So much for precise bluebird nest box dimensions. Tom Wetmore and Heidi Marcotte of Hartland, Vermont, found a brilliant use for a maple syrup jug that accidentally came too close to their evaporator…

Visiting a forest along one of our major rivers, such as the Connecticut River, in late spring, is like entering a special world. Big silver maples tower overhead, with arching branches and roots…

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. There, we…

By the end of April, black bears have shrugged off winter’s dormancy and are getting hungry. They may get lucky and discover a winter-killed deer and get to indulge in its valuable protein. More…

The 2019 maple sugaring season has, for most, just ended in southern Vermont and New Hampshire. And so sugarmakers are tallying up their sap and syrup volumes to see how they made out. My sense, as a…

This Bonsai-like oak forest was seen in east-central New York. What caused the seedlings to grow like this?

On a recent sunny day, Jeff Tarling, city arborist with Portland, Maine’s Department of Parks, Recreation, and Facilities, pulled his truck to a stop at Pine Grove Park, a 12-acre green oasis in…

In our magazine’s spring issue, there’s an article describing forestry operations in Portland, Maine. Author Joe Rankin explores the unique considerations of cutting trees in a city,…

Now is prime woodcock courtship season – the males are performing their evening aerial displays above fields, town baseball diamonds, and other open spaces. They’re fun birds to watch and…

A theme of your March photographs: people in the woods – tapping trees, logging, and harnessing oneself, on skis, to an ecstatic dog. Photographer Diana Hayes contributed a great series of…

After climbing a steep, winding road through a gap in Vermont’s Green Mountains, my car descended into Addison County, rolling past fields bright with purple aster and goldenrod. A black Subaru…

A study of forest fragmentation by a team of researchers at the University of Maine has found that the zoning system used by the state to protect winter habitat for deer is not an effective long-term…

SOLD OUT! Join our waitlist here. Registered Participants: see this Conference Participant Information page. The 2026 Northern Woodlands Conference, From Page to Place, will take place the weekend…

On a moonlit night two hundred years ago, a dog-shaped shadow slipped through the Vermont woods. The large, shaggy canid emerged onto a hilltop pasture, raised its muzzle, and howled – a deep,…

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 the…

Once, when I was living in a house on the edge of a forest in Western Massachusetts, an early-spring storm blew in and left about a foot of snow in its wake. Worried about the birds, many of which had…

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 someone…

Loving the woods, loving working in the woods – it’s difficult to do either without an appreciation of history; after all, the forest we see today reflects the actions of those who have…

It’s that time of the year when woodpiles are nearly gone. We pulled a few pieces from what we have remaining: can you tell us (left to right) what species we still have left to burn?

Last sugaring season started early, and it lurched like a 16-year-old learning to drive a stick. It was too cold, then too warm, then too cold – that cycle over and over. We made syrup on the…