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April: Week Four

This week in the woods, one of our most exquisite spring ephemeral wildflowers is starting to bloom. Bloodroot — a member of the poppy family that gets its name from the red juice in its roots…

Headwater Streams Are Vital Sources of Clean Water

For nearly 15 years, I have been exploring the headwaters of a river near my home. The entire drainage area, encompassing all the streams, rainfall, and snowmelt that pass into a single river, is…

Mystery Mounds

We found this mound, and four others just like it – each measuring approximately 2 to 3 inches wide, and each spaced at least a foot from the others – on a sandy hill in Thetford, Vermont. What…

Seeking Mindfulness in the Outdoors with Ryan Heck

Ryan Heck started college as an environmental sciences major, but an elective class shifted his focus toward social work and human services. As someone who turns to the natural world to find balance…

March 2024

Your March photos showed the early glimmerings of spring, including returning common merganser pairs, worm-hunting American woodcock, and the first brave amphibians returning to vernal pools. This…

Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns: Stalkers of the Shallows

If you take to the water this spring, there’s a good chance you’ll spot a great blue heron, New England’s most recognizable large wading bird. But you might also see one of several…

April: Week Three

Most weeks, this blog covers relatively easy-to-see species. This week, we’re making an exception, for a happy reason: this past week, a team of volunteers documented four-toed salamanders…

A Guide to Forest Carbon in the Northeast

In the spring of 2024 Northern Woodlands worked with Charlie Levesque and Alexandra Kosiba to publish A Guide to Forest Carbon in the Northeast. The guide includes the four forest carbon articles that…

A Guide to Forest Carbon in the Northeast $7.00

In spring 2024, Northern Woodlands worked with Charlie Levesque and Alexandra Kosiba to publish A Guide to Forest Carbon in the Northeast. The guide includes the four forest carbon articles that…

The Tale of a Lake Tsunami

The sharpest contrast between rivers and lakes is in water movement. While rivers flow inexorably downhill, lake water movement is more subtle. Anyone who has weathered a storm on a lake, however, can…

April: Week Two

This week in the woods, one of our most exciting finds was, by design, not very exciting to look at. This is a well-hidden active barred owl nest, a status we realized a few seconds after taking this…

An Astronomical Double-Header

April 2024 presents an opportunity to experience two rare and spectacular astronomical sightings in northern New England. A total solar eclipse will occur for the first time in our region since 1932,…

Solving the Mysteries of Honey Bees with Thomas Seeley

Thomas Seeley is a professor of biology in Cornell University’s Department of Neurology and Behavior and the author of Piping Hot Bees & Boisterous Buzz-Runners: 20 Mysteries of Honey Bee…

Emerging Mystery

A reader in central Vermont found this black, bumpy structure, about 5 inches long, nestled in patch of forest floor where snow had recently receded. Mutant pinecone? Sleeping porcupine? What is this?

Pileated Woodpecker Earrings $64.00

These Pileated Woodpecker Earrings are a tribute to an iconic bird that graces our forests. They are handcrafted out of sterling silver and jeweler’s brass and are carefully hand-colored and…

Loon Earrings $68.00

These earrings are a beautiful reminder of the magic of loons. They are handcrafted from lacquered jeweler’s brass and sterling silver, and carefully hand painted and sealed. They measure…

April: Week One

This week in the woods, we’re at a seasonal tipping point, when there’s still snow blanketing many areas, but on sunny, south-facing slopes, the first wildflowers are blooming. We found…

The Fascinating Adaptations of Frogs

Frogs have hopped about Earth since before the time of the dinosaurs, and it shows. Celebrated for their amphibious lifestyle and cacophonous choruses, the long arc of frog evolution has yielded other…

Common Native Bees of the Eastern United States $9.95

Bees are beloved garden visitors and are essential to a healthy ecosystem. We welcome their arrival and celebrate their vital work as pollinators, supporting the growth of flowers, plants, and trees.…

Total Solar Eclipse Talk

When: March 28th 2024
Where: at The Lyme School

Join us for a conversation with physics professor Jon Saken about the upcoming Total Solar Eclipse that will take place on April 8th. Where and how to observe the eclipse How Eclipses Work Photography…