The Spring issue of Northern Woodlands just reached mailboxes this week, hopefully providing a welcome change of scenery from the wintery conditions outside your window. Among the most hopeful…
Murky Waters
Earlier this winter, Paul Smith College’s Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI) published a report on water quality for 21 lakes in Hamilton County. The county occupies the lower, central…
Wood and Its Carbon Debt, Again
This letter came in to us the other day. To the Editors: By this time, you and many of your Vermont readers have most likely heard the podcast on VPR on wood heat. It was a good and thorough…
A Winter Tussle
Last weekend, there was a tussle in the lilac bush in our front yard, and when the snow settled, what was revealed was one weasel and one very agitated red squirrel. The weasel ducked into the…
Winter Waterfowl
I have yet to hear of any snowy owls nearby this winter, although they’re on the move in the Northeast; Cornell’s eBird site includes recent sightings along the New England coast,…
Ancient Gifts
Recently, I’ve been learning about ancient forests. This started when a teacher I met at an educators’ conference gave me a chunk of shale covered in fern fossils from the…
Using More of a Deer
I’m a big proponent of cutting up your own local venison – the local in that phrase used to distinguish between a deer someone shoots near their home and a deer they might take in…
Planting Hope for a New American Chestnut
During the first decade of the 20th century, New York Harbor teemed with steamships delivering new arrivals from overseas. Between 1900 and 1910, the Statue of Liberty welcomed an average of…
Portrait of a Forest: Men and Machine
Over the past five years, photojournalist George Bellerose has spent thousands of hours photographing and interviewing loggers and others whose jobs, one way or another, connect to the forests…
Conference Recap
This year’s Northern Woodlands Conference, held at the Hulbert Outdoor Center in Fairlee, Vermont, featured a great mix of workshops and presentations, all related, in one way or…