The winter holidays are a wonderful time to learn about nature. After all, is there another time of year when we kiss under a parasitic plant? Or sing about decorating our halls with spiny-leafed,…

N. Scott Momaday writes, in The Man Made of Words, “The storyteller’s place, within the context of his language, must include both geographical and mythic frame of reference. Within that…

One morning I followed a link sent to me by a friend and found that I had been quoted in The New York Times. That’s not a thing that happens often to woodshop teachers. The article cited my blog…

When Colgate University biologist Tim McCay began studying the impact of acid rain on soils and forest-dwelling animals in the Adirondacks, he started by heading into the forest and counting all of…

This archeological ruin was photographed in a yellow-birch/hard maple stand near the top of a mountain in southern Vermont. It’s not a cellar hole. For a hint, consult the winter 2009 issue of…

After a pathetic November that featured weather straight out of an Al Gore picture, winter proper came to the Northern Forest this week. Here again was December snow – the kind people love…

Last winter while walking in snow near my home in Worcester, Vt., I encountered a set of unusual paw prints by a creek. Curious, I followed the trail, my head bowed toward the ground, until the tracks…

Amongst the multitudes of wildlife field guides, Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods (With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts) is unique in that it deals exclusively with animals that do not exist.…

This native tree is common throughout the Northeast. What is it?

So you think you’re tough surviving a northern New England winter? Well, consider the amazingly resilient “water bears,” creatures that live all around us but that can only be seen…

It’s not uncommon for pictures of hunter-killed buck deer to show up in my email inbox; what was strange about this case was the title of the email: antlered doe. As you can see from the picture…

Question: Why has Vermont always been considered New England’s farm state? Answer: Geology, as in rocks and soils. Because of the limestone and other calcareous rocks underlying much of Vermont,…

Which Bird Made That Nest? A Bygone Industry: Chemicals from Wood How to Make a Holiday Wreath Dissecting an Ice-damaged Tree Snow Fleas, Deer Yards, Scotch Pine, and much more

“It’s a weird time in the wood industry,” said Bob De Geus, wood utilization specialist with Vermont’s Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. He paused then, trying to…

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…

On a walk through a still, snowy sugarbush, the peacefulness can be overwhelming; everything looks to be in good order. But all may not be as perfect as it seems. In any sugarbush, there is a good…

On a raw December day in northern Vermont, with a nor’easter bearing down on New England, the kitchen in Sarah Taparauskas’s circa 1850s farmhouse is a warm, inviting place to spend an…

No birdwatcher’s life is complete without experiencing the penetrating gaze of a great gray owl. Even a glance from those lemon-yellow eyes will cut through your Carhartts. Designed for the…

I have been managing woodlots in central Vermont since 1987, and in that time, two major ice storms have hit my area. Those two storms damaged thousands of acres across the region, and many landowners…

Some stands of Scots pine in Europe (that’s what it’s called in its native range) are gorgeous, with straight, unbranching trunks that self-prune nicely, revealing the lovely orange bark…