Naturalist, artist, and writer Clare Walker Leslie inspires people around the world to pay attention to the nature around them and to discover their own distinct way of reflecting and recording their…

Patty Cormier spent much of her childhood in the Maine woods and has devoted her professional life to helping manage the state’s forests. She worked for 20 years as a District Forester for the…

A Tale of Two Berries: What's going on in this picture?

New England is home to dozens of species of mammals, hundreds of varieties of birds, and tens of thousands of different insects, but only one lizard: the five-lined skink. Though I am fond of reptiles…

This Week in the Woods, the ongoing severe drought conditions are taking a toll, from dried up streams to withered plants. The dry weather also negatively impacts insect populations. All the more…

Plenty of backyard birdwatchers consider blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) the villains of the avian world. Mark Twain best summarized anti-blue jay sentiment when he compared the bird’s…

This Week in the Woods, it’s so dry out there. A good time to explore otherwise-soggy cellar holes and other low places. Several species of unfortunately-named beggar-ticks are in bloom. They…

We discovered a series of these shallow holes, about 2 inches wide, underneath an eastern white pine tree. Who made them – and why?

In this second installment of our August Reader Photo Gallery, Harriet Szanto discovered a hummingbird perched in a tree, Ron Becker found a red admiral perched on boneset, and Eric and Amy Girardi…

My students and I have pit-trapped invertebrates in Camp Johnson in Colchester, Vermont, annually since 2006. We sink liquid-filled plastic tubes into the ground to intercept forest-floor…

Before he was an outdoor educator, Scott Ellis was a student of the woods and rivers. Now in his fourth year as the Outdoor Program Coordinator at Thetford Academy in Vermont, Ellis teaches a…

The September before my daughter was born, my husband and I went for our last pre-baby hike around Camel’s Hump. We stopped for a snack on the ridgeline, and as we sat munching granola bars we…

This Week in the Woods, we found fuzzy brownish-orange things on oak leaves. Elf bedroom slippers? Star Trek tribbles? Turns out, they’re yet another example of weird looking growths that plants…

Some of my favorite children’s books describe life cycles as heroic tales of persistence and redemption. From The Ugly Duckling to The Very Hungry Caterpillar to A Seed is Sleeping, these…

This Week in the Woods, we’ve been noticing the circular holes and brown, ring-shaped feeding patches created by maple leafcutter moth larvae. This insect has a clever way to hide from birds and…

From nature notes to firewood stacking tips, there’s always more to learn about the woods. Explore our exclusive online content and join our mailing list to stay connected with Northern…

Like many woods-wandering dogs, this Brittany spaniel regularly returns from romps with small balls sticking to her ears. What are they?

Crawling cecropia caterpillars! Your August photos – which we have, once again, divided into two galleries – featured a variety of insect life. In this first gallery, Jamie Pearson…

Connor Breton grew up in Somersworth, New Hampshire, and became enamored of the woods at a young age. He attended the University of New Hampshire, where he studied environmental science, then earned a…

When the Northeast Silviculture Institute for Foresters kicked off its tour of two-day workshops in May 2017, it had been nearly 15 years since I had any formal coursework in silviculture. I’d…