants that support the insects, birds and wildlife of the region.
The lessons Paula quickly learnt are a great reminder to us all, there is not a single path or categorically right option to take, everything requires a degree of trade-off, expecting perfection became a fools folly that simply leads to frustration. But if we slowly embrace nature’s own timelines and make peace with tackling one challenge at a time and doing the best we can with the knowledge and information we have at this time, it is truly possible to make a difference in this world.
Learn more about Paula
A few years ago, Paula Whyman decided to leave her Maryland / suburban DC empty nest to find a rural getaway — maybe a small farmhouse where she could put her interest in conservation to work. With little experience in gardening or conservation, Whyman had a crazy idea to cultivate a small native meadow to provide an acre or two where wildlife could thrive and she could explore with her poodle. Then she set foot on 200 acres of old farmland atop a Virginia mountain and her dream became a reality.
Paula consults with experts and gets conflicting advice on how to best restore her land. She has to fight invasive plants that expand and push toxic substances into the soil. But to her surprise, her lovely Virginia Blue Ridge mountaintop is full of life. Native elderberries, wild bergamot, and jewelweed spring up. Lichens sprawl, bees bumble and butterflies return, songbirds call, and a few of Whyman’s plans for the place eventually go right.
BAD NATURALIST: One Woman’s Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop (Timber Press | January 7, 2025), funded by the Maryland State Arts Council, author Paula Whyman explains how she cares for her mountain-sized ecological restoration challenge with a mixture of humility and humor. She quickly discovers it’s impossible to be a “good” naturalist. This is a blend of memoir, natural history, and conservation science, a chronicle of her attempts to restore retired farmland to natural habitat. Whyman leads us on an exploration of nature and human nature. How can we learn and adapt and find patience from one season to the next? What do we do when we get lost in our own woods? When there’s no perfect option, does that mean there’s no good option? In the end, Whyman’s mountain is a metaphor — and an inspiration for undertaking big, tangled challenges before we can possibly know what we’re getting ourselves into. What matters, she shows, is taking that first step.
Website: https://paulawhyman.com/bad-naturalist/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulawhymanauthor/
BlueSky: @paulawhyman.bsky.social
Follow The progress in Paula’s Newsletter: https://paulawhyman.com/bad-naturalist-newsletter/
Other Useful Resources:
Isabella Tree – Wilding – The Knepp Estate https://knepp.co.uk/rewilding/
Douglas Tallamy – Nature’s Best Hope – Home Grown National Park: https://homegrownnationalpark.org/
Thank you for being a part of this journey with me.
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