Back in September, I put out the bird feeder. I try not to do it too early because, well...bears. My feathered friends emptied it in hours. A couple of refills later and I decided I couldn’t…

Globally speaking, annual precipitation and temperature are the two most important factors that determine what grows where on Earth. Close to the equator, where it’s warm and wet, there’s…

The name – Ski Hearth Farm – is a hint to the diversity that has helped preserve this pastoral landscape of 630 acres in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire, for decades. Yes, it is first and…

Though few today are familiar with the working toboggan of the North Woods, it was once ubiquitous – the tool of trappers and travelers, a boon to anyone who had to wrest their living from the…

Eagles obtain food mainly in three ways – by capturing it, by stealing it, or by scavenging it. When securing their own live prey, they hunt from perches or soar over suitable habitat, taking…

Winter must have been hard for the first human inhabitants of the Northeast as long months passed with few fresh plant foods. Foraging is difficult in the winter, but it is not impossible. Occasional…

It’s late February, and a tom bobcat is eagerly sauntering along – something is in the air! Lengthening daylight and warming temperatures signal the arrival of courting and breeding…

You picked it out, maybe cut it down, brought it home, watered it, and decorated it. But do you know what species of tree that is surrounded by presents in your living room? If you purchased your…

What is happening to the top of this stump? Clue: It is part of a long row of white spruce planted together decades ago and more recently thinned by removing every other tree. Thanks to Kyle Mason for…

Why is religion such a big part of rural life? An author I was reading the other day decided it was because there are more poor people in rural places, and poverty fosters the idea that there’s…

Some of the most interesting animal behaviors involve social communications. Even the most solitary species need to communicate, whether they’re staking claim, communicating social standing, or…

In the middle of a frozen New Hampshire night in January 2015, Geoff Schwaner was in Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, standing on the back of a UTV and spraying water 100 feet up into the air with a…

Mention carpenter ants, and Declan McCabe, chair of the biology department at St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont, thinks about the time he got a lungful of formic acid. He had taken a…

When I’m hiking, I like to watch for rock basins, sometimes as small as cupped hands, that appear along summits and ridgelines. These are “thin places.” When filled with water, these…

A revisionist theory about the fox has been circulating for a while that challenges the animal’s legendary cunning, suggesting instead that the Reynard of fable doesn’t actually rely on…

This moss-covered mound, around 100 feet long and 4 feet wide, was spotted high on a mountain in a stand of red spruce and balsam fir. What do you think it might be?

The world can often seem too complicated for its own good. It’s a big reason why people like you and I live in a rural place, where things are simpler to some degree. Through this lens, I sort…

Your November photos featured fog, hawks, and the month’s super moon. Bucks knocked antlers, a Virginia opossum scavenged for food scraps, and a flock of snow geese surprised a photographer as…

House sparrows – those little brown and gray birds that flash mob the bird feeder – are common and easy to see. They’re quarrelsome, noisy, and when they’re on the ground, they…

Twenty years ago, scientists experimented with adding calcium to forest soils and found that it boosted tree growth. Today, they’re seeing an unexpected spike in nitrogen loss in these same…