One way that trees respond to stress is to pour energy into the dormant buds along their trunks and branches. Sprouts erupt in odd places, and a tree’s looks change rapidly. In the course of a…

When my daughter was four, she once asked, “Do mice get cavities?” We were coming back from the dentist, so teeth were on her mind and so were mice, since her pet mouse had recently…

Photographer’s Notebook: Tree and Shrub Flowers by Jerry Jenkins; Mushroom and Metaphor by Verandah Porche; Silent Sparks by Sara Lewis; Saving New England’s Rare Plants by Susan…

Like many artists, David Goodsell’s work is born of careful observation of the natural world; his landscapes just happen to be molecular – the world he presents is measured in nanometers.…

The first time I saw cordwood construction was in high school when I shadowed a consulting forester for career day. His home office was made of cordwood and provided me with my first forestry lesson.…

In logging, they say it takes iron to move wood. Eric Robinson’s job is to keep the iron moving. He’s part of the mobile service unit at CJ Logging Equipment, a Booneville, New York-based…

The word ‘migration’ conjures images of vast wildebeest or pronghorn herds crossing plains in unison, or hummingbirds traversing the Gulf of Mexico. When charismatic birds leave our New…

What’s piled up around the base of this tree?

We’ve been landing a bunch of pine logs within 100 feet or so of Route 7A – a major rural route in Vermont. Our sugarbush and woodlot adjoin from the west; there are houses north and south…

Gary Lee Miller is a Vermont-based author who will run a workshop at this year’s Northern Woodlands Conference, “Short and Sweet: The Power of the Seven Minute Writing Prompt.” His…

A team of engineers at the University of Maryland has created transparent wood windows that are waterproof and less breakable than glass. What’s more, the windows provide more even and…

Researchers have long believed that the changing climate will force most species of birds to shift their ranges to follow their preferred climate niches. Rather than adapting to the new climate…

Congressional leaders are currently reexamining our country’s broken health care system, which has meant a slew of news stories about different aspects of the problem that might be analogized to…

The prospective groom carefully drapes a silken veil across his chosen mate’s head, then wraps four of her eight legs, her chelicerae, and her pedipalps. It turns out human brides aren’t…

One day last spring, I pulled into a parking lot in Thetford, Vermont, and saw a flash of brilliant red. Instantly, I knew it was a male scarlet tanager (Piranga olivacea). He was perched in a cluster…

Most of the forestry I see in southern Vermont can be characterized as “hunter-gatherer” forestry: the only management activity is timber harvesting, and harvesting is only done when it is…

In the deep cold of the January nights, when the light of the Wolf Moon falls like ringing iron through the trees, from Tom’s Hill and Cathedral Hill on either side of the marsh and Little Pamet…

The white bulbs of wild leeks, also called ramps (especially in the south), can be eaten year round, but it’s the early leaves that are most appreciated. In pre-freezer days, ramps were the…

We recently came across two trees (in one case a group of trees) perched up off the ground. What’s the cause of this phenomenon?

Lumber was in the news this week as the Trump administration announced that we’re going to levy a tariff on Canadian softwood. No doubt you heard the news and wondered...well, we’re not…