Articles Archive
-
At Work Guiding in the Adirondacks with Lynn Malerba
In winter, Lynn Malerba’s peak experiences don’t occur on mountaintops. Her idea of a great February weekend is to teach a small group of novice explorers how to thrive on the valley floor, by confronting the challenges of winter camping.
Malerba is a New York State Licensed Guide, and to make the title more distinguished, she’s an Adirondack guide,… (more)
-
At Work Making Coffins with Richard Winter
When Richard Winter builds a coffin, he needs a few basic measurements – the occupant’s height, width, and weight – but he also wants to know the person’s name. The process of constructing someone’s final resting place is deeply personal for Winter, a carpenter and cabinetmaker in north-central Vermont. “I find it an honor to be able to do this… (more)
-
At Work Making Pack Baskets with Bill Mackowski
Bill Mackowski’s stick-built house and rustic outbuildings in Milford, Maine, taken as a whole, suggest a frontier settlement more than a modern, private residence. Antique tools, fishing tackle, and North Woods memorabilia line the front porch, a hint to the first-time visitor of what to expect inside.
Mackowski, tall, gaunt, and wearing a two-day beard, lifts the metal latch… (more)
-
At Work Improving Woodlots with Paul Cate
Sitting in Paul and Sandal Cate’s living room in East Montpelier, Vermont, you are literally surrounded by Paul’s life-work: a forestry philosophy put into action. The outer walls are cedar logs, cut behind the old Kent Tavern in the adjoining town of Calais and from a site a few miles farther afield in Cabot. Building the house in the early… (more)
-
At Work Restoring Wetlands with Biologist Dave Odell
Odell, a biologist and wetlands specialist, is Wildlife Manager of Region 8 of the New York State Bureau of Wildlife, and we were looking for signs of successful wood duck breeding in a section of the 7,300-acre Northern Montezuma Wildlife Management Area located in Wayne and Cayuga Counties. The ducklings would have fledged by now, he assured me, but… (more)