Each year, soon after ice out, torpedo-shaped fish slip into the lake’s weedy shallows from that offshore zone where the bottom falls away. First comes the female, her flanks green and gold, and…

I’ve seen all kinds of birds on the wooded New Hampshire hilltop where I live, but never – until recently – a duck. So when I spotted a pair of wood ducks loitering in my yard one…

This time of year, a walk through the woods reveals many signs of spring. Can you identify these four?

The first time Karin Tilberg came to Maine’s North Woods, she felt like she was home. Following a childhood in Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey, Karin attended the University of Vermont,…

On a cold November 2020 day, my daughter Lucy and I detected a strange floral scent in our woods. I challenged her to find its source, and promised a reward of chocolate cake. After some sniffing, she…

One late winter day, I heard our dog barking fiercely from the yard. I went outside to find him standing about 6 feet away from a hawk that was on the ground beside our house. I grabbed the…

The birds that made this nest have long since vacated it. Why are there leaves covering the nest? (And thanks to Sandy Dannis for the photos.)

Forester David Govatski’s three-decade career with the U.S. Forest Service included assignments in Colorado, Vermont, Michigan, Oregon, and New Hampshire. In 2005, he retired from his final…

Your February photos showed wildlife tracks in snow, winter-hardy birds, stunning skies, and here and there, the first glimmerings of spring, from common mergansers pairing up, to the fuzzy flower of…

While I was searching the drawers of the Saint Michael’s College insect collection, a spectacular little beetle caught my eye. The pearlescent elytra, or wing coverings, were marked with the…

On a winter day, I drove down to a nearby wetland bisected by a town road and walked carefully onto the ice. I was looking for cattail heads to dissect so I could meet the caterpillars who overwinter…

In the late 1990s, when my wife and I moved to New England from the sparse desert and jagged peaks of the Southwest, it took some time to adjust to the dense, green landscape of northern hardwood…

Earlier this winter, I took to the pond ice – not to skate, but to peek below the surface. Although lake ecologists once considered the plankton in frozen lakes to be dormant during winter,…

This issue features Seeing the Forest for the Bees, Glimmers of Hope: Research to Tame Emerald Ash Borer, Preserving the Cape Cod Pine Barrens with Fire, and much more! Order a copy of this issue or…

Jillian Bell grew up in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama, and has been fascinated with the natural world since she was a child and noticed flowers growing through the cracks of a sidewalk. Although…

Ferns have been around for a mind-boggling 360 million years. That’s more than twice the time that dinosaurs reigned, and more than 1,800 times longer than modern humans have been around. Ferns…

Northern Woodlands board member emeritus Si Balch shared this photo of a bumpy trail through the woods. What caused these icy lumps?

Since 2002, when the first emerald ash borers (EAB) were identified in Michigan and Ontario, the glistening green beetles have spread rapidly, enjoying a mostly uncontested feast. The numbers are…

Last year was a record-setting fire season out West, and national news stories about forests and fire were often tragic. However, Caren Caljouw, the prescribed fire program manager for the…