Sandy Dannis captured this photo back in May. The plant has since unfurled. What is it?

Recently, our family added a Brittany spaniel puppy. Her name is Pompy after the Ompompanoosuc River near our home, and true to the name, she’s a flood risk. 5 a.m. piddle emergencies have us…

Dawn on a mild spring morning: the colors of the sky change from dark blue to an orange-and-purple hue. Dew covers the grass and turns into layers of fog as the temperature rises. Turkeys are flying…

One afternoon last summer, my partner Rick called me out onto our deck to see a tiny hummingbird. Not just tiny, but the tiniest hummingbird he had ever seen. My curiosity piqued, I walked out and…

HOW ONE OF NEW ENGLAND’S LARGEST SNAKES IS MANAGING TO SURVIVE Most of us have experienced an unexpected encounter with a snake while doing yard work or taking a walk in a local forest or field.…

Only a small fraction of the microscopic life that inhabits soil has been identified, which makes quantifying what’s out there nearly impossible. But a significant leap forward was made last…

Have you seen a spotted lanternfly? If you live in New England, and answered “no,” that’s good. But we’ll have to check back with you next year. The lanternfly is one of the…

What caused the unusual cluster of growth on this ash tree? (Hint: it isn’t emerald ash borer.)

The idea of “good” forestry can be hard for a layman like me to pin down, in part because it occupies a place on a sliding scale that gets adapted to different scenarios. If you’re a…

Your May photos revealed spring ephemerals in bloom, new fawns, and a squirrel with its very own dog statue feeding perch.  A killdeer’s eggs blended perfectly with rocks by the road, and…

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 protection.…

Last June I was walking through our field when I flushed a wild turkey hen. She emerged from the raspberry patch just a few feet away from me. I parted the thorny canes to reveal a nest on the ground…

This is our twenty-fifth anniversary magazine – that’s a generation of readers and an improbable relay chain of individuals who have devoted their time, talents, and resources to our…

I was in southern Connecticut a few weeks back to pick my son up from college. While he took his last exam, I took myself up a local hiking trail. Connecticut black flies are as bad as their Vermont…

This is our 101st issue, which adds up to thousands of stories. There are a lot I remember fondly, but one in particular sticks in my mind – a story entitled “The Man Who Freed a…

As a log buyer and forester, I’ve had many opportunities to spend time on active logging operations, but until recently, I had never traveled by boat to visit one. When Charlie Hall, manager of…

This magazine wouldn’t exist without our many contributors. Over the coming year we’d like to introduce some of them to you, starting with the 10 regular columnists whose work currently…

What caused the orange mark on this Ostrya virginiana tree (known by many common names, including hophornbeam, hardhack, and ironwood). It looks like a poor boundary blaze, but it’s not.

Carroll Stream flows clear and cold this time of year through the woods of northern New Hampshire, collecting the spring’s last snowmelt from the western slope of Cherry Mountain. Along its…

Jim Collins is a writer and former editor of Yankee magazine who blends absorbing narrative with a strong sense of place. His work has appeared in Outside, Backpacker, and Boston magazines as well as…