Site Discussions

Maine I own a 25 acre lot that I harvest firewood from. The area is surrounded by wetlands and my harvests are restricted. One thing I have noticed over the years is that the wet lands seem to be shrinking and are being gorged out deeper by heavy rain storms and then drought. The bogs don’t seem to have the wild life that they used to have.

I am not sure, but I think I may have a bat or bats living on my porch. My camera detects motion almost every night. The images are always fuzzy or grainy.  Even with freezing temperatures. I would like to know how to confirm if so or not. I have open areas I would like to close up, but if bats are living there, I do not want to harm then or close them in. Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Paul C

This is so cool! I love this!

Beautiful about the protection of long snow-cover (and sad about the lessening, though I am glad to know there is a detailed witness to the changes.)  I wish there were even a little more detail about the kinds of microbes at different layers and wetness levels of soil - the processes of decomposition with oxygen as well as with less (sounds like more of a stinky swamp effect, with ice and water in different form?) Thank you.

Day at a time for the trees!

I am glad and entertained to hear your story, Julie. Thank you for sharing your story.

An outstanding article.  I just refinished a cherry table but even with stain was shocked at how light in color it was.  I had always thought of cherry as darker.  I had to find out why and this article explains it wonderfully.  Thank you for the education.

I have a Polyphemus moth caterpillar that cocooned in a big box on my balcony this last fall. I saw a blue Jay TWICE land on my balcony near it and act as if he was looking for it and had smelled it. I have NEVER seen a blue Jay land on my balcony before or after this. I have had sparrows and robins on occasion .. but never a blue Jay. I’m pretty sure he smelled that caterpillar and was looking for a meal!

Hi Matt, I loved reading the story of your life.  I know that you were always interested in saving trees vs blatantly cutting them down.  I will always remember your son coming to the door of my apartment house and asking for permission to drive your equipment onto my property to remove a tree from my back door neighbor’s yard.  The next thing I saw was a Largess Tree Company crane in my driveway lifting the cut tree over my house, your crew cutting it into pieces and loading them onto one of your your trucks. I gave permission because of my trust for your judgment. Now i know why!

I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the book you wrote, which is full of information and rich in detail. I am a doctoral student investigating poxvirus in neotropical porcupines, and your work has been very helpful to me. Thank you!

Thank you for informing the probably little known left or right orientation of the their crossed bills.

What a lovely article! Thank you for so frankly sharing your fascinating life and impressive experience, as well as the challenges you have courageously faced. Your passion for trees, especially the old growth, and the forest is infectious, we are all fortunate for the work that you do.  Thank you for helping to preserve and protect these special, priceless trees and environments.  Congratulations on your hard work and finding your path!  We are all better for it.

What a journey!

What a great story with some parallels in my own life. I love trees too and to read about his journey from cutting to saving is refreshing.

I have about 20 evening Grosbeak that visit my feeder’s daily. I can’t remember the last time I had them at my feeder’s like this year. They’ve been around since Xmas and I’m hoping they stay and breed this spring

I have seen adult painted turtles under thin ice in the shallows of my dug pond.  They scatter when I walk above them.  Where do they spend the rest of the winter?

A great and informative article on flickers. So much new and helpful information and so very well written. The information is presented in an very organized fashion and emphasizes all that is special about this fascinating bird.  Very well done!  Hope to see more writing by Colby Galliher.

Hi Colby,

Thank you for your informative and beautiful article. I smiled while reading your introduction, recalling the echoing notes of the Pileated woodpecker who graces the hedge row behind our home and greets our day with their resounding echoing call.

We’ve also been blessed to share our yard with a family of Northern Flickers—a male, a female, and a juvenile—all overwintering here in Southern Rhode Island taking turns under watchful eyes and flashes of bright yellow to swoop and peck eagerly at our suet feeder. They are beautiful and I love to sit and watch them along with the hairy, downy, red bellied woodpeckers,Carolina wrens, and sapsuckers that brighten our winter landscape and even just this morning a red bellied woodpecker appeared on our deck braving our bossy titmice and blue jays swooping in vying for unsalted peanuts in shells tossed onto the snow. Our bit of open space hedge row holds an abundance of decaying and dead trees and I feel extremely blessed. with their beauty and shelter for our feathered friends and raptors, newts, and woodland friends.

Thank you and I look forward to future articles.

Sincerely
Catherine Fury 02879

I brought Soren Eiksson to South Carolina to train local personnel after seeing him train workers at our Brazilian subsidiary. We became close friends and I was sorry to learn of his death after he and Britt returned to Sweden. Soren became a fan of American football and that led to his Game of Logging. He noted that in football you had to have a Plan for each game.  You had to practice your role rigorously.  You had to be in excellent physical condition. You had to wear a full array of protective clothing. You had to “follow the rules.” Just as he taught his logging students. In Brazil, our chain saw felling/bucking crews had to train for a full month before they became members of a logging crew!

Beautifully written article, Todd. Your imagery is striking. I appreciate that sense of stillness and life. I hope that someday, everyone will recognize how much we need each other and the environment for survival and joy, as you said.