Articles

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…

While on a late-spring hike, photographer Frank Kaczmarek came across a bald-faced hornet nest that had dislodged from a tree. He took out his camera and captured these new adults emerging…

How conservation groups got into managing forestland, and the lessons they've learned. The Maine Chapter of the Nature Conservancy never planned to get into the forestry business. All it…

I’ve been lucky enough to have met a lot of interesting people in my life. I’ve known some wonderful characters in the New York film business, and I’ve traveled the world to…

Chainsaws, despite their blunt appearance, are precision tools that need to be carefully maintained to work properly. The chain is no exception to the rule. There are two parts to maintain on…