It’s the time of year when the landscape is laid bare, the ground is impenetrable with frost, and flying insects have faded into memory. As fall slides into winter, resident songbirds like…

Photographer Roger Irwin spends considerable time trekking around the Northeast, in all seasons and conditions and terrain, in search of wildlife. His journey to get this photo was considerably…

People don’t like to talk about money for all sorts of sensible reasons. But since the financial details of a story are crucial to our comprehension of it, there’s a point when fiscal…

Scene: A cold day at the Northern Woodlands office. Our heroine, a 40-something woman, sits at her desk, squinting at the computer screen. She’s reviewing printing costs. She looks grumpy. Above…

Esau Cant and the Gorbie by Ross Caron; Backcountry Zones: Where Skis Meet Trees by Megan McCarthy McPhaul; Horse Logging: It Took its Toll by George Bellerose; Shadows on Craft and Culture: The Loss…

The sound of the gray jay (Perisoreus canadensis) evokes an image of the North Woods: dark green spruce trees, spire-like balsam fir, and bare-branched tamaracks silhouetted against a raw,…

What are the thin, oval disks caught in the cobweb above the cavity of this sugar maple tree?

During the first decade of the 20th century, New York Harbor teemed with steamships delivering new arrivals from overseas. Between 1900 and 1910, the Statue of Liberty welcomed an average of nearly…

In the winter issue (arriving in mailboxes any day now), there’s a supernatural tale about a fateful encounter between a logging camp villain and a gorby – one of the many names for what…

In early November, I flicked on the porch light and took out the trash. In the brief time it took, a couple of late-season moths found their way to my porch light, and as I slipped through the back…

A Northern Woodlands Book! Many forest owners want to take a more ecological approach to managing their woods, and they feel right at home with a more natural forestry that’s focused on the…

Chaloux Brothers Firewood has been providing hardwood to central Vermonters since 1979. That adds up to a lot of firewood, probably more than 30,000 cords, according to Roger Chaloux, 62, who runs the…

Editor’s Note: What follows is the first in a series of pieces that imagines what the Northern Forest would be like if history had unfolded in a different way. Experts estimate that there were…

The Northern Forest Region contains about 265 species of woody plants. About a third, the generalists, are common in much or all of the region. Another third, the ecological specialists, are common…

Jim Bonesteel of Averill Park, New York, has been writing software that’s used to run robots all over the world for more than 30 years. And yet his interests outside of work are anything but…

We were surrounded by mountains, some as high as 14,000 feet. It was May and snow was still to be seen on the summits. As we hiked upward, trees became scarcer and stunted, growing only very slowly.…

There is nothing showy about Galinsoga (Galinsoga parviflora). An annual garden weed with unobtrusive flowers, Galinsoga seldom grows taller than 18 inches. Its rays are widely spaced, giving its…

At this time of year, yellow jackets take advantage of the plethora of fermented fruit that lies underneath fruit trees. Because the queen stops producing eggs in the fall, workers have time on their…

Deer hunters, like professional athletes, are always looking for an edge – it’s the nature of the pursuit. And so we’re susceptible to superstition, alluring gadgets, marketing…

The familiar red fox is the most widely distributed carnivore on the planet. Throughout North America, I’ve admired these handsome animals in arctic Canada’s barrenlands, southern coastal…