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1,000 Words

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…

Woods Whys: Can Forests Prevent or Mitigate Floods?

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,…

More Parkland for Massachusetts

“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…

A Brief History of the Brown Paper Company

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…

There’s A Little Black Spot on the Sun Today

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…

From the Center

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…

Wonderful Woodland Ants

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…

Editor’s Note

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…

Outdoor Palette

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…

1,000 Words

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…

Make Your Own Vacuum Booster

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…

How to Help Your Best Trees Grow

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…

The Forecast Calls for Birds

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…

Fiddlehead Season

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…

At Work Milling Ship Masts with “Duke” Besozzi

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…

How Can I Tell if My Woods are Old Growth?

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…

Dirt and Blossom

In the late 1920s, Franklin and Leslie had a lean-to camp in the Toma country, smack in the middle of nowhere at all, back then. Timber got moved on water in those long decades before the…

From the Center

As you read this, presses are rolling on our newest publication, More Than a Woodlot: Getting the Most from Your Family Forest. The book is written by Northern Woodlands founder and former…

Ghost Moose: Winter Ticks Take Their Toll

The tracks and splattered blood stains in the snow told the story. Hours before, a cow moose trotted through the deep late-March snowpack and, where she passed, drops of blood, patches of…

The Great Glyphosate Debate

It seems almost quaint, or perhaps naïve, to imagine a time, not too too long ago, when black and white film strips proclaimed the wonders of chemistry and suburban children danced…