Knots and Bolts

Gaultheria procumbens goes by many common names – checkerberry, teaberry, and boxberry. But it is most often called American wintergreen. Even those unfamiliar with the plant will…

Mike Bald is a small business owner in east-central Vermont, and his business is the control of nonnative invasive plants. At first glance, his work is simple: he pulls weeds for customers. At…

November 15, 1976. Late that morning I would shoot my first deer, a buck. But what I remember most about that day is a bird. Burned into my mind is the image of a northern goshawk tail-chasing…

Late last June, we drove south from Seattle, then north, circumnavigating Puget Sound. Through occasional showers, we caught glimpses of our destination, the jagged Olympics, clothed in forest…

The common green darner, Anax junius, is one of our largest dragonflies, measuring three inches long with a four-inch wingspread. It is strikingly colored, with a green thorax and a bright…

“Your father smelt of elderberries,” taunts the French knight in Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail. And that was not a compliment. Even Euell Gibbons, the…

Those of us in black bear country are advised to avoid feeding birds during spring, summer, and early fall – it’s good advice. When I put my feeders back up in late fall, however,…

Brambles are hard to mistake thanks to their clustered globes of fruit (what botanists call an “aggregate of drupelets”) and their even more noticeable thorns. At some time, just…

Congressional leaders are currently reexamining our country’s broken health care system, which has meant a slew of news stories about different aspects of the problem that might be…

The prospective groom carefully drapes a silken veil across his chosen mate’s head, then wraps four of her eight legs, her chelicerae, and her pedipalps. It turns out human brides…

If you asked Sydney Antonio how she came to own 450 well-managed acres of forestland in upstate New York, she would tell you it had a lot to do with hating summer camp as a child. She really…

There are 10,000 acres of public forest within the five boroughs of New York City. That doesn’t mean street trees, or trees dotting the lawns in parks, but actual forested acres –…

In a world where modern technology can sweep us off our feet, the Biltmore stick is proof that simple, old-fashioned tools can still be of value. It is portable, affordable, and easy to use,…

Black bear cubs are born in late January or February, weighing about eight ounces. The mother has six teats, and the newborn cubs crawl to the ones closest to her pelvis. Later, as the cubs…

If you know anything about wild edible plants, chances are you know about wild leeks. Also known as ramps, the wild leek (Allium tricoccum) is a rock star among wild foods. Festivals celebrate…

Globally speaking, annual precipitation and temperature are the two most important factors that determine what grows where on Earth. Close to the equator, where it’s warm and wet,…

The name – Ski Hearth Farm – is a hint to the diversity that has helped preserve this pastoral landscape of 630 acres in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire, for decades. Yes, it is first…

Though few today are familiar with the working toboggan of the North Woods, it was once ubiquitous – the tool of trappers and travelers, a boon to anyone who had to wrest their living…

Eagles obtain food mainly in three ways – by capturing it, by stealing it, or by scavenging it. When securing their own live prey, they hunt from perches or soar over suitable habitat,…

Winter must have been hard for the first human inhabitants of the Northeast as long months passed with few fresh plant foods. Foraging is difficult in the winter, but it is not impossible.…