Flying blind One man's adventures battling buckthorn, making peace with authority, and creating a home for endangered bats

Don Mitchell, 1947-

Book - 2013

"When Middlebury writing professor Don Mitchell was approached by a biologist with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department about tracking endangered Indiana bats on his 150-acre farm in Vermont's picturesque Champlain Valley, Mitchell's relationship with bats--and with government--could be characterized as distrustful, at best. But the flying rats, as Mitchell initially thinks of them, launched him on a series of 'improvements' to his land that would provide a more welcoming habitat for the bats--and a modest tax break for himself and his family. Whether persuading his neighbors to join him on a 'silent meditation,' pulling invasive garlic mustard out of the ground by hand, navigating the tacit ground rul...es of buying an ATV off Craigslist, or leaving just enough honeysuckle to give government inspectors 'something to find,' Mitchell's tale is as profound as it is funny--a journey that changes Mitchell's relationship with Chiroptera, the land, and, ultimately, his understanding of his own past. Ruminating on the nature of authority, the purview of the state, and the value of inhabiting one's niche--Mitchell reveals much about our inner and outer landscape, in this perfectly paced and skilled story of place"--

Saved in:

2nd Floor Show me where

599.4/Mitchell
1 / 1 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
2nd Floor 599.4/Mitchell Checked In
  • Author's Note
  • Habitat
  • Forest Management Plan
  • The WHOP
  • Yahweh's Smile
  • Batshit
  • Niche
  • Echolocations
  • Authority
  • Field Notes
  • Acknowledgments
Review by Booklist Review

Bats used to give Mitchell the willies. Then a bat biologist turned up at his Vermont farm with a request to trap some bats, and in his first night netted two endangered Indiana bats. A few years later Mitchell retired from teaching and began to work his farm again, enrolling it in a forest-management plan specifically targeted to help the bats. By then, white-nose syndrome, a largely fatal disease of hibernating bats, had invaded Vermont, and anything to help the bats was getting government funding. So the 1960s countercultural Mitchell, who had initially bought his farm to live off the land and away from any government interference, discovered himself getting more and more enmeshed. The forestry plan to help bats began to dovetail with the requirement to remove the invasive buckthorn and garlic mustard that were appearing in his woods; so to reduce his taxes and improve the forests for the bats, Mitchell had to play by the government's rules.--Bent, Nancy Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Middlebury writing professor, novelist, and shepherd Mitchell (The Nature Notebooks) didn't set out to become an environmental hero at the outset of this elegantly written eco-memoir. Despite his mistrust of authority, in 2009, Mitchell is ridding Vermont forests of invasive plant species and rescuing bats through a government program: the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP). This quest leads Mitchell into the darkness of the woods, and back out into a deepened understanding of himself and the natural world. The physical labor and nature of the forest come to stand for Mitchell's inner journey-making peace with the darkness in his family's past, while strengthening the bonds in his family's present. The methodical work, both of weeding and writing, allows him to restore the forest within, the "decay" allowing him to access rich literary material in his personal and family history. Collaborating with the government he once despised, Mitchell helps a team track bats, revealing why the endangerment of bats threatens the ecosystem. In helping to save them, he salvages part of himself: "Befriending bats had been a means to figure out, against all odds, where in the world I actually was." Mitchell weaves personal and environmental story lines in patterns as beautiful and natural as any ecosystem could create. Agent: Sally Brady, Brady Literary Management. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved