Let’s begin with the original lower tree, which appears to be one of several similar-looking dwarf cultivars of white spruce. These are very common in the nursery trade, prized for their slow…

Approximately eight years ago, my dogs, husband, and I held a meeting. By unanimous showing of hands and paws, we agreed it was time to end our pattern of bouncing around cities and find somewhere…

Bryan Nash Gill, Leader, 2011 30.5" x 21.5", relief print on Okawara paper We often come to understand things by isolating them. We pluck something from its environment, look at it under the…

This fibrous little thing has the same exfoliating capabilities of your favorite loofah hanging in your shower. But what exactly is it, and where the heck did it come from?

Even if you’re not a deer hunter, chances are you’ve heard of “the rut” – slang for the white-tailed deer’s mating season. This event is going on right now, as is…

Hi all - So things are good up in the North Woods. We hung two bucks the first weekend, courtesy of my brothers, Trevor and Brendan. The weather has been less than perfect for hunting, so we are…

Environmentally conscious Americans have been partaking, for some time now, in long, spirited, and often muddied discussions about energy. Whether it’s wind, hydro, wood, nuclear, natural gas,…

One thing that still amazes me about living and working in Maine is the amount of ecological diversity one can find in a fairly small area. The other day, I came across a black spruce stand in the…

On a December morning, a decapitated buck, one leg hacked off, showed up in a gully near my home. Once I deciphered what was bleeding in the tawny leaves, I begged my neighbor with a backhoe to do…

It's one of the pleasures of fall: walking in the woods on a warm day, scuffing my feet through a deep layer of newly fallen leaves. Looking down, I notice the gold coins of aspen leaves against…

Mark Baker’s friends call him Birdman, and it’s easy to see why. There’s the alertness in his dark eyes, his baseball cap with a bald eagle embroidered on its crown, and the fact…

Many enjoy New England’s fall foliage for its aesthetics alone, and with good reason: it’s a spectacle that draws visitors from around the world. However, the unique progression of each…

The rain and winds of Sandy couldn’t keep these birds away from a feeder in central Vermont. Identify all three by their full common names.

I took a walk before the rain from Sandy started early Monday morning. You could feel the low pressure and see an unusual pallor in the sky even in southern Vermont. One year and change past Irene, I…

Photographer Chris Mazzarella loves to capture the moment of nature in his photography, and the dispersal of cattail paracute seeds offered him the perfect opportunity to do this. "I took this photo…

If you’ve seen a well-developed clinker polypore (Inonotus obliquus) protruding from a tree, there’s a good chance that you remember it. This fungus causes large, black, cinder-like…

We milled a bunch of beautiful-looking white pine logs the other day and found that many boards had red rot in them. Can you tell me more about red rot? Red rot is the local name for a common wood…

We know that squirrels make the most of fall's plenty by hoarding nuts for the winter, but the fact that birds also store, or cache, food goes largely unappreciated. Through clever observation…

There were a series of public meetings this week in Vermont concerning a new industry-wide maple syrup classification system that will affect the whole Northeast. As it stands, each state has a…

Guess which animal sports these little feet.