Articles

Four summers ago, Put Blodgett and I met to discuss Northern Woodlands’ editorial goals. Put was not a close friend, but I admired him very much as a renaissance man and force of nature.…

Irregular Shelterwoods in a Rejuvenating Oak-Hickory Forest Looking downslope from the perimeter of a recent irregular shelterwood cut in Connecticut’s Yale-Myers Forest on a mid-July…

Will Restoration Efforts Change Recreational Fishing? In his extensive profile, Brook Trout: A Thorough Look at North America’s Great Native Trout – Its History, Biology, and…

Rain falls on a forested hillside in the mountains of western Maine, 2,000 feet above sea level. Water collects in the narrow valley surrounded by a forest of pine, hemlock, oak, beech, and…

Vernal pools, ephemeral wetlands that come to life in early spring with wood frogs, spring peepers, fairy shrimp, and a variety of salamanders, are celebrated by ecologists and woodland…

“Don’t even try it,” my friend said, chuckling and shaking his head slowly. “That’s Gibbs Swamp. People have lost horses in there.” It had been a year since…

They may look like large puddles, but vernal pools teem with life. Among the most dynamic wetlands to explore in the spring woods, they provide critical breeding habitat for wood frogs,…

A decade or so ago I had the opportunity to try out some of the early battery-powered electric chainsaws. I wasn’t impressed. They were heavy, underpowered, and had a pitifully short…

Depictions of the natural world have existed since prehistoric time. Whether created to record the cyclical rhythm of the year, to express religious devotion, or to document scientific…

A twisting tunnel chewed through dead grass, a line of bounding paw prints in mud, a translucent snakeskin on a sunny rock. Those creatures that have passed this way before me stitch their…

Each spring, as melting snow liberates the forest floor, I seek out wildflowers. I flip through Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide, counting petals and leaves to tell hepaticas apart and to sort…

The Impact of an Extreme Rain Event on a Headwater Stream in Maine’s Western Mountains In “At Chapman Brook” (Spring 2021), author Catherine Schmitt describes the important…

Maine Audubon’s Forestry for Maine Birds program is designed to give landowners, foresters, and loggers tools to enhance, create, or conserve current and future bird habitat. You can…

Taking a watershed-level approach to forest management – also called “ecological forestry” – can sustain and restore the essential interconnections and functions of a…

Being a wild bird rehabilitator requires something akin to parenting skills, combined with the grit of an emergency room doctor. The injuries and illnesses encountered are varied, as are the…

Learning From Dawnland Voices Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Abenaki, Nipmuc, Wampanoag, Narragansett, Mohegan, Schaghticoke. These names represent Indigenous people living…

what fun what fun what a fun time of year mossy boulder in the sun icicle dripping baby cows frolicking about green meadows as high snows collapse into the whitewater that flows to yellow…

“I found this ovenbird in Allegany State Park, New York. It was springtime, and he was singing lustily at the edge of the woods. His desire to claim his territory outweighed any fear he…

My siblings and I grew up spending hours in the swampy woodlands behind our home, where the neighborhood kids would gather for adventures. To enter the bigger expanse of woods, we had to cross…

We fell hard for the house the first day we saw it. We admired the old apple trees and stone walls, the handmade bricks and hand-hewn beams. At the time, those beams were only visible in one…