This time of year, many native shrubs and trees produce fruits that attract wildlife and thereby help the plants to spread their seeds. Here are five native species and one non-native invasive…

I often spot black willow trees as I’m kayaking along a riverbank or lakeshore. While perhaps less picturesque than its (non-native) cousin the weeping willow, black willow is native to the…

This week in the woods, adult loons have begun their pre-migration partial molt. If you look closely at this adult bird, photographed from a respectful zoom lens distance in Strafford, Vermont,…

Before the trees put on their colorful autumnal cloaks, the newly rewilded fields at my home turn to gold and purple. New England American-aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) begins blooming in…

This week in the woods, we’ve noticed a lot of aerial feeding activity above fields and wetlands along the Connecticut and Ompompanoosuc rivers, all sites within about 20 miles of the Northern…

Mushrooms take up nutrients and minerals from whatever they are growing on, for example, wood they’re decomposing or, in the case of mycorrhizal fungi, forest soils and tree roots. They can also…

More people are taking an interest in outdoor recreation in New Hampshire at the same time as seasons are shifting, winters are warming, and storms are strengthening. To what extent are these…

Most of the stories about carbon in the Northern Forest focus on sequestration and storage: all that carbon taken in and held by the region’s trees, plants, animals, fungi, and soils. But…

Tucked behind all too many woodsheds are unsplit rounds that stand as evidence of defeat. Many of these blocks have been tossed in frustration after dozens of hits, each one eliciting increased…

I’ve heard foresters and wildlife biologists talking about “softening edges.” What is an edge, and what does it mean to “soften” one? Why is it important? And how do we…

Dad and I drag the white-tailed doe to the abandoned logging road as the moon crests the mountain. By the light of our headlamps, we use our knives to carve and empty the deer, our breath freezing,…

Approximately 50 people contribute to the words and images in each issue of the magazine. Here are some of our Autumn 2024 contributors. {image2} Noah Davis (“Deer Drag,” page 10) grew up…

In An Immense World, Pulitzer Prize–winning science journalist Ed Yong reveals entirely new ways to think about the world around us. Reading this mind-blowing account of animal evolution and…

Walden is Thoreau’s most famous book, but for some readers, the journal he kept for his entire adult life is the favorite. Editor Geoff Wisner has selected text from the journal for a delightful…

If you want to explore new frontiers, look no farther than the nearest forest. Each tree, from roots to branches, is home to its own complex and minute ecosystems. James Nardi’s The Hidden…

The calls come in day and night, from homeowners, people working in the woods, and passersby on dirt roads and busy highways. They’ve found an injured fox or an orphaned squirrel or a furry…

In September 2023 – after nearly 10 years of planning, clearing, and construction – Darin Schwartz, his wife Dawn Elliott, and their two children moved into the family’s…

Because, as the crow flies, I’m only a few flaps and caws from the Connecticut River, I wake up most autumn mornings to a river fog dreamscape. All the air is suffused with soft gray, as if the…

A steady parade of trucks loaded with gravel, cement, and dirt rumbles down Binney Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, each day. There seems to be a construction site around every corner in the…