The transition from late winter to early spring is my favorite time for wildlife photography. The warming snow pack is pock-marked with tracks everywhere; some creatures are seeking mates, some are…

While it’s pretty audacious to reduce the Northeast, a region with hundreds of unique ecosystems, to three generalized parts, if pushed, you can do it. There’s the North Woods, stretching…

Among the many priorities crowding school budgets, environmental education often gets short shrift. Many educators see the value of bringing more nature into the classroom, but the reality of other…

If Sting saw this photo, he’d likely sing, “There are little black specks on the snow today.” What are those black specks? Photo by Jenna Gersie.

A common species of moss (Ceratodon purpureus) that lives in weedy and forested habitats has been found to use an unusual strategy to reproduce: it produces a chemical scent to recruit tiny…

“I’ll be darned; the little critter is sharper than I give him credit for,” writes now-retired Maine Game Warden John Ford of a young warden recruit. Together, with another warden…

It’s a guidebook, but hardly one to slip in the backpack or back pocket while hiking. With its glossy color photos, New England’s Natural Wonders: An Explorer’s Guide, by John S.…

Genevieve Jones was ahead of her time. Born in 1847 in Circleville, Ohio, into a tight-knit and nurturing family, she grew up observing the natural world with her father, Nelson, and her brother,…

We’re used to tracking spring’s progression through flowers (colt’s foot to purple trillium to columbine) or bird sightings (phoebes to sapsuckers to warblers). Spend time near a…

In summer, you always know when a striped skunk has been around. But in winter, these animals make themselves scarce, hunkering down to wait out the onslaught of ice and snow. Unlike most rodents and…

If you’re considering building a log structure, you’ll need to learn to scribe logs. In most cases, you’ll be scribing for a saddle notch, used to join two logs perpendicularly,…

Where the Wild Things Go: How Young Animals Disperse The Ballad of Amos Congdon A Gym Floor from Local Trees Old Logging Films, Squirrel Sap Taps, Chainsaw Sharpening, and much more

I can’t say for sure exactly how many of my childhood birthdays were celebrated on the ice of Lake Champlain, but a good number. That’s what happens when your father likes to ice fish,…

These snowballs weren’t made by the neighborhood kids. So who, or what, made them?

Ice fishing. The sky’s the color of grungy nickels. The wind is picking up. A bottle is produced from the inside pocket of a wool hunting coat to ward off the morning chill. I don’t…

Ask a group of foresters, tree farmers, or loggers how to promote American beech, and there will likely be a pause, a few grins, perhaps a chuckle or two, and then, the faint sound of crickets. That…

Crossbills are one of our most specialized groups of birds, feeding almost exclusively on conifer seeds.  These hardy, nomadic finches have evolved oddly-shaped bills that allow them to exploit…

Skeletal tissues of living animals are constantly being renewed and replaced as wear and tear creates stresses and microfractures. In order to know how much bone needs replacing, the skeleton must…

A new study led by a researcher at the U.S. Geological Survey suggests that there are early indications that soils are recovering – at least in red spruce forests – from the detrimental…

“Dead wood coming down.” “All clear, Bear.” “Thanks!” THUD. A dead oak branch crashes to the ground after a brief but thorough exchange between two arborists. One…