Haskell: The Forest Unseen

 David George Haskell’s The Forest Unseen is one of the best books I’ve read. It was published in 2012, but I’m just now getting to it.

The Wise Woman mentioned it as something I should have read long ago. She was, of course, right.

Haskell is an Englishman who studied biology at Oxford and Cornell and who now teaches at Sewanee. The premise of the book is that he declared a square meter of an old-growth forest in Tennessee to be a “mandala.” He paid attention to that little spot on the Cumberland Plateau with the devotion of a Buddhist monk. He visited it regularly for 12 months and described the changes of the seasons.

I’ll admit that part of the interest is personal. He’s describing a place that is similar to the Georgia Piedmont. I’ve learned something about my new home. But the book pleases me so much because it shows what a good observer can do by paying attention of a place, even a limited one. Haskell brings the universal knowledge that is supposed to be the ideal of the university to a local area, giving us an idea of the microbes, fungi, arthropods and other critters in the leaf litter. We get some lessons on physics, chemistry and geology as well as on botany, zoology and ecology. 

It's a wonderful picture of how complex the local places we call home are — and how much and how little we know about them.

Haskell says two things about observing that I thought were interesting: (1) It’s best to leave expectations behind. They color your observations, and just make the mind restless. It’s best to just allow the senses to be open as you look. (2) Paying attention is a process, rather than a feat. The mind tends to wander, and you have to gently shepherd it back to its task.

We live in an age in which people will tell you can’t take a real nature walk without spending a fortune on binoculars and other gear. I think you could get the gist of Haskell’s two suggestions and do fine.

He’s an unusual scientist. I now am in search of his recent books.

• Source: David George Haskell, The Forest Unseen; New York: Viking, 2012. His two suggestions for observers is on page 245.