One predator-prey interaction always leaves me torn. Birds sparked my love for the natural world years ago, but after my interest lapsed during adolescence, bees brought me back into the fold. So I…

My first sighting of a cecropia moth was from a boat. It was a sunny morning and I was paddling along the lakeshore, expecting to see familiar birds. Instead, my eye was drawn to a large brown spot…

We found this striking white flower in a peatland in central Vermont. What is the name of this plant and what purpose do the fringed petals serve?

This week in the woods, this male bobolink – the harlequin of the hayfield – gave its bubbly, android-like song from atop a red maple. The young tree growing where field and forest meet…

Doug Tallamy is an entomologist and conservationist who promotes biodiversity at a hyperlocal level through landscaping with native plants. He has taught entomology at University of Delaware for 45…

In the deepening twilight, the pines edging my backyard merge into a wall of shadow. I hold my breath, staring hard into the darkness. Will they come? No matter how many times I repeat this ritual,…

This issue features: Eastern Canines Sturgeon Returning Tending Trees Kestrel Boxes, and much more! Order a copy of this issue or visit Subscription Services to subscribe to our quarterly…

Crayfish fill my childhood memories. I spent summers playing in streams, flipping over rocks, and, if I was lucky, catching glimpses of these mysterious little creatures. Most crayfish are nocturnal…

You may submit up to three photos per person. While we can’t publish every submission, we carefully consider each one. When reviewing submissions, we look for: A variety of topics and…

Dozens of people contribute to creating each issue of Northern Woodlands. Here are a few of the people whose work is featured in the Summer magazine. {image2} Anthony D. Fredericks (Knots & Bolts,…

Sometimes botanizing can feel like a scavenger hunt. Find a successive set of clues, and you may be rewarded with something rare and beautiful. The clues in these scavenger hunts are the associates,…

Perched on a leaf, a robber fly (also called assassin fly) waits and watches for any movement in the air. The fly will abandon its perch to capture an insect as it flies past. Once it catches its…

Choosing the right trees to plant – in a yard, park, or other planned space – can be a daunting task. Options include native and non-native species, as well as cultivars bred for traits…

An estimated 4 million miles of vehicular roads run through the United States, and they fragment habitat, alter animal behavior, isolate populations of wildlife, and impose wildlife mortality that is…

One of the prevailing theories explaining why invasive species do so well in their new homes is that they leave behind most – or all – of their natural predators and pathogens, allowing…

Prior to colonization, wolves roamed the forests of what is now the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, hunting deer, moose, and caribou in packs. Catamounts stalked deer in these…

Grasslands are rare in the Northeast and are either transient or rely on regular disturbance to persist over time. In the heavily forested, pre-colonial landscape, beavers contributed to a limited,…

Imagine being around when lumbering mammoths, giant ground sloths, and fearsome saber-toothed cats roamed the North American continent. Imagine living when ancient Egyptians were constructing their…

In 2016, after retiring from her work as a veterinarian, Sabina Ernst and her family moved north to Jericho, Vermont. She and her husband, Justin Goggin, purchased a home and 10 acres within sight of…

My father spent our summer vacations woodcarving. He would set up in front of the cottage, right at the water’s edge, with a piece of wood cradled in his lap – or, if it were large, in the…