The prices reported here are those that log buyers—mostly sawmills and wholesalers—are paying for logs. Because these are prices paid for delivered wood, landowners need to adjust…
Articles
Trees and Dendrons
I’ve always been grateful that, in the great melding and merging of tongues that produced our beloved English language, we came out of it all with “tree” as the word we use…
Mill Prices
The prices reported here are those that log buyers—mostly sawmills and wholesalers—are paying for logs. Because these are prices paid for delivered wood, landowners need to adjust…
At Work with Timber Framer Dave Bowman
Dave Bowman is both timber framer and woodlands philosopher. He seems to enjoy the solitude of his shop as much as a visit with the people that come by with a delivery, order, or consultation.…
Winterberry, Ilex verticillata
Extensive wetlands often have masses of winterberry. From afar, its abundant, bright red berries sometimes cause large areas of wetland shrubbery to glow with a reddish orange color well into…
Turkey Tail Fungus, Trametes versicolor
Last winter, I went on a photography binge, trying to get as many pictures of common and good looking fungus specimens as I could find in my neighborhood. I knew at the start that I was…
The Wood in Windsor Chairs
“Windsor furniture is, I believe, the most characteristically American and the most historically significant furniture style to emerge from eighteenth-century America. It is a democratic…
Sugaring with Vacuum Pumps
Does Sugaring with a Vacuum Pump Hurt the Trees? Sap flows out of tap holes in sugar maples when the spring days are warm and the nights are freezing, because those conditions make the…
Life and Death
Finding the kill site was easy. A few days earlier, on the first morning of rifle season, a pair of nearby shots had cracked the frosty quiet of sunrise. I was curious whether the hunter had…
The Long View
Even the first lamb had needed help, but delivering the second one required the expertise of someone with much more shepherding experience than me. Instead, on the coldest night we’ve ever…
From the Center
I’ve had an attraction to forests for a long time. It’s right there in my high school yearbook: “I will be studying forestry at ….” After college, I thought I…
Seeing the Forest for the Birds
Steve Hagenbuch looked up from a thicket of glossy-leaved shrubs and said, “Given the buckthorn problem here, I think single-tree selection might be the best approach. Group selection…
Common juniper, Juniperus communis
If you are following a compass course through the woods, one sight that can sink your spirits in a hurry is an expanse of common juniper directly ahead. Juniper patches are not as painful to…
Lumber, Chips, and Sawdust: For Sawmills, There’s No Such Thing as Waste
A few years back, I saw a very cute ad that featured a photo of a couple of toddlers. The script read, “Come see what we saw.” I wondered what it was that they might have seen, and…
Start Your Chainsaw Safely
One of the primary principles of safe chainsaw operation is to have control of the saw at all times, including while starting the saw. Because one of your hands must be pulling the starter…
Mill Prices
The prices reported here are those that log buyers—mostly sawmills and wholesalers—are paying for logs. Because these are prices paid for delivered wood, landowners need to adjust…
Maple Trumpet Skeletonizer, Epinotia aceriella
In late July, I spent some time watching maple trumpet skeletonizers under a microscope. At that time they were tiny, just an eighth of an inch long, wispy, and translucent. The…
Green Building Materials Designation Needs Rethinking
Green building programs have been developed over the past 10 to 15 years with the objective of shifting the built environment toward more sustainability. As the influence of these programs…
From the Center
The forests of New England and northern New York are among the most diverse and intricate ecosystems on the planet. With mind-boggling numbers of plant and animal species living in complex…
What is a Climax Forest?
A climax forest is a good place to start an argument with an ecologist. To some, it is a nice name for forests that have escaped disturbance by outside forces like storms or diseases or…