Transforming a Blue Ridge Virginia Mountaintop
Episode description
A few years ago, she decided to leave her Maryland / suburban DC empty nest to find a rural getaway -- a small farmhouse where she could put her interest in conservation to work. With little experience in gardening or conservation, she 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 two hundred acres of old farmland atop a Virginia mountain and her dream became a reality.
In 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 is impossible to be a “good” naturalist.