The Forest Unseen

David George Haskell begins the book with a description of Tibetan Monks making a sand painting, a Mandala, to which he compares his own exploration of a one square meter patch of an old growth forest on property owned by the University of the South. 

His description of the small bit of land as a Mandala is more than an interesting metaphor. 

Like the sand painting of the monks, his patch of old growth forest was a place of observation and contemplation, from which his thoughts, and consequently his writings, took wing into historic and contemporary research on the flight of birds, the rate of tree growth, the lives of plants and animals, the shifting weather patterns and the hexagonal ring structure of frozen water. These vignettes reveal both depth and breadth of knowledge. 

Haskell's acknowledgements reveal extensive research at the school’s library and conversations with academic colleagues, both of which enhanced his writing.

His use of a square meter of forest as the launching point for these discussions makes sense as a concept that I can only express as microcosm. Commonly understood as a small portion which represents the whole, it is in fact a small portion which reveals the nature of the whole. It is derived from the same word as cosmos. The book is an excellent read for birdwatchers and anyone else who spends time observing nature.