If we treated municipal waste like the forest products industry treats wood waste, we could probably eliminate landfills – everything would be sold, turned into energy, or reused. Ok, maybe…

It’s just a tiny black dot moving very, very slowly. But if you’re interested in astronomy, this is an exciting dot. It is Mercury, the smallest planet in our solar system, passing between…

Great early spring bird food…what are they?

If you’re new to forest management, it might be tempting to think that forestry is a pretty simple affair. There’s a book out there that tells you what a good stocking level is. You can…

I recently visited my family’s riverside farm in Virginia, where we’re a few years ahead of the Northeast in terms of eagle and osprey recovery from DDT (the “Silent Spring”…

"Boy, he's really red! I don't think I've ever seen them that red before," my wife said admiringly of a male purple finch crunching sunflower seeds at the feeder. He was a nice burgundy.…

It was the woods that brought me to Vermont. More precisely, it was the footpath through its woods – the Long Trail. Its moniker “A Footpath in the Wilderness” was part of the…

Some years sugaring season goes by the book, which is to stay things starts cold, and over the course of four to six weeks spring arrives gradually and consistently. In such a scenario, the syrup…

While pulling taps the other day I was marveling at some big trees in our sugarbush – the largest is the 50-incher you see here. To think that it started its life competing with thousands of…

This polypore shelf fungus was found on a large aspen tree in Vermont. But what’s that living inside?

One of the first steps to understanding animal behavior is to recognize that many species interact with the world through their noses. Beavers are a prime example. Once they establish a territory,…

Like many North Country residents, I typically light my woodstove in November, burning 16-inch logs until April. While carting an armload last winter, I noticed tunnels ranging from the size of a…

The marsh-marigold (Caltha palustris) (also known as cowslip and kingcup) is not a marigold at all; it is a member of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) that grows in shaded marshes, ditches, and…

When I was a child, I looked forward to spending summers with my grandmother at our family cottage on a Canadian lake. Every year, as soon as I was out of the car, we would run to the point to look…

"It’s a truss structure with purlins, as well,” said John Medose, looking up at the rafters of the Osmore Pond picnic shelter in Vermont’s Groton State Forest. “The purlins…

During my walks through the woods these days, I am often accompanied by curious children. These children, who are my own, notice many things that I often do not, and they are filled with questions.…

Dive-bombed by deer flies and jabbed by blackberry thorns, I was in a rush to cut down the beech trees that were blocking the growth of some young white pines, a preferred species for my hundred-acre…

This substance was recently discovered beneath a hemlock that displayed multiple holes and oozing sap. What is it?

Our farm bush shut down in early March, but the Hall bush is higher elevation and north facing and is still producing. We sold the sap we collected last week to a sugarmaker up the road, and when he…

Swarming stoneflies and salamanders! Your March photos revealed early harbingers of spring.  Maple sap flowed, woodcocks danced, and frost heaves popped up along the roads. What’s the…