Scientists have been studying birds continuously at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest since 1969, compiling one of the most detailed studies of neotropical migratory birds in North America.…

Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts, is one of the most storied experimental forests in the Northeast. Founded in 1907, it’s the home to decades-old forest ecology research studies, and…

Nobody knows who introduced garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) from Europe to North America, but whoever it was must have brought it for its flavor. Anyone who has smelled the crushed plant will…

This is such a disorienting time, when all our lives have been turned upside down and shaken. One of the ways my own family is coping is by spending time outside every day. We stage nature treasure…

Around the middle of March, I begin to feel that springtime urge to hit the road, to lace up the winter-neglected running shoes and start slogging through some miles. My early-season jogs take me past…

Bee hunting is the sport of finding wild colonies of honeybees. You usually start by catching a half-dozen or so worker bees inside a small contraption called a “bee box.” Next, you tuck a…

Now that spring has officially arrived, here's a warm weather WITWIT to get you in the mood for spring. Who stuffed these nesting materials beneath the bark of a dying elm?

Sandy Dannis shared this photo of a mink that she encountered while walking on her land in Dalton, New Hampshire. Mink aren't typically found up trees, but they're known to climb when…

Dave Brown moved to Craftsbury, Vermont, in 1974 to take a teaching job at what is now Sterling College. He’d grown up near Salt Lake City, Utah, and in Texas, gone to college in Wisconsin, and…

To our Northern Woodlands Community: In response to COVID-19, we have closed the Northern Woodlands office to visitors, and will be doing most of our work remotely for the next few weeks. Now seems…

When Vermont State Police and the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department need to search the woods, they call on this special group of air scent dogs and their handlers. The keys to NEK9’s…

Sometimes it pays to be an insomniac. One frigid winter night, I climbed out of my restless bed and slipped outside to stand under a sky littered with stars and take in the complete silence of…

During the summer, I often spy common garter snakes sunning themselves in my garden. As the snow piles up through winter, covering the landscape in cold white, I wonder where these warmth-seeking…

This photo was taken in Strafford, Vermont. What is the name of this donut-like snow formation, and what caused it?

Joshua Morse has spent the better part of the last decade studying the outdoors, the environment, and some of the things that live in the woods. With a bachelor’s degree in biology and a…

Your February photos showed mostly quiet scenes. “Snow moons” were favorite photo subjects, and dogs were also well represented (Happy Birthday, Cruiser!). In Warwick, New York, Steven…

For the past several years, we’ve included a quiz with our nonprofit’s autumn fundraising appeal, based on articles in the magazine, essays in The Outside Story series, and content in our…

On a picture-perfect winter morning last year, 20 Saint Michael’s College students and I visited Vermont Fish and Wildlife scientists for ice fishing at Knight’s Point on Lake Champlain.…

Often, I jest that my husband David and I bought our woodlot as a shared “midlife crisis.” But rather than a passing fancy, stewarding our forestland has truly become an integral part of…

Killingly Intermediate School in Dayville, Connecticut, has participated in Harvard Forest’s Our Changing Forest program since 2018. Seventh-graders take measurements and make observations in a…