Play our biweekly guessing game! Whatever draws us into the forest—be it birdwatching or logging, hiking or hunting—all of us are unified by the sense of wonder we feel in the outdoors.…
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Something in the Apple Tree
Last winter, Jason Selden and family were coming down a hillside in Chelsea, Vermont when a member of the group spotted something odd in an apple tree. Selden snapped this picture of the animal. What…
A Scare Followed by a Rise in Loon Populations
Some now call it “The Great Loon Die-off of 1983,” in which nearly 10,000 common loons washed up on the northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to Texas. Those found alive were…
Logging at the Fair
On September 25, Lora Nielsen, our Administrative Coordinator, attended the Common Ground Fair in Unity, Maine. What follows is her report. There’s nothing like a country fair on a crisp, fall…
Fallen Leaves
This selection of fallen leaves was gathered near our office in Corinth, Vermont. Name all six species.
Moss Gets a Close-up Look and a Chance to Impress
When in college decades ago, I took a botany course from a professor who lectured in a monotone and who believed the best way to learn about bryophytes—mosses and liverworts—was by rote.…
Some Like it Moist
Like Hagenbuch, Laurie Richmond was interested in learning more about the impact that forestry practices have on wildlife. Earlier research had shown that forest harvesting can cause significant…
What Do Deer Want?
Dwight Garner wrote an entertaining book review in the New York Times recently on Elizabeth Marshall Thomas’s new book: The Hidden Lives of Deer. You can read it online at The Books of the…
Sparkling Stones
These sparkling stones(?) were found in a southern Vermont trout stream. What are they?
PTO-Driven Firewood Processors
As a thirty-something year old guy who came of age in the boom years of the 1990s, I’ve been bombarded with advertising pretty much since the day I was born. That I grew up in a small town in…
Marvel at the Bat, Whose Numbers are Diminishing
A small brown object dropped as I swung open the door to our garage loft. Before I could process what I had glimpsed, the thing unfurled black, umbrella-like wings, swooped to the wall and clung…
Searching for Thoreau: On the Trails and Shores of Wild New England
Henry David Thoreau looms over us from the depths of history, a towering person, important we’re told, a giant of his age, yet vaguely threatening, unpleasantly Puritanical, and more than a…
Red or Green Seeds
Depending on the time of year, the seeds from this plant can be green or red. What in the woods is it?
Tenho Saudades
On calendars and on magazine covers, autumn is usually rendered glossy and exhilarating: the foliage always neon orange against azure skies, humans and their fall chores the cheerful equivalent of…
Maple Leafcutter and its Turtle-like Existence
Each fall I spend quiet time in the woods getting reacquainted with – yes, you guessed it – Paraclemensia acerifoliella. OK, I admit you may not know Paraclemensia acerifoliella. But if…
Birds in the Bush
A considerable amount of research has been conducted about the impact of timber management on bird habitat, but few if any scientific studies have examined how management for non-timber forest…
Alien Life-form
No, it’s not an alien life-form; and that’s all the help I’m giving you. What in the woods is it?
Bull Moose in the Newsroom
If we could afford to do it, we’d make the Letters to the Editor section of the magazine 20 pages long. Our readers are the lifeblood of our publication, and their thoughts add depth and breadth…