This week in the woods, the past year’s fruit and this coming year’s catkins persist on speckled alders, making these diminutive trees stand out. All alder species share the woody,…

In the cold October air, my classmates and I gathered around the square oak board placed on the ground more than a year earlier. Carefully, we lifted it and peered underneath. Against the dark brown…

High up in a sugar maple, we found what appeared to be two partially completed circumferential cuts, as one would make when girdling a tree. What happened here? And why do the cuts appear under the…

Nigel Manley is an avid outdoorsman, single malt whiskey connoisseur, and soccer referee for local schools. In his long career with the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (Forest…

Catherine Wessel is an admirer of things in surprising places and an appreciator of early morning hours. She comes to Northern Woodlands with an MS in Plant Biology from University of Vermont's…

This Week in the Woods, we came across a pileated woodpecker excavation, with large vertical, rectangular holes typical for this species. The blond wood and layering of woodchips over this…

Anton Prikazchikov credits his interest in woodcarving to a documentary he saw many years ago, of a child using a knife to transform a branch into a detailed model of a fish. And to a moment of…

Most days, Jesup Memorial Library Director Matt DeLaney toils in a tiny Harry Potter-esque office tucked beneath the stairs leading to the 114-year-old building’s second-floor balcony. The space…

This article is the last in a four-part series that focuses on climate change impacts and adaptation in forests, supported by the Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation. A companion series published…

For the past two years, from late fall to early spring, a livestream on the Finch Research Network’s (FiRN) YouTube page transported viewers to a snow-dusted yard in northern Maine. Through the…

Loon biologists have traditionally worked three field seasons: spring, when common loons return to northeastern lakes, as if by magic, within a day or two of ice-out; summer, when nesting and chick…

What is a native plant enthusiast to do during our region’s long dormant season? While half of the year delights us with new growth and flowers, the other half can test our patience as we wait…

In November 2000, Tina Barney and Sara White purchased a 169-acre parcel on the south side of Clay Hill Road in Hartland, Vermont. The recently partnered couple had been searching for land suitable…

White-tailed deer typically shed their antlers in December or January. After autumn’s breeding season, hormonal changes cause a weakened connection between the antler and the pedicle, where the…

The first time I met most of the CNWE board of directors was at a summer board retreat at Seyon Lodge in Groton, Vermont. Arriving late at night, I ignored the printed directions in favor of Google…

Assessing forest health can be challenging for state and federal agencies, which often rely on limited staff to survey vast forest acreage. One of the most efficient ways to monitor large areas is by…

In the Winter 2024 issue of Northern Woodlands, writer Brett Amy Thelen describes heroic efforts to rescue stranded loons from iced-in lakes throughout the Northeast. With heavy bones built for…

At age 4, living with his family in Oklahoma, Eric Orff would spend as much time as he could catching horned toads and tarantulas. “I knew that someday I would work with animals and become a…

As microbes and plant roots metabolize organic matter in the soil, they release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, a process called soil respiration. In the Northeast, where forests store more than…

Every year in the United States, road crews dispense more than 24 million metric tons of de-icing salts. In the snowy Northeast, where plows and salt trucks ply the roads for months on end, sodium…