Articles

Chainsaws are powerful tools, and you’ll work more quickly, safely, and efficiently if you own a good one. But with all the options out there, buying a chainsaw can be an overwhelming…

The northern cardinal, crimson and crested, is an avian icon, one of the most recognizable birds on the continent. But the rosebreasted grosbeak is also a cardinal. So is the scarlet tanager.…

Eastern hemlock is an important component of the forest. Hemlock stands provide nesting habitat for a slew of bird species, such as the blackburnian warbler, and brook trout congregate in…

I first heard about hairy-chested yeti crabs while driving home one night, listening to NPR. Robert Siegel was interviewing Alex Rogers, an Oxford biologist. Rogers led a research team that…

Photographer Tod Seelie spent last summer in Philadelphia working on the Miss Rockaway Armada, a largescale art project. “During our building phase,” Seelie said, “a massive…

Healthy forests play an absolutely vital role in moderating water movement over our landscape. Although forests cannot prevent large floods outright, they certainly do minimize the frequency,…

“Currently there is no environmental ethic focused on meeting wood needs locally and little criticism of consumption behavior. Instead, an anti-logging ethic reigns and degradation of…

These days, the talk around Berlin, New Hampshire, revolves around what comes next. Politicians and venture capitalists and community groups are hard at work trying to come up with a second…

To the naked eye, Venus is one of the most easily identified planets. It’s the bright evening (and morning) star that you often see plopped in the sky blazing brilliantly next to the…

In April, I submitted my resignation to the Center for Northern Woodlands Education board after a great deal of soul-searching and examination of options. Since joining the staff in January…

When friends and colleagues hear that we’ve written a book on the ants of New England, their first reaction is always to ask: “I have ants in my ... (kitchen, walls, pants). How…

Over the past several months there has been a spate of interesting cases involving media ethics. In January, theater artist Mike Daisey’s one-man show highlighting Apple’s…

Betsey Garand Hark II 17 3/4” x 15 5/8”, Lift-ground aquatint monoprint and monotype, 2010 Hark: v. to listen attentively, to pay close attention. Hark is an apt word to describe…

Photographer Frank Kaczmarek captured the small, private world of developing spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) still in their eggs. The salamanders, which can be found throughout the…

Vacuum tubing systems have revolutionized maple sugar production, and more and more sugarmakers are getting into the game, drawn by the allure of making an average of .4 gallons of syrup per…

If we were to arrange optimal conditions for growing the perfect tree, we would provide a site that’s a perfect match for the species’ particular needs. It would begin its life in…

Songbirds pouring from the skies before dawn. Thousands of hawks gliding past a mountain summit. Rare oceanic birds blown in to shore. Birdwatching like this doesn’t necessarily begin…

The emerald green stems of newborn ostrich ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris) poking out of the decaying leaves on the forest floor are one of the early signs of much-awaited spring in the…

When Charles “Duke” Besozzi looks at a big tree, he sees bowsprits, masts, and decking in its contours. This is a change from what he used to see when he was a commercial logger…

Old-growth forests, sometimes simply called “old growth,” are just that: really old woods. Accordingly, they are marked by the presence of exceptionally old, typically…