North Alabama research center is the new home for world-renowned biologist E.O. Wilson’s field manuals
The late biologist, naturalist and author E.O. Wilson during a visit to north Alabama in 2018. (Beth Maynor Finch)
E.O. Wilson got his start exploring the natural world in Alabama. Now, some of the field manuals collected over a lifetime by the famed Harvard University biologist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, who died last year, have a new home – back in his native state.
A collection of Wilson’s manuals and other books gathered by the globally recognized naturalist were recently donated by his estate to the nonprofit Paint Rock Forest Research Center in north Alabama.
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Founding Director Bill Finch said a new library is being created at the center with Wilson’s collection as the centerpiece. In 2018, Wilson visited the center, located within one of the most biologically diverse forests in North America. The forest is part of the Alabama Nature Conservancy’s 4,000-acre Sharp Bingham Preserve in the Paint Rock River valley that cuts across Madison and Jackson counties.
E.O. Wilson’s field manuals will be part of the new library. (Michael Sznajderman / Alabama NewsCenter)
“Ed expanded our vision of Alabama conservation and this project whenever he visited,” Finch said. “He insisted this should be one of the world’s great centers for study of ecosystems. Ed’s long-time assistant, Kathy Horton, recognized this, and made sure that we could continue to build our program around Ed’s extensive natural history library.”
Many of Wilson’s field manuals donated to the center, including guidebooks related to trees, plants, insects and aquatic species, contain personal dedications to Wilson from their authors. Others sport Wilson’s own notations. A few are nature books Wilson inherited from his father, a government accountant who also was a great lover of the outdoors.
The center itself is a natural fit for housing Wilson’s books. A hotbed of research, the center is drawing biologists and other wildlife experts from across the country and globe who stay at the facility while studying the unique array of plants and animals found in the surrounding forest and nearby Paint Rock River. Indeed, ongoing research in the relatively remote forest suggests it may be nurturing species of trees and plants that have never been identified before. Work is underway, for example, to confirm what may be a new species of oak tree found literally steps away from the center.
The view from the Paint Rock Forest Research Center in north Alabama. (Michael Sznajderman / Alabama NewsCenter)
It’s the kind of scientific research that Wilson would appreciate. Born in Birmingham, Edward O. Wilson spent part of his childhood in Mobile and in Washington, D.C. Always fascinated by nature, Wilson hurt his right eye at age 7 while fishing, and because of the injury’s effect on his depth perception, he turned his focus to the ground and the close inspection and collection of insects, including ants. At 13 he discovered a colony of non-native fire ants near the docks in Mobile and by the time he was a student at the University of Alabama, the state was seeking his expertise on tracking the swiftly spreading pest. Wilson completed his undergraduate and master’s degrees at UA and went on to doctoral studies at Harvard, becoming the world’s greatest authority on ants.
But Wilson’s impact on science hardly ends there. He is considered the father of sociobiology – a discipline combining the study of evolution and the social behavior of animals with links to anthropology and human activity. The author of multiple books, including two awarded the Pulitzer Prize, he was widely recognized as one of the world’s most important and influential scientists before his death at age 92.
The Paint Rock Forest Research Center is drawing scientists from across the globe. (Beth Maynor Finch)
Finch said Wilson was particularly impressed when he saw the scale and significance of one of the center’s ongoing research projects – a methodical census to identify, measure and map every tree and shrub larger than a pencil within 150 acres of the forest, and then monitor the plants for 50 years. The project was launched in partnership with Alabama A&M University and scientists from UCLA, the University of Georgia and other major universities.
“We’ve long suspected that Alabama forests may hold the key to the future of forests in North America, and our work is already beginning to confirm that,” Finch said. “But just as important, the students we’re training here, many from long underserved communities, will help determine the future of conservation and science globally.”
To learn more about the Paint Rock Forest Research Center and ways to support the organization, visit paintrock.org.
