Articles

A predator’s physical senses determine the manner in which it hunts. Wild canids, for instance, favor their sense of smell – you can see this as they trot along the hedgerows,…

The mixed hardwood forest on the edge of the town of Dalton in western Massachusetts looks healthy to the untrained eye, but the researchers from the University of Massachusetts who visited…

A couple years back, a reader gave me a copy of Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks, which explores the rich duff of British language related to place and seasonal change. It’s a…

On an early spring evening in March 2017, a large crowd packed a public meeting in Ware, Massachusetts, to discuss a controversial proposal to establish a rattlesnake colony at the nearby…

In the summer of 2013, as part of her graduate work at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Jennifer Milikowsky was talking with small-scale landowners in northeastern…

For more than a quarter-century, the dawn and the trees have hardly changed at Bear Swamp. Each June for the past 27 years, which is nearly half my life, I’ve bushwhacked the same route…

Except for the Minnesota black bear that chose to spend the winter hibernating 70 feet up in a bald eagle nest, North American black bears don’t hang out in tree nests. Rather, the…

If you have much to do with firewood, and if you have retained your amateur standing, you will eventually become acquainted with a certain principle – a bitter, rue-laden principle that…

Kakabeka, northwestern Ontario 48°23’45.7” N, 89°37’17.2” W I stand on a stony bluff overlooking a valley filled with the textures and hues of northern forests:…

“Wait, what in the world is that?” In art, as in nature, the familiar attracts us. We feel a certain security in being able to recognize and identify things. We can breathe a sign…

Does your back hurt from bending over to buck firewood on the ground? Can you admit that occasionally you cut too far and run your newly filed chain into the dirt? Do you spend too long…

Walking a field at the edge of Lake Memphremagog one fall evening, photographer Bob M. Montgomery found that the angle of the setting sun offered up some silhouette opportunities. “As I…

We start putting food up in August – about the time we can smell the sun-warmed tomatoes, even before we gather them for canning. “Putting food up” is a curious expression.…

Recently, a reader left a comment on our website relating to a 2009 article by columnist Susan Morse. This article describes the early fall behavior of deer and moose, when males thrash their…

Susan Bull Riley has the eye of a naturalist, the discipline of a classical musician, and the sensibility of a plein air artist. These three attributes combine in a wonderfully unique way to…

Not to endorse stereotypes too much, but I’m a card-carrying cheap Scot. As I walk through the local farm and forestry supply store, my mind instantly wanders to question, “how…

East Hampton, Connecticut — To the left of the driveway is a circular steel sawblade hung in an oak-post frame, bearing the name of the family business painted in red: “STRONG FARM…

Carla Fenner strode along the railroad tracks outside Burlington, Vermont, on an August afternoon, wearing an orange surveyor’s vest and carrying a large volume entitled New Flora of…

I’ve assessed spotted owl feuds and wolf re-introductions,” said Dr. William Lynn, an environmental ethics professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.…

Some weighty and persistent questions in the North Woods: Black spruce or red spruce? Green frog or mink frog? Red-eyed vireo or blue-headed vireo? Not that the two vireos look alike. What…