Articles

I went to Northeastern Wyoming a few weeks back; vague childhood memories of Devil’s Tower and Yellowstone did nothing to prepare me for just how different the landscape is out there.…

The demise of the local sawmill has been closely followed by the rise of the sawyer with a portable bandsaw mill. Usually the sawyer will come to your house, set the mill up parallel to your…

If you’ve ever tried to grow a tree from a single seed, and failed, you’ll probably want to know how the New Hampshire State Forest Nursery manages to grow about a quarter of a…

Craig Mooney is a master of atmospheric perspective. He manipulates his oil paints to reflect the effect that weather, atmosphere, and shifting light have on the appearance of a place. Mooney…

If Richard Jagels had a casebook like Sherlock Holmes, the titles might be: “The Case of the Twig in the Mirror”, “The Case of the Killer Ship Mast”, “The Case…

Recently, I have been hiking with my infant son. It’s hard to know what, if anything, he takes from these forays. At two months, it’s a safe bet he’s not counting the…

Consider the ubiquitous woodchuck (also known as the groundhog); an animal found from Labrador to Alabama; throughout all of the eastern U.S., west to Kansas, Nebraska, and the northern tip of…

This tree seems to have had a branch or a second tree growing from it, then it died, but then it seemed to have grafted itself back. Would appreciate learning more about this. Jackie Lyman,…

The New England settlement story is a familiar narrative. We all know the tale: farms hacked out of daunting woods in the eighteenth century, rolling Agricultural lands in the nineteenth…

Photographer John Timmis captured this image on Wilson Pond in Greenville, Maine. “She would disappear underwater going after aquatic vegetation,” he remembered, “causing the…

“I’ve got some pellets here.” “Here’s a run!” The run was a path in the snow made by rabbits – specifically, rare and imperiled New England…

On the first 70 degree day of the year we took a UTV ride up to the top of the ridge behind camp, G and I. She’s originally from Wyoming, so she sees the forests around here with fresh…

Anyone who’s made his or her way up a mountain is familiar with the sometimes startling transformation of the landscape, from leafy hardwood stands to thick and prickly green cathedrals…

Blackbirds do it. Chickadees do it. Even educated emus do it. Some birds are cheaters. Their trysts, dalliances, one-morning stands, and other infidelities would constitute a racy script for…

Many of us are familiar with Rebecca Merrilees’ work from the indispensable field guide Trees of North America, which she illustrated 34 years ago. It is probably on all of our…

Pick your favorite sign of spring: squirrels mating, mud oozing, maples flowering. Mine is a vulture soaring. Change in the air is a naked, ruddy head gliding in on big wings. But more than…

Not long ago, as the ice went out on my local brook, I came across some fresh beaver cuttings and a scent-mound in an area that showed sign of having been dammed before. Did the fresh sign…

Like house designers everywhere, James “B’fer” Roth starts with the building site. Though unlike most, it’s not the soil or topography that he studies first. He looks…

This year, when Moderator Ann Wilson raps her gavel, calling the Craftsbury Town Meeting to order in the new Craftsbury Academy Gymnasium, she’ll be standing on a forest of local trees…

Although the word is related to scarring – something you’d think we’d want to avoid – soil scarification [pronounced scare-ification] is a legitimate silvicultural…