The fisher darted through the trees from one overgrown field to another. The narrowest sliver of moon had set: a perfect night for hunting. Three hours later, just before midnight, it bounded back the…

Easy Wood by Castle Freeman; Snakes on an Island by John Burk; Song of the Balsam Fir by David George Haskell; The Maple Syrup Model: Conserving Small Woodlots with Acorn-Finished Pork by Benjamin…

More than 3,000 years ago, the Chinese believed that a dragon ate the sun during a solar eclipse, so they gathered outdoors to drive away the beast by beating pots, pans and drums. Some 500 years…

As human population grows, forests often become more and more fragmented as trees are cut down to make way for roads, housing developments, office parks, and shopping centers. Most research on forest…

Many scientists have predicted that as the climate warms, most bird species in the Northern Hemisphere will shift their ranges northward or up the slopes of mountains in order to remain in their…

Lawns cover 63,000 square miles of the United States, making turf the largest irrigated crop in the country. As much as some ecologists consider lawns to be biological deserts that Americans should be…

Not to endorse stereotypes too much, but I’m a card-carrying cheap Scot. As I walk through the local farm and forestry supply store, my mind instantly wanders to question, “how could I…

A small boy asked “what’s your favorite insect?” I answered without hesitation: caddisflies.  Not the short-lived adults, which while charming in their own hairy moth-like way,…

We found this tasty-looking polypore growing on an oak stump while picking low-bush blues in mid-July. What is it?

A friend shared this great video with me the other day of Neil Young – not the pop star but a town-elder-type from around these parts – recounting a bobbin mill fire he fought in the…

Your July photos captured the remarkable diversity of life forms that inhabit northern woodlands – animals that waddle, paddle, hop, and scamper, others that flutter, crawl, and glide. This…

East Hampton, Connecticut — To the left of the driveway is a circular steel sawblade hung in an oak-post frame, bearing the name of the family business painted in red: “STRONG FARM AND…

Walk through a hardwood forest this month and it may seem more like October than July. Trees that normally provide cool shade have bare crowns with just a hint of green. And is the bark on that sugar…

I love the fact that there is always something new to observe in nature. Take goldfinches, for example. I have often watched them devour milkweed seeds from an acrobatic, upside-down position.…

Penelope Harris recently came across these on the underside of one of the leaves of a wild pagoda Dogwood on her property in northern Vermont. She knows what they are, do you?

This is more of an iPhone camera tale. I do have a game camera – a Moultrie M-550 – and I use it in somewhat clumsy attempts to glean information about which animals move through the yard…

When people – myself included – write about forestry they tend to focus on the treatments or harvests as though they’re the story. It’s where the action is. But, of course,…

My dog watched intently as an area of soil in our backyard vibrated and formed a slight ridge. Suddenly he began digging, revealing a mole below ground. Before Cody could pounce, I grabbed his collar…

Carla Fenner strode along the railroad tracks outside Burlington, Vermont, on an August afternoon, wearing an orange surveyor’s vest and carrying a large volume entitled New Flora of Vermont, a…

I’ve assessed spotted owl feuds and wolf re-introductions,” said Dr. William Lynn, an environmental ethics professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. “I’ve…