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…

On several days throughout summer, a small flotilla of canoes and kayaks gathers on Tilton Pond in central Maine, on the hunt for an uninvited carnivorous plant that has taken hold: swollen…

In one year, Steve Wheeler put 35,000 miles on his new Chevy pickup. You might think Wheeler has a punishing commute, or perhaps family members scattered across the country. But he racked up most of…

For millennia, a group of prehistoric fishes have been swimming the rivers, lakes, and coastal waters of northeastern North America. These fish – some of them approaching a leviathan-esque 15…

At first look, Sherrie York’s linocut Tern of the Tide is reminiscent of Katsushika Hokusai’s iconic woodcut print The Great Wave (c. 1830). But unlike Hokusai’s piece, York includes…

All spring the tree frogs peeped in the dark, except those seeming lost in the grass by the wooden steps, their bodies like paper. I would let the dog out the back door at night and walk alone up the…

As I was prepping my fall invertebrate zoology course, a colleague mentioned that a local berry farmer had scraped mud dauber wasp nests off an outbuilding and suggested these would be of interest to…

Black raspberries, along with raspberries and blackberries, are among the berries that grow on brambles in the Northeast. Also called blackcaps, black raspberries are the most shade tolerant and…

Every forest tells a story of disturbance. The trees growing today reflect past hurricanes, abandoned farm fields, insect outbreaks, timber harvests, and even retreating glaciers. Forest succession is…

In case you missed the memo, the double-bit cruiser axe is back in vogue – and commanding respectable prices both from online vendors and at flea markets. So, just what is a…

When I was 10 years old, fishing an inlet off the river behind our family’s animal hospital, I caught a snapping turtle of considerable size. At that point in my angling life, I used a…

Biologist Barry Wicklow spotted this gray treefrog (Dryophytes versicolor) nestled against the greenish foliose lichen (Parmelia sulcata) on a tree during an aquatic ecology study. “These frogs…

The rhythm of producing a seasonal quarterly magazine often has us thinking a season or two – or more – ahead, and occasionally I momentarily lose track of what season it is “in real…

This past winter, my partner and I became first-time owners of forestland – 30 acres of mixed hardwoods dominated by sugar maple on a north-facing ridge in Vershire, Vermont. In the months…