The Common Uncommon: A Forest Journey

Biologist Heinrich (Racing the Clock) pays homage to Maine’s boreal forests in this touching memoir. As climate change threatens earth, he argues that Maine, with its rich forests teeming with animal populations, is “a model of nature as it ought to be.” The octogenarian author relates how he moved to Maine in 1952, at age 12, from Germany, and in 1980 built a log cabin on his family’s farmland, where he pursued a career as a writer, teacher, and biologist. Among other memories, Heinrich reminisces about raising a wild Canadian gosling, hunting deer, and searching for invasive gypsy moths. He stresses the importance of living in synchronicity with nature and in observance of natural cycles. Noting how Maine’s cold snaps and thaws prompt maple trees to yield their sap, he describes the process of making syrup (“I was kept busy... feeding the fire to sustain a billowing white steam cloud rising up above the froth of the boiling sap”). Likewise, he recounts planting 15 wild American chestnut seedlings, which at the time were nearly extinct, next to his cabin and then observing how insects and blue jays helped them pollinate. At last count, he found 1,300 offspring had spread through the forest. His empathy for nature effectively demonstrates the beauty of “belonging to something larger than ourselves.” This is an eloquent account of a long life well spent in the woods. (Apr.)