Russian olive, Norway maple, Japanese honeysuckle – in terms of flora alone, the Northeast is inundated by exotic invasive guests that just won’t go home. But what about people in Russia,…

These prices are for #1 hardwood logs, at least 8 feet long, with three clear faces and a minimum 12-inch top diameter. In the timber world, this is a log of average quality, not a prime sawlog and…

For the last 45 or so years, I have had to travel to be in the company of a tuliptree, as this species thrives only in more southern climes – from southern New England south to central Florida…

Wily, non-native plants that outperform native species and proceed to carpet the forest and field are all too familiar nowadays. Most of us have seen understories of European buckthorn or Eurasian…

Not that long ago, in the days before chainsaws, work in the woods was done with an axe and a crosscut saw. While this era is only 50 years behind us, crosscut saws are now viewed by most as a relic…

Early September is not yet luminous with brilliant foliage, and there’s no reliable tracking snow. Yet for deer hunters and naturalists alike, there’s a palpable excitement in the air;…

When they arrive each spring, displaying color and song and romance, birds are faithful to their given names. Chestnut-sided warblers have chestnut sides. Indigo buntings are indigo. And scarlet…

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, service foresters working for the state or for cooperative extension marked a lot of timber sales for landowners. I was one of those foresters in New York, and I thought…

Sherman Hollow, where I live, was undoubtedly originally made habitable to humans by beavers. The road now cuts through this valley and along the drainage that runs between steep hills. A series of…

When Richard Winter builds a coffin, he needs a few basic measurements – the occupant’s height, width, and weight – but he also wants to know the person’s name. The process of…

Managing the Legacy Forests at a Birthplace of Conservation At first glance, the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock, Vermont, seems like your typical national historic…

Each autumn, deciduous leaves transform the northern forest into a cheerful collage of oranges, reds, yellows, purples, and greens. Yet beneath this fleeting canopy grow longer-lasting and subtler…

Indicator plants are peculiar to a certain place. Though they aren’t necessarily rare, they don’t grow just anywhere. They tolerate only a narrow range of growing conditions, so their…

On a cold and windy Saturday last January, hundreds of people filtered into the cafeteria of Keene High School in southwestern New Hampshire to attend the Monadnock Land Summit. The old guard of New…

I’ve cut a lot of trees since I first picked up a chainsaw 30 years ago. Besides cutting firewood every year, I cleared the site for our road and house when we first moved here. I enjoy the work…

Colorful Dyes from the Forest Silviculture in Vermont’s National Park Bucks and Bulls in Velvet The Beaver’s Felling Techniques Invasive Insects, Plants with a Message, Growing Big Trees,…

Starting with my first magazine subscription (Sports Illustrated, as a 12-year-old) and through many others, including Fly Rod & Reel, Woodwork, and The New Yorker, I have always loved magazines.…

In honor of their 100-year anniversary, the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation (FP&R) recently held a youth writing contest, where school-aged children were asked to imagine, in…

These oddities are draped across a cliff face. What in the woods is this?

A white ash seems nearly invincible. It rises in our forests straight and sturdy, with dense wood and a hearty symmetrical crown. Ash trees become tool handles, baseball bats and, back in the day,…