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Mystery in Blue

One day in the next few weeks, you may be walking through a field on a sunny day. You may see a tiny blue butterfly, with wings the size of thumbnails, flitting over the meadowsweet. If you know your…

Strange Sight

Our proofreader discovered this strange object in a spruce tree near her home. What in the woods is it?

Northeast Kingdom Trail Guide

Editor’s Note: Walter Medwid, the Executive Director of Northern Woodlands, is on blog duty this week. Before joining the team at Northern Woodlands, I served as Executive Director at NorthWoods…

Traveling Bumblebees Bring Trouble Home

There has been a lot of bad buzz about bee populations lately, mostly about the decline of European honeybees that are used across North America to help pollinate everything from California almonds to…

NW Illustrator Honored for Work

Readers of Northern Woodlands will be familiar with artist Adelaide Tyrol’s work: her paintings regularly illustrate our Under the Microscope and Species in the Spotlight columns; her work also…

Getting Cranked About Ethanol

As I was waiting at the shop the other day to pick up my chainsaw, I heard strong words up ahead in line: something about the government and the EPA and ethanol. When my turn came at the counter, the…

Compelling Video on Worcester Beetle Infestation

While those of us in the print world don’t readily admit it, there’s power in television images that just can’t be replicated in words and still photographs. In light of this, we…

Foresters and Real Estate Agents Join Forces

In a state dense with timberland, Maine’s district foresters have a serious challenge providing landowners with timely information about good forestry practices and changes in state law. There…

Plant Relics are Humble but Handy

Three hundred million years ago, dinosaurs roamed the land. The earth they inhabited was hot and humid and covered in vast, swampy forests that today would seem most bizarre. Some of the plants…

Who Lives Here?

Naturalist Mary Holland shared this wonderful picture with us...yup, it's an animal den site. But what kind of animal?

Wood Worse than Coal?

The spin doctors on either side of the bioenergy divide have been hard at work spinning a recently released study on biomass sustainability into whatever the PR equivalent of gold is. A few weeks…

For Moles, a Life of Toil in the Soil

Two months ago a predictable eruption began on the lawn surrounding our house. Rough clumps of rich, dark subsoil appeared upon the still barren ground. “Those **@#$&%** moles again,”…

Wait, Not So Fast! Is Biomass Key to Energy Needs?

You can’t shake a stick in New England these days without hitting someone in the energy field who wants to talk biomass. But what exactly is biomass? And is it a green source of energy?…

Weird Design

Reader Susan Elliot took this picture at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center this past weekend while attending the 115th Annual Meeting of the Vermont Botanical and Bird Club. What is it?

White Pine Needle Damage

Do you remember how wet it was last summer, and how we were all wondering about the affect of the rain on the forest? (If not, refresh your memory with this 2009 blog, where we ponder the unusually…

Puddles Ooze With Mud and Life

City dwellers and puddles don’t mix; we country folk are more tolerant. In wet weather we drive through one muddy morass after the next, uttering unprintable words, yet few of us would exchange…

Issue 65: Summer 2010 $6.00

Old-Fashioned Bee Lining Tending a Woodland Garden Income Sources from Your Forestland Which Caterpillar Becomes Which Butterfly? Climbing Bears, Chainsaw Gas Controversy, a $1,600 Maple Tree, and…

A Place in Mind

My son Seth and I have a tradition. Each summer, we choose a different mountain and a campground near it, pack our gear into my subcompact car, and set off on a father-son adventure. Two summers ago,…

Mill Prices

These prices are for #1 hardwood logs, at least 8 feet long, with three clear faces and a minimum 12-inch top diameter. In the timber world, this is a log of average quality, not a prime sawlog and…

The Outdoor Palette

The primary goal of natural history illustration is scientific accuracy. Since the work is used to educate, it must portray a species with precision and a high level of detail. If it’s…