After slight hiccups from high heat and a broken-down truck, we’re making swift progress in our native plant pollinator garden construction. We’ve removed the topsoil, installed paths, and…

Matthew Nola’s first exposure to the outdoors was on the beaches of Long Island, New York, where he spent his earliest years. When his family moved to Starksboro, Vermont, however, he fell in…

We found this glimmering beastie perched on a (non-native) lupine seed pod near a pond in Orford, New Hampshire. What is it?

Behind my garden of native plants, one scrappy perennial holds its own among the tangle of goldenrod stalks and blackberry brambles. Its swaying flowerheads buzz with a throng of insects: golden…

This week in the woods, we’ve been seeing northern pearly-eyes fluttering up from the ferns along long woods trails. These forest butterflies – beautifully marked with black spots and…

This Week in the Woods, the American redstart chicks we featured last week have all successfully fledged. Here’s the last fledgling to go, a few minutes before the young bird hopped out of the…

A long time ago, not so far away, freshwater plants partnered with fungi and moved onto land from lake and river shores. Since that time, land plants have evolved many sophisticated strategies for…

Your June photos included an abundance of interesting invertebrates, birds, and plants. This month’s shiny beetle award has two winners: in Monroe, New Hampshire, Audrey DiMatties discovered a…

As the markets and utilization forester for Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, Sean Mahoney’s professional duties range from supporting community wood banks to helping…

Lyme, NH – The Center for Northern Woodlands Education (CNWE) has named Jackson Saul as Executive Director of the environmental nonprofit. CNWE is best known as the publisher of Northern…

Jackson Saul, who goes by Jack, is a graduate of Williams College and holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Alabama. He grew up working on his family’s tree…

Reader Ken Hatch found this small, green, spiky thing on a leaf near the White River in central Vermont. What is it?

This week in the woods, we didn’t have to venture far for a great nature photography opportunity. We found an American redstart nest in a stand of yard lilacs and set up a remote (no flash or…

If you’re looking for warblers on a walk in the summer woods, your first instinct might be to look toward the canopy. But two closely related warbler species forgo those elevated environs for…

This week in the woods, we’ve reached summer’s second act. Spring blooming plants are producing seeds and fruits, and suddenly, butterflies seem to be everywhere. Monarchs aren’t the…

Road crews across the United States use more than 24 million tons of road salt (sodium chloride) to melt ice and snow each year – triple the volume used in 1975. Road salt is cost-effective and…

A staff member found a mass of these bulbous pink formations on the stems and leaves of a wild grape vine in Thetford, Vermont. What are they, what makes them, and why?

Daniel Mason is a physician, author, and assistant professor of psychiatry at Stanford University. His most recent book, North Woods (2023), is a work of historical fiction that tells the story of a…

This week in the woods, the torrential rains over the past few days have been a hardship for nesting birds, threatening both ground nests and, to a lesser degree, nests in trees. We found three vireo…

Black birds with a greenish sheen and brown heads sometimes visit my yard during spring migration. These are male brown-headed cowbirds, and they often arrive in mixed flocks of red-winged blackbirds…