Books that Expanded My Outlook in 2023

So I shared brief summaries of the environmental books that I read in 2024 in my last post, but I kept thinking about some of the excellent books I read in 2023, too.  Adding them all to one post seemed too clunky, so I decided to wax enthusiastic over my 2023 reads in this separate post.

Looking over my 2023 list, I was struck by how much more "natural history" I read than in 2024.

The Hidden Life of Trees:  The Illustrated Edition, by Peter Wohlleben, Greystone Books Ltd./David Suzuki Institute, 2015/2016/2018. 

   The text in this edition is abridged from the original (and I still need to find and read the original), but the photographs are sublime.  This book is an excellent and easily readable introduction to forest ecology, incorporating many of the recent breakthroughs in our knowledge. (Note:  Peter Wohlleben is an author and has worked for the forestry commission in Germany for over 20 years.  He now manages a forest academy and a natural woodland in Germany.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  Just opening this book and looking at the gorgeous photos relaxes me.  It is absolutely beautiful.  More than simply being a "pretty face", though, this book was a great summary of the workings of forests.

Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit, by Lyanda Lynn Haupt,  Little, Brown Spark/Hachette Book Group, 2021.

    Rooted is very different from the other books that I have talked about here.  It is based in science, but it is also part philosophy, part spiritual guidance, and part nature guide.  Weaving in quotes from a wide variety of people like Mary Oliver, John O'Donoghue,  Robert Macfarlane, Merlin Sheldrake, and Richard Louv, this book is a rich tapestry from which to draw inspiration and a deep sense of connection with the natural world.

What did I gain from reading this book?  As I read this book, I felt a variety of strands from my life and my reading come together in new ways, highlighting possibilities and encouraging changes in the way I relate to the natural world.  After I finish reading a book, assuming I decide to keep it, I store each one in a  different area, based on how I think I'll access or use it in the future:  plant or animal reference book, general ecological principles, environmental commentary, gardening, poetry, and so forth.  This book is one of the few I keep at my bedside so that I can dip into it for inspiration and rejuvenation when I'm feeling my well run dry.

 

Garden Allies: The Insects, Birds & Other Animals That Keep Your Garden Beautiful and Thriving, by Frederique Lavoipierre, Timber Press, Portland, Oregon, 2021.

    A chapter subheading sums up this book well:  "Actors on Your Garden's Stage".  While other books I read in 2023 talked about all the insects and other animals that share life in and on trees, this book does the same for our gardens.  If you read this book, you'll recognize many, many more of the "little  guys" you see in your garden.  (Note:  Frrederique Lavoipierre has a Masters Degree in Biology with an emphasis on ecological principles of sustainable landscaping;  she was written and worked in this field in numerous capacities.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  Garden Allies was a wonderful introduction to a wide variety of the beings that we see in our yards and gardens.  It would be especially useful for someone wanting to learn more about the variety of "bugs" they encounter in their garden.

Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse, by Dave Goulson, Harper (HarperCollins), 2021.

    For me, this is simply the best book on what's going on with insect declines.  Not only is there good information on insects themselves, there is excellent background on pesticides and changing farming practices, how artificial fertilizers affect insects, the effects of climate change, and the surprising problem of light pollution.  One of the most memorable sections of this book was Goulson's imaginative trip 50-60 years into the future, pondering what life might be like then if we didn't manage to protect insects now.  The last section of this book is titled "What Can We Do?" and, in it, Goulson outlines specific tasks that we can each do to help protect insect populations.  (Note:  Dave Goulson is Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex in Great Britain.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  Simply put, while Milman's book, The Insect Crisis, was good, this book was excellent at defining the problem of insect decline and also, critically, on giving us concrete suggestions that we each can do to avert the "insect apocalypse".

The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet, by Michael E. Mann, PublicAffairs (Hachette Book Group), 2021.

    Michael Mann is a climate scientist who has, for decades, been at the forefront of trying to awaken our country to the looming reality of the climate crisis.   This book is about the history of our understanding about global warming and the history of the fight against action to solve this extreme threat to our world.   This is a call to action, and Mann emphasizes that it is NOT too late to act; he helps us see the way forward.  He is adamant that solving the climate crisis will take more than individual action, and he points us in the direction we need to work. (Note:  Michael E. Mann is a Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  Having read about Mann's climate work for decades, I found it fascinating to read his story of how climate policies have been submarined by the fossil fuel industry over the years.  The tactics the industry has used have been impressively effective.  Mann himself has been personally vilified in the industry's quest to "Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead!"  We don't think of scientists as warrior heroes, but Mann has been at the forefront of this battle, fighting for the future for all of us.   

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year, by Margaret Renkl, Spiegel & Grau, New York, 2023.

    Accompanied by a series of delightful artworks depicting nature, this book is a collection of thoughtful and poignant essays on the wildlife all around us in our home landscapes.  Tales of ecstasy and tragedy, musings filled with love and concern, every time I think of reading this book, I reflexively smile.  (Note:  Margaret Renkl is the author of several books and a contributing writer for the New York Times.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  This book gave me beauty and richness and a sense of camaraderie with the author.

   

The Hidden Company That Trees Keep: Life from Treetops to Root Tips, by James B. Nardi, Princeton University Press, 2023.

    When I look at a tree, I look for the animals in and around it, too.  Until I read this book, I usually saw just birds, squirrels, and maybe a few caterpillars.  In this book, Nardi goes much deeper, showing the interconnected webs of hundreds of organisms that are supported by each tree and that support the tree, as well.  He takes each part of the tree and describes the other organisms interacting with that part specifically:  leaves, twigs & buds, the circulatory system, the trunk, the roots, the flowers & fruits.  Who makes galls?  How do trees respond to insect or disease attacks?  What animals help the trees protect themselves?  The richness and diversity Nardi describes are breathtaking. (Note:  James Nardi is a research scientist in biology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  I love taking walks around our yard and photographing every animal I can find, big or small.  Many of the animals I find are small...and odd looking to my eyes.  This book helped me understand the complex interactions between the animals I observe and the trees in our yard.  I underlined so much as "important - I want to remember this" that there's hardly a page I haven't marked in some way!

 

Wildscape: Trilling Chipmunds, Beckoning Blooms, Salty Butterflies, and Other Sensory Wonders of Nature, by Nancy Lawson, Princeton Architectural Press, 2023.

    Evocative is the best word I can come up with to describe Nancy Lawson's latest book.  In the grand scheme of things, her Maryland garden doesn't lie all that far from our southeast Virginia one, so she almost feels like a next door neighbor as she talks about the plants and animals in her yard.  And the stories she tells!  Flea beetles helping monarchs in their quest for protective chemicals from milkweeds.  Chipmunks and mice spreading mycorrhizal fungi that connect and nurture plants.  The difference between the songs of "city birds" and "country birds" in the white-throated sparrow population.  The rich discoveries in this book give an increased depth to my experiences in the landscape. (Note: Nancy Lawson is an author, conservationist, and lecturer.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  Nancy Lawson has the gift of loving the unloved - and helping me to love them too.  I see certain plants and animals with new eyes after reading her books or listening to her lectures.  In this book, she took me on a fascinating nature walk, helping me decode some of the behavior or animal traces that I see...or hear...or smell...or touch in the landscape, while helping me appreciate the complexity of plant-animal relationships even more deeply. 

So many books, so little time.....

I hope you're able to find the time to pick up one or more of these books so you can enjoy them too.

Books That Enlarged My Outlook in 2024

Thanks to an annual challenge published by the reading challenge group, The 52 Book Club, I have started reading a LOT more in the last several years.  While most of the books I've read have been fiction, I have also read some interesting non-fiction along the way - and, of course, some of my favorite non-fiction books have to do with the environment,  I thought I'd share my favorite environmental reads from 2024.

The Nation of Plants, by Stefano Mancuso, Other Press LLC, New York, 2019/2021.  

    Sometimes I read a book that completely shifts a facet of how I understand the world.  This small book created such a shift in me.  I've always considered animals to be "more advanced" than plants, and thus "more important" somehow.  However, recent research has certainly been expanding our understanding of plants significantly.  Going a step further, this book posits, successfully in my view, that plants are by far the most important living beings on Earth.  "We exist thanks to plants, and we will continue to be able to exist only in their company.  It behooves us to keep this idea clear at all times."  Mancuso starts from that premise and goes on to create a Constitution for The Nation of Plants, imaginatively raising environmental truths to the level of international law.  (Note: Mancuso is a plant neurobiologist at the University of Florence, Italy.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  Reading this book changed my fundamental understanding of the importance of plants compared to animals.

The Insect Crisis, by Oliver Milman, W. W. Norton & Company, 2022.  

    Starting with a brief vision of what would (will?) happen to humans if all insects disappear, Milman goes on to look at the research studies behind recent dire headlines about the significant insect declines being observed.  He shares stories and studies from across the planet.  Then Milman examines the threats that are causing those insect declines, from farming practices to light pollution to global warming, pointing out that many of these threats are voluntary choices we make, so different choices could be made that would be less destructive.  The importance of making those different choices is Milman's ultimate point, a message we should all take to heart.  (Note:  Milman is a British journalist who specializes in the environment.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  In reading this book, I increased my knowledge about the ongoing decline of insects, giving me a deeper commitment to supporting insects and other species in my home's landscape.

    The Silent Earth, by Dave Goulson, was also written about the precipitous decline of insects.  I read this excellent book in 2023 and will discuss it in a post about the books I read that year.

Wilding: Returning Nature to Our Farm, by Isabella Tree, New York Review Books, 2018.

    I've seen this book recommended for years, but it was about an estate in Britain, so I resisted reading it.  What insights could it have that would be of benefit to backyards in the States?  Well, it turns out that this book is chock full of new understandings of ecological processes!  It was amazing.  I'll never look at an ancient tree in the same way again, and I have a much deeper appreciation for the variety of roles that such beings play.  There was information I won't be able to personally use for rewilding (reintroducing large herbivores into the landscape comes to mind) but I found the necessity for their presence and how they impacted the ecosystem to be fascinating.  I highly recommend this book.  (Note:  Isabella Tree is a writer and conservationist who, along with her husband Charlie Burrell, manages the Knepp Estate/Knepp Wildland Project.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  This book probably gave me my single biggest leap forward in understanding ecological processes since Doug Tallamy's Bringing Nature Home.

The Weight of Nature:  How a Changing Climate Changes Our Brains, by Clayton Page Aldern, Dutton (PenguinRandomHouse), 2024.

    We like to think that climate change, a.k.a. global warming, is "out there" and that we can insulate ourselves from it if we're thoughtful and careful...or simply don't give it credence or attention.  Aldern tells us exactly how wrong we are.  He shows us how global warming is changing (all of) our brains, making it harder to think and remember accurately, affecting the decisions we make, making us more prone to violence, giving many of us PTSD, and increasing our exposures to vectors of brain disease.  Climate change is also changing human cultures and language.  (Note:  Aldern is a neuroscientist turned environmental journalist.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  Aldern helped me to understand how ALL of us are already being affected by global warming, mentally and physically.

The Light Eaters:  How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth, by Zoe Schlanger, Harper (HarperCollins Publishers), 2024.

    As I mentioned above when talking about The Nation of Plants, botany has been making huge leaps forward in our understanding of plants.  Schlanger's book takes a deeper look at some of these new discoveries and understandings.  Plants can communicate with each other and with some animals - not in the same way we communicate, but in important ways nonetheless.  Plants can feel when things happen to their bodies.  Plants treat their relatives differently than they treat less closely related individuals.  Plants even have memories.  A lot of these discoveries have the potential to significantly change how we relate with plants, which is a sobering thought indeed.  (Note:  Zoe Schlanger is a staff writer at the Atlantic, where she covers climate change.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  From this book, I gained a clearer knowledge of the recent advances in botany that are changing our fundamental understanding of plants.

How to Love a Forest:  The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World, by Ethan Tapper, Broadleaf Books, Minneapolis, 2024.

    Tapper, a forester, bought a "worn out" forest of 175 acres and is working to restore it to ecological health.  In this book, he discusses the sorts of decisions he has to make to help heal his land, some straightforward, but many nuanced and full of compromise.  Because of all the changes that have been made in our landscape over the last 400 years, restoring a forest is no longer as simple as just leaving it alone to restore itself.  Invasive species must be removed, deer populations managed through careful hunting, and other sometimes hard decisions have to be made.  Tapper talks of the necrosphere, the world of dead and dying organisms, and how vital it is to the health of the forest.  His writing is evocative and haunting.

What did I gain from reading this book?  With a wooded yard, I was excited to find this book and read Tapper's advice about forest management, but I came away with many insights into far more than just forestry.

 

What If We Get It Right?:  Visions of Climate Futures, by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, One World (Penguin Random House), 2024.

What would our lives - and our childrens' and our grandchildren's lives - be like in the future if we were able to stop, even repair, global warming?  These days we hear almost no visions of the future that aren't apocalyptic.  Most of these depressing visions are being encouraged by people who want all of us to give up and to accept the status quo so that they can continue to rake in profits.  What If We Get It Right? takes a brief, but thorough, look at where we are and at where we're headed if we make no meaningful change.   Then Johnson talks with 20 people fighting to guide us to a brighter future.  The book ends with a detailed look at a potential future where we're successfully fighting global warming as well as making other changes to provide a cleaner, healthier, more just future.

What did I gain from reading this book?  I gained hope from reading this book.  Hope, and knowledge of the work being done in many different fields to move us forward into a brighter, but not a warmer, future.

There are so many fascinating books being published.  These are the few that I read in 2024.  What books have you been reading, and what have you been learning from them?  I'd love to hear about them in your comments.

 

The Restorative Magic of Rewilding

There's not a lot I can do to affect the outcome of global warming or to stop the biodiversity crisis.  That fact tends to keep me awake at night.  However, "not a lot I can do" is not the same as "nothing I can do".  I have found a way to make a difference in both crises, even if it is a small difference, and that way is right outside our home.  Even better, every day I can literally see the difference I'm making.

What's making the difference?  Rewilding.  My husband and I are doing our best to let the land we currently steward heal itself, restore itself.  Over the last 5 years, because of our restorative choices, we have gone from seeing no moths and few butterflies or native bees to seeing all of these and more regularly.

Tiny, but mighty. In this photo, the Thin-lined Calligrapher is feeding at Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium).   The larvae of this species of syrphid fly are fierce predators of aphids, while the adults pollinate flowers as they feed.

 

What does rewilding our yard entail?  Here are the simple steps that we are taking...or not taking, as the case may be.

1.  Leave the leaves.  Our yard is part of the eastern deciduous forest and it has many large native trees that grew within a forest setting, so they are tall and straight with few low branches.  In the fall, these trees drop LOTS of leaves, which we simply...leave.  Blanketing the ground, the leaves protect the soil from erosion, hold in soil moisture, feed the trees and other plants as they decompose, and provide habitat for an amazing number of animals.  While doing all of that, they also store carbon - and help store more carbon in the soil as they decompose.

As a caterpillar, this beautiful little Red-banded Hairstreak lived in the leaf litter and fed on the fallen leaves of various trees, such as wax myrtle and sumac.  Here it is nectaring at Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum), a native perennial.

2.  Minimize lawn.  In our case, there was no functional lawn in the yard when we moved in...so we didn't try to add one.  Ours is a shaded yard, which grass doesn't like, so we're choosing not to fight that battle.  If we had a lawn, we'd be managing it as a "freedom lawn", free from pesticides and fertilizers and welcoming low-growing native plants like violets and nimblewill.

3.  Let native vegetation grow naturally.  As new plants appear in the yard, I do my best to identify them.  If they are native, I generally let them grow with little further fuss..  Some of these plants have actually been growing here for years, suppressed and invisible because of decades of mowing.  Other native species have come up from the seedbank in the soil.  Many natives have come from seeds deposited by birds and other animals as they move through our landscape.  Plants like mayapple, frost aster, American pokeweed, rough-leaved goldenrod, nimblewill, and numerous tree and shrub seedlings have appeared "on their own" in one of these ways.

The Late Boneset (Eupatorium serotinum) in this photo is an example of a native that seeded itself into our yard.  I found I loved it almost as much as this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail does, so I transplanted a second one from our daughter's yard and bought 3 more to add to the area.

4.  Remove invasive plants.  Perhaps surprisingly, this is an extremely valuable step.  The importance of native plants is that they have co-evolved with and are eaten by native insects and other native animals, so they support animal life.  Invasive plants, which are aggressive non-natives, don't get eaten and therefore have no limits on their growth and reproduction.  Invasives can take over entire landscapes, smothering the native plants in the process.  Think kudzu, the vine that ate the South.  It's like having plastic plants as far as supporting birds and other wildlife are concerned.

The lush green grass that's carpeting this woodland floor is actually invasive Japanese Stilt Grass.  An annual that seeds heavily, stilt grass rapidly takes over and suppresses almost all other vegetation.  Nothing eats it, so the forest floor essentially becomes a green desert where it grows.  We had a fair amount of stilt grass, which I have worked hard to suppress by hand pulling.  There will always be some, but right now it's easy to keep under control as I work on other things around the yard.

5.  Avoid using pesticides (including insecticides and rodenticides), fungicides, herbicides, and artificial fertilizers.  ("-cide"means "to kill").  Your rewilding landscape will re-establish its own balances and counterbalances, remaining much healthier than it ever could be by using toxins and artificial chemicals within it.  The only exception to this rule is the judicious use of specific herbicides, if necessary, to help remove particularly problematic invasive plant species.

Doing its best to imitate a half-eaten stem, this inchworm is one of many caterpillars that now call our yard home...that is, they call it home until they get eaten or until they pupate and change into moths or butterflies.   Inchworms are the larvae of geometrid moths;  this one is feeding on Rough-leaved Goldenrod.  Dr. Doug Tallamy reports that 95% of all woodland birds raise their young on insects, especially caterpillars.  If you want birds, you have to have caterpillars.   If you want caterpillars, you can't use insecticides.

This is what happens when you "sit on your hands" and don't use insecticides.  See that little orange "bug"?  That's an oleander aphid on swamp milkweed...being eaten by the larva of a lacewing!  There was a pretty good crowd of oleander aphids for a little while, but the lacewings and syrphid flies moved in and feasted.  Within a couple days, the oleander aphids were gone.  If you want lacewings and syrphid flies to do your pest control, you can't use insecticides...or even squash or wash off the aphids.

6.  Plant native plants that fit our specific ecosystem community.  In our eastern deciduous woodland yard, for example, we have added blueberries, beauty berries, Christmas ferns, bloodroot, mayapple, and pawpaw, among others.

Here a Variegated Fritillary is laying an egg on a decrepit looking Common Violet (8/3/24).

7.  Observe what's going on!  It's so common for gardeners to be "all work & no play" in their gardens, but I consciously and regularly take time to walk around, just to look and learn - and to take photos.  This is how I find new species appearing and it's an important way I figure out how different plants and animals are interacting.

A case in point.....

There haven't been many, but each summer or fall I usually find a monarch caterpillar or two on the Swamp Milkweed (Asclepius tuberosa) that I have planted around the yard.  I found this one and a sibling in early September.  True to form, after a few days the caterpillars disappeared.  I always hope they've pupated and flown off successfully, but it's rare for me to know with any certainty.

In this case, I was luckier than usual.  At the end of October, I noticed this little bit of "debris" in amongst the seed heads of this Late Boneset (Eupatorium serotinum), located about 15' away from the swamp milkweed where I'd observed the monarch caterpillars 7 weeks earlier.  If you look closely, you'll see that this is an empty pupa, with the monarch having successfully hatched.   Presumably, by the time I found this bit of evidence, the monarch was well on its way to Mexico.

8.  Learn.  Then learn some more.  There are so many fantastic resources these days, from books to YouTube videos, from our local native plant societies to online seminars, from native plant nurseries to websites, from podcasts to Facebook groups.  Fellow wildlife gardeners and rewilders can be especially fun to learn with and from.

After years of seeing this book, I finally read it this summer - and it was amazing.  It's about an English estate whose owners were losing money in traditional agriculture, so they decided to "wild" it.  Even though the species discussed are British, the concepts are universal and I learned an incredible amount from reading it.  I'll never look at an ancient, half dead tree the same way again.

9.  Put up signage in your yard to showcase what you are working to accomplish.

We put up this "real estate" box near the road to share updates about why and how we are rewilding our yard.  I try to put out new updates several times a year.

10.  Share news of your discoveries and successes with others, through photos and Facebook posts and conversations.  Who knows?  You may even want to start your own blog!

August, 2023, was the first time we saw this beautiful species in our yard.  It's called a Common Buckeye and the caterpillars feed on Wild Petunia (Ruellia sp.) and Plantain (Plantago sp.), among a few other species, both of which we now have in our yard.   Here the adult is nectaring at Hairy Elephant's Foot (Elephantopus tomentosus).

Are my husband and I making a difference?  Yes, I know we are.  

From rarely seeing any insects when we first moved in (fall 2019), to documenting over 550 species of animals in the yard during the last 2 years, it's obvious that our yard is now supporting much more biodiversity.  The majority of those newly documented species are the all important insects.  Does that mean we are overrun with "bugs"?  Not at all!  I actually have to look hard to see many of the insects living here. A huge proportion of insects, it turns out, are predators on other insects, working to keep our little ecosystem balanced and functioning smoothly.

Not only are we making a visible difference through our choices, this is frankly fun.  We see small iridescent green bees and big yellow striped swallowtails, robber flies and lacewings, tree frogs and skinks.  A wide variety of birds hang out in our yard, providing a background chorus for much of the year.  Our grandsons are becoming excellent birders and sharp observers of the natural world.

We can't save the entire world by ourselves, but we can do our best to save our little corner of it.  The more of us working together on wildlife gardening, even rewilding, the larger our impact will be.