Dr. Elizabeth Hilborn uses her veterinary training and broad scientific expertise to highlight the interconnectedness of all life.
In 2017, the family farm was contaminated, wildlife disappeared, crops failed, and Hilborn’s life changed forever. In her debut narrative Restoring Eden, Hilborn tells her true story of an environmental murder mystery and one woman’s search for answers.
LIBRARY JOURNAL raves: “A beautifully descriptive, lyrical immersion in the natural world that’s coupled with a detective story, reminiscent of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.”
Award winning Restoring Eden, published by Chicago Review Press, available wherever books are sold.
2023 Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award Winner
2024 Nautilus Book Awards – Restorative Earth Practices, Silver
Media and Press: Restoring Eden
Featured in: The Revelator
5 Hot New Environmental Books
John R. Platt, July 31, 2023
Radio
After environmental damage, how to go about ‘Restoring Eden’
The Jefferson Exchange Team, August 29, 2023
“..[during] the last 20 years or so, our agricultural model has changed.”
‘Restoring Eden’ with Elizabeth Hilborn on Tuesday’s Access Utah
Tom Williams, August 8, 2023
“…all the animal life had disappeared tadpoles, frogs, bats, songbirds, honeybees… “
Podcasts
Coffeeland. Restoring Eden.
Elizabeth Hilborn – Restoring Eden: Unearthing the Agribusiness Secret That Poisoned My Farming Community
Norman B., August 15, 2023. Show 516.
“… The small things I really took for granted. I planted my fruit trees, they grew up, they bloomed, they bore fruit … I thought, that’s what happens when you plant fruit trees. No. I was missing that critical support system of the small animals… It took this incident to open my eyes to see how much we depend upon the small creatures.”
Elizabeth Hilborn – Restoring Eden: Unearthing the Agribusiness Secret That Poisoned My Farming Community
Bringing Inspiration to Earth Show, Robert Sharpe, September 5, 2023
“I know my neighbors very well and it’s always been a priority to have very good relationships with neighbors…[My neighbors] knew [the animal loss] was going on and they tried to help me and I told them “thank you so much for trying to help me, …when I figure this out, I’ll let you know.” …[I found out] it was related to agriculture and that was my neighbor’s land. It was very, very awkward. I felt comfortable about what I’d found, but it had …implications that were really difficult.”
Restoring Eden w/ Dr. Elizabeth Hilborn
This Sustainable Life:Solve For Nature, Eugene Bible, August 1, 2023.
“I had to become an environmental sleuth and that started my journey.”
Interviews
Leaving Space for Hope: Elizabeth Hilborn’s “Restoring Eden”
By: Lacey Lyons, September 1, 2023
“Everything was a mystery to me at the beginning. I had no idea what was happening. People I reached out to couldn’t help me. I tried to bring readers along on my journey of discovery.”
By: Katie Scarlett Brandt, August 30, 2023
“Select pesticide-free plants to start a native garden,” Hilborn says. “Systemic insecticides like neonicotinoids are used to treat many nursery plants, yet these can be toxic to bees and butterflies when they feed on the nectar and pollen of treated plants.”
N.C. farm owner, author hopes to “restore Eden” by highlighting pollinators’ plight
By Satchel Walton, Published Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023
Though the tradition of rural and farm-based environmentalism is as old as the environmental movement itself, Hilborn does not see herself as part of a wider ideological campaign. Instead, she sees herself as a person whose circumstances gave her an obligation to act.
“I understand that you can’t just pull apart an ecosystem and think everything’s just going to be okay,” Hilborn said. “And I grow fruit, so every year, I see the result of this hollowing out of our biological support system. … that’s my motivation.”