Articles

Ten years ago, Pam Brown stood across the road from her house in Bethel, Vermont, and watched the rain fall on a field of tall, green corn. The bridge out of town had been closed, and she had…

The social nature of cave bats and their penchant for cold, humid wintering roosts make them particularly vulnerable to white-nosed syndrome (WNS), a disease caused by the Pseudogymnoascus…

Miles and miles of streams flow through northeastern forests, serving as habitat for fish, freshwater mussels, invertebrates, and other aquatic organisms. These waterways feed our rivers,…

An Interview with Lee Russell At a timber harvest site managed by Katahdin Forest Management along the Golden Road in Millinocket, Maine, photographer Ashley L. Conti caught up with logger and…

On a perfect January day, climbers Majka Burhardt and husband Peter Doucette cross a frozen Lake Willoughby in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom in search of vertical ice. Lake Willoughby…

During the past two years, I’ve learned that being an editor of a quarterly magazine means having a whole new relationship with time. At any given moment, our editorial team may be…

Recently, we surveyed participants in our Northern Woodlands Goes to School program, which provides free Northern Woodlands magazines for education. There were some inspiring responses. They…

Logger and independent contractor Lee Russell has been working in the woods for nearly 30 years, and has been self-employed since 1997. Here, photographer Ashley Conte follows along with…

I On my way to the woods, I watch children on their backs in newly fallen snow, arms and legs moving side to side. Leaping to their feet, sparkling with crystal dust, they look down to find…

I turn off my saw and set it down on the dry duff. My heart is pounding, my shirt soaked in sweat. Around me what was once a placid forest, gently changing on the steep hillside, has been…

The ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) is a favorite among birdwatchers in backyards and gardens, where these tiny, brightly colored birds whir from flower to flower and visit…

There’s a fantastic song by folk singer Colm Gallagher called “Reel in the Flickering Light” about a daddy long legs who, after first making inquiries about the…

Balancing immense scale with cozy intimacy, Oscar Oiwa’s installation invites us into an imagined world of forest pathways, stone walls, and churning skies. The colossal piece is a…

Ninety years ago, my grandparents bought a swaybacked farmhouse and 20 acres of land in Orleans County, Vermont. Cedarhurst Farm, as it was known then, sat atop a sloping meadow along the…

A friend recently showed up at my workshop complaining that his chainsaw was “bogging” and wouldn’t run at full throttle. He assumed the issue was related to fuel delivery…

Arising before dawn in ritual pursuit aware of austerity, sharp, acute a chill that has settled and defines for a time the spoils of silently watching. As the hoary frost on crimson leaves…

Murph and I had ducked into the woods in Phippsburg around 9:30 a.m., hoping to escape the July heat. No spring chickens, we ambled more than we hiked and only covered a few miles before…

For six weeks every October and November, Sean Flint spends two or three days a week walking through thick underbrush in Vermont and flushing ruffed grouse with his dog, Finn. Last year, Flint…

“We’re creating a model that can be replicated in other ecoregions. We must preserve these arks of biodiversity. Seed sovereignty is a tool of resilience in the face of climate…

Each fall, as days grow shorter and the sun dips lower in the sky, the last of the year’s run of Atlantic salmon swim through the cold waters of the Penobscot River and its tributaries,…