Articles

My friend Dan reached out with the long hardwood branch he had found, placing it in the midpoint of the stream we were attempting to cross. He passed the pole-like branch from hand to hand,…

Back in April, I attended the annual winter meeting of the New England Society of American Foresters (NESAF) in Nashua, New Hampshire. This was a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with old…

Alternate-leaved dogwood can withstand considerable shade and is common in the forest understory, especially where soils remain moist. But in dim light, beneath a forest canopy, it rarely puts…

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…

One often-overlooked component of the chainsaw is the guide bar. If it is not properly maintained, it will decrease the saw’s efficiency and damage the chain. Most guide bar problems are…

In leafminers, the larval stage typically is spent in a leaf’s interior between the upper and lower epidermal layers, feeding on the spongy and palisade parenchyma cells. Though this…

DBH is shorthand for the diameter of a tree’s trunk measured at breast height. Setting aside the interesting and potentially delicate new questions the latter two words raise, let’s first…

State fish and wildlife agencies across the country have each recently completed a comprehensive Wildlife Action Plan. These plans are required by Congress in order for states to have access…

My first encounters with black bears took place at the dump in Inlet, New York, not exactly what you would call a wild place. It was the early 1960s, and at dusk my brothers and I, along with…

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…

Well before first light on an icy winter morning, a tractor-trailer unit wheels out of the yard at the Claire Lathrop sawmill in Bristol, Vermont, and heads for Barre Town Elementary and…

Last fall, I went to a nearby wetland with a pair of clippers and cut twigs from one willow shrub after another. It wasn’t hard to tell the willows from the non-willows because willows…

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…

Jon Raymond had some problems. About 100 of them, each one covered with blue feathers. Those who know him might not have found this surprising. He is on the board of directors of the New York…

Since the time of the first humans, wood has served as an important fuel source. We relied upon it first for heat, today for electricity, and tomorrow maybe for liquid fuels. Wood used simply…

Everybody knows that tree species vary in their ability to tolerate shade. It’s easy to find shady places in the woods where shade-tolerant species such as American beech and eastern hemlock…

I’ve always considered myself an early riser, but along the way I’ve learned that early is a relative thing. When turkey season comes along in May, I feel like a slug-a-bed. It’s best to…

Many people in the Northeast were puzzled last July to find a shiny, sticky goo coating the leaves of all kinds of trees. When the cause was discovered, it just made the situation more…

The great secret of education is to combine mental and physical work so that one kind of exercise refreshes the other. – Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) As a self-employed woodworker…

You’ll find three stories in this issue of Northern Woodlands covering the growing potential for biomass. If these improved prospects for producing more energy and other products from…