Blog and News

A friend and I have been chipping away at hiking Vermont’s Long Trail – a 272-mile footpath that leads from one end of the state to the other – for well over a decade now. We…

I can’t think of many subjects that are harder to write about than forestry, something I’m reminded of whenever I read how-to stories about traditional farming. Crop farmers get to…

My grandfather on my father’s side came from Dutch/German/Irish stock who settled in New York’s Shawangunk Mountains several hundred years ago. If you’ve never been to the…

If summer were a weeklong vacation, mid-August would be Friday afternoon. You’re not packing your bags to come home yet, but there’s an awareness that there’s more behind you…

I went to Wyoming two weeks ago – it was my first visit as an adult. Vague childhood memories of Devil’s Tower and Yellowstone didn’t prepare me for just how different the…

Bella was first to find the old well. A border collie mutt with a heavy coat, she made it her business to sniff out water. On a hot day’s walk, she inserted herself tail first into its…

Northern Woodlands is pleased to announce that the winner of our Orvis HELIOS 2 fly rod and reel raffle is Betty J. Dobson of West Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Congratulations Betty! Thank you to…

I’m holding my daughter up to a jar. It’s a quart jar, initially used for syrup, more recently serving as my improvised coffee-to-go container, and now in its third career as the…

I’ve gotten addicted to the television show “Breaking Bad” over the last few months, watching old episodes back to back on Netflix. At one part in Season 3, Gus, a civilized…

OK, so back to the clearcut. (If you missed Part 1 of the blog, read it here.) By meeting certain silvicultural criteria, and by agreeing to execute the clearcut in a bird-friendly way…

Managing marginal timberland has always been a challenge, which is why forest landowners are such strong advocates for healthy low-grade wood markets. Good timber is valuable – always…

The word senescence, a fancy term that biologists use to refer to the process of growing old, has recently entered my vocabulary, and judging by the steady rate at which my nose hair has…

Trout season opened recently in most of the Northeast, and in the spirit of the season, I thought I’d share a fishing story in this week’s blog that I wrote in 2006. Good luck to…

Editor’s Note: As those of you who have followed this sugaring season journal over the past two seasons are well aware, it’s hard for me to keep things in real time. During big…

Ice fishing. The sky’s the color of grungy nickels. The wind is picking up. A bottle is produced from the inside pocket of a wool hunting coat to ward off the morning chill. I…

We took a break from the pre-sugaring-season woods work last weekend and went to the annual Vermont Maple Sugarmakers’ Association (VMSMA) conference in Bellows Falls. It’s always…

Four years ago, I built an owl box. I built it for barred owls, Strix varia, inspired by the lovelorn hooting that erupted several nights after a February thaw. Who cooks for you? Who cooks…

In August, New York State officials announced that the state will purchase 69,000 acres of former Finch-Pruyn lands in the Adirondacks. Those lands must be classified under the state’s…

We marked around 80,000 feet of marginal- to low-grade white pine in our woods recently, and the first jag – about half – has been cut and shipped north to Canada. The truckers…

Hi all - So things are good up in the North Woods. We hung two bucks the first weekend, courtesy of my brothers, Trevor and Brendan. The weather has been less than perfect for hunting, so we…