Summary

Patricia Westerford's chapter begins with Patricia's first person narration as a small girl in 1950. The narration flows through Patricia's younger years, showing how her father taught her about nature and awakened her love for it. They created an experiment together to measure the soil a tree grows in after six years in order to determine where the tree gets all of its mass from. Unfortunately, her father dies during the winter of her fifteenth year. Patricia continues to love all things plant related and is able to pursue her passion in college. She goes to forestry graduate school and discovers that those in higher positions wants to clear the undergrowth of the forests. Patricia knows deep down that that is not the answer but she cannot tell them that yet. She begins an experiment that measures the organic compounds they put into the...