I just finished a fabulous book by David Brooks called The Road to Character, in which he explores our transition from a culture that valued humility and trusted institutions to an individualistic…

An old wagon road begins in our apple orchard, drops down into the woods, and parallels our field. Like many old roads, it’s bordered by stonewalls and old sugar maples, and it’s a common…

Before Al Jordan was the preeminent bird carver in the Northeast; before his carvings were worth thousands of dollars and he’d won top prizes at the most prestigious wildlife art exhibits, there…

The alarm went off at 1 a.m. I got up, dressed, and sleepily attempted to eat some breakfast. My stomach protested, as this was not a normal time to be eating. Hitting the road, I noticed there were…

Community Forests by Joe Rankin; The Resilient Bobcat by John A. Litvaitis; The Nona Belle: Building a Dory With Local Wood by Charles W. Johnson; Watched Over by Great Horned Owls by Brendan Galvin;…

An email chirped in my inbox; “Check out the cute face on this insect we found.” I opened the attachment (yes, from a reliable source). My colleague Professor Peter Hope had taken a…

A few autumns ago, one of the frequent visitors to our gone-wild apple orchard was a lopsided, one-point buck. We often see does and young, antlerless deer in the field, and by the end of each fall…

When you get a little bigger your mom and I are going to introduce you to the maples in the sugarwoods. You should know them because they can teach you patience. We’ll take you to Ginny’s…

A game camera captured this animal shape on a beaver dam in late January. What animal is it?

Many of your January photos were deer related, including an image of a cached deer carcass – probably a bobcat’s leftovers. A red fox posed for a game camera in Hermon, Maine, and muskrats…

Snowy owls hail from the frozen tundra of the far north. However, during the coldest months of the year, they’ll often fly south in search of food. During the extremely cold winter of 2013-14, I…

It has been more than 80 years since a tree species in the Northeast has been added to the list of those meeting construction industry standards, but that list has just grown by one. Lumber milled…

Most of the 14,000-plus dams that dot New England’s rivers and streams – almost all built more than a century ago – once provided power to nearby mills. While these mills no longer…

It’s winter. Hardwood trees are bare. But that doesn’t mean the woods are bereft of interest. Winter, when sunlight slants in, is the time when bark comes into its own. Pause to take in…

If the river otter is the most aquatic member of the mustelid family, and weasels represent the terrestrial branch of the clan, the American mink is the adept middle child, taking advantage of its…

Christina Erickson came upon masses of these tiny black creatures in the woods in Charlotte, Vermont, just after Thanksgiving. What are they?

So a few years back there was a story making the rounds about some scientists who were using Calvin Klein’s Obsession for Men cologne to lure jaguars into camera traps. Media outlets reported…

In looking for interesting content for Northern Woodlands’ biweekly e-newsletter, I'm constantly scanning the Google news feed for articles related to forests and forestry. Not surprisingly,…

Halfway up the mountain, along a trace of a road long gone back to woods, there was a village that is no longer there. More than a century ago, some two dozen rough-hewn homesteads were nestled into…

“Jay, jay, jay!”  Every morning last winter I awoke to the loud cries of a flock of 17 blue jays dancing around my feeder. They gorged on sunflower seeds and suet, scaring away…