Discoveries

Every year in the United States, road crews dispense more than 24 million metric tons of de-icing salts. In the snowy Northeast, where plows and salt trucks ply the roads for months on end,…

For conservationists seeking to reverse the global decline of bumble bee populations, pesticide contamination of soils is a significant concern. Although there has not been extensive research…

It is not uncommon to find an apple tree deep in the woods, a reminder that the forest-dominated landscape we know today is relatively recent. In the 1800s, farmers cleared much of the region…

When the last ice sheet began melting some 20,000 years ago, the climate changed dramatically, and trees responded. As temperature and humidity shifted, tree populations expanded and…

Angelena Ross has been studying spruce grouse for more than 20 years, first as a graduate student at State University of New York at Potsdam and now for the New York State Department of…

Two common ways that forest fungi spread to new locations are by releasing spores into the wind, and through transport by animals, including the consumption – and defecation – of…

Gray foxes inhabit areas of dense cover, usually close to water. They den in the ground, cavities between rocks and ledges, brush piles, tree holes, and hollow logs. In 2018, in a wooded…

In 1900, much of the forest in the eastern United States was filled with oaks and other trees that tolerated fire. This structure in part reflected previous centuries of shaping by Indigenous…

The oaks are not doing well at Black Rock Forest. Their growth has slowed as new species of trees have found their way into the woods, and pathogens (such as the fungus that causes oak wilt),…

Carbon offset programs often withhold 10 to 20 percent of offsets generated by a project, as a buffer against changes to the forest that might affect carbon storage over a century or more. But…

Red Rocks Park in South Burlington, Vermont, takes its name from the iron-tinged Monkton Quartzite, formed some 500 million years ago. But above the old red sandstone are bands of younger…

Invasive plants impact the ecological integrity and timber production potential of forests. One particularly problematic species is glossy buckthorn (Frangula alnus). A shade-tolerant,…

Land protection has increased in recent decades parallel with development pressures. Town leaders struggling to balance budgets and to provide services often resist conservation because of…

The northeastern population of moose, subspecies Alces alces americana, declined during the nineteenth century as a result of hunting and forest clearing for agriculture. Hunting regulation…

What we in the Northeast sometimes call a “Town Forest” is known elsewhere as a “Community Forest.” Although common and cherished by local residents, these publicly…

Moisture is a major factor encouraging the growth of northern hardwood trees, but timing is just as important as volume. New research from University of Vermont and the U.S. Forest Service has…

Northeastern bats are on the decline for multiple reasons, especially fungal pathogens that cause white-nose syndrome. To support bat conservation efforts, researchers at University of New…

The boreal forest encircles the northern hemisphere from Alaska to Russia to Scandinavia to Labrador, making up almost one-quarter of global forest area and containing more than a third of…

For decades, acid rain was one of the biggest problems affecting northern forests, the focus of extensive research and advocacy in the latter decades of the twentieth century. The fact that…