This week in the woods, we’ve noticed a lot of aerial feeding activity above fields and wetlands along the Connecticut and Ompompanoosuc rivers, all sites within about 20 miles of the Northern…
How Toxic Are Mushrooms in Connecticut River Valley Forests?
Mushrooms take up nutrients and minerals from whatever they are growing on, for example, wood they’re decomposing or, in the case of mycorrhizal fungi, forest soils and tree roots. They can also…
Have Shifting Seasons Impacted Outdoor Recreation in New Hampshire?
More people are taking an interest in outdoor recreation in New Hampshire at the same time as seasons are shifting, winters are warming, and storms are strengthening. To what extent are these…
What Happens to Forest Carbon in the Sea?
Most of the stories about carbon in the Northern Forest focus on sequestration and storage: all that carbon taken in and held by the region’s trees, plants, animals, fungi, and soils. But…
Tips & Tricks for Splitting Gnarly Firewood
Tucked behind all too many woodsheds are unsplit rounds that stand as evidence of defeat. Many of these blocks have been tossed in frustration after dozens of hits, each one eliciting increased…
Softening Edges
I’ve heard foresters and wildlife biologists talking about “softening edges.” What is an edge, and what does it mean to “soften” one? Why is it important? And how do we…
Deer Drag
Dad and I drag the white-tailed doe to the abandoned logging road as the moon crests the mountain. By the light of our headlamps, we use our knives to carve and empty the deer, our breath freezing,…
Behind the Pages
Approximately 50 people contribute to the words and images in each issue of the magazine. Here are some of our Autumn 2024 contributors. {image2} Noah Davis (“Deer Drag,” page 10) grew up…
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
In An Immense World, Pulitzer Prize–winning science journalist Ed Yong reveals entirely new ways to think about the world around us. Reading this mind-blowing account of animal evolution and…
A Year of Birds: Writings on Birds from the Journal of Henry David Thoreau
Walden is Thoreau’s most famous book, but for some readers, the journal he kept for his entire adult life is the favorite. Editor Geoff Wisner has selected text from the journal for a delightful…
The Hidden Company That Trees Keep: Life from Treetops to Root Tips
If you want to explore new frontiers, look no farther than the nearest forest. Each tree, from roots to branches, is home to its own complex and minute ecosystems. James Nardi’s The Hidden…
Wildlife Rehabilitation: Returning Raccoons to the Woods
The calls come in day and night, from homeowners, people working in the woods, and passersby on dirt roads and busy highways. They’ve found an injured fox or an orphaned squirrel or a furry…
Help in a Hard Time
In September 2023 – after nearly 10 years of planning, clearing, and construction – Darin Schwartz, his wife Dawn Elliott, and their two children moved into the family’s…
A Change of Season
Because, as the crow flies, I’m only a few flaps and caws from the Connecticut River, I wake up most autumn mornings to a river fog dreamscape. All the air is suffused with soft gray, as if the…
“Reimagining the Leftovers” as Forests, One City Park at a Time
A steady parade of trucks loaded with gravel, cement, and dirt rumbles down Binney Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, each day. There seems to be a construction site around every corner in the…
Chicken of the Woods
Despite decades of experience eating wild plants, I was slow to start foraging for fungi. There are many poisonous species. So many species look similar to each other. And, while almost all poisonous…
1,000 Words
Last October, while on assignment to photograph fall foliage for The New York Times, photographer Caleb Kenna traveled north along Vermont Route 100. “As I was passing Echo Lake in Plymouth, a…
Managing Forests for Resilience
This article is the third in a four-part series that focuses on climate change impacts and adaptation in forests. A companion series published last year focused on forest carbon. Alexandra Kosiba, a…
Cicada Killers
Picture this: you are a single mother, and to ensure the success of your children, you’ll have to immobilize a still-living animal almost twice your weight and haul it back to a tunnel you dug…