What good naturalists want to hear

In March, my writer friend Paula Whyman came to Madison to promote her book, Bad Naturalist. We partnered with the Nature of Reading Bookshop and invited the Native Plant Society’s WildStory podcast hosts to moderate. People came out of the woodwork. Paula’s book certainly deserves a crowd—it’s a self-deprecating story of restoring a 75 acre Blue Ridge Mountain meadow, despite zero gardening experience. But I don’t think that explained the amount of chairs we had to haul from the back room. Personally, I think there’s something something in the air. People need community. They need to be in a safe place away from the climate doom and chaos of the Trump administration. Native plants are the perfect antidote. Almost anything you do that reduces lawn coverage and skips the chemicals will result in an increase of bees, butterflies and moths. It’s hard to go wrong. Nature is just waiting to burst forth. Butterflies—and friends—are what I need right now.