Knots and Bolts

When it comes to ingenuity, the golden tortoise beetle (Charidotella sexpunctata) larva has all others beat. Instead of discarding its feces, it collects them to use as a means of chemical…

We flew into Anchorage on a late-July evening. Our first stop the next morning was at an enormous Cabela’s store to buy red-pepper spray to repel any charging bears we might encounter.…

Every spring, tiny, delicate blue butterflies known as spring azures (Celastrina ladon) are among the first butterflies to be seen in the Northeast. The appearance of this butterfly depends on…

We moved to Georgetown, New York, in 1999 after I was discharged from the Marine Corps. A family member had purchased property there but was living in another state; he wanted a caretaker and…

Most nature documentation these days is done electronically through the submission of sightings and photographs. But in earlier times, it frequently meant collecting and cataloging actual…

Everyone knows dandelions (Taraxacum officinale), and everyone, it seems, has an opinion about them. Loved by children. Reviled by owners of suburban lawns. Dandelions just evoke strong…

My nine-month-old daughter and I look out our living room window. I point at the marsh below. “See the beaver?” I whisper. Through a tight waterway, a beaver swims. “What…

The Fen is a private wildlife reserve in northeastern Connecticut. The 30-acre parcel was purchased in the spring of 2016 by Bet and Patrick Smith; here, Bet, who has a master’s degree…

Foragers gravitate toward the margins – hedgerows, roadsides, the shallow waters at the edge of a pond or lake, and the unkempt boundaries between woods and lawn. The forager’s…

While most insects in the Hemiptera order are land-dwelling (including stink bugs and assassin bugs), a few, such as these backswimmers, are aquatic. In the fall, when most insect hatches have…

In January, I found myself preparing for a reindeer round-up with a Finnish family in Jääskö, one of the 54 herding districts in Lapland, Finland. We were fortunate that the…

Editor’s Note: What follows is the first in a series of pieces that imagines what the Northern Forest would be like if history had unfolded in a different way. Experts estimate that…

The Northern Forest Region contains about 265 species of woody plants. About a third, the generalists, are common in much or all of the region. Another third, the ecological specialists, are…

Jim Bonesteel of Averill Park, New York, has been writing software that’s used to run robots all over the world for more than 30 years. And yet his interests outside of work are anything…

We were surrounded by mountains, some as high as 14,000 feet. It was May and snow was still to be seen on the summits. As we hiked upward, trees became scarcer and stunted, growing only very…

There is nothing showy about Galinsoga (Galinsoga parviflora). An annual garden weed with unobtrusive flowers, Galinsoga seldom grows taller than 18 inches. Its rays are widely spaced, giving…

At this time of year, yellow jackets take advantage of the plethora of fermented fruit that lies underneath fruit trees. Because the queen stops producing eggs in the fall, workers have time…

Eighteen wildflowers from forests, fields, and wetlands, arranged by when they first bloom. Wildflower season in the northern forest begins in April and continues until the last weeds fruit in…

“In the next years, all of the ash trees in the Hubbard Brook Forest will be deleted,” said Matt Ayres. “We’re in a position to study that with more resolution and…

Editor’s Note: On news of the emerald ash borer’s advancement in the Northeast, we reached out to forester Nicholas Sanchez in Michigan for a glimpse of what a mature infestation…