This week in the woods, snowmelt revealed what has remained green all winter: wall scalewort reaching toward the blue sky from around tree bases, Christmas ferns flattened against the leaf litter, and…

Liz Thompson is an ecologist and conservationist currently based in Vermont. Thompson worked to inventory and conserve land with The Nature Conservancy and Vermont Land Trust for most of her career…

In early March, birds that have been gone all winter begin appearing at my feeder. One of the earliest of these spring migrants is a brown-backed sparrow with a white breast coarsely streaked with…

While birds were still the stars of February’s submissions, small mammals were beginning to show their faces, a welcome hint that the season is quietly turning. A stunning fox paused just long…

Fishers (Pekania pennanti) have a reputation as the northern forests’ ultimate misanthropes. These mesocarnivores are so territorial that within six to eight months after their birth, young…

Named for the string of lakes where the Connecticut River begins its 400-mile flow from northern New Hampshire, the Connecticut Lakes Headwaters region has long been prized for its thick stands of…

Many of us associate bees with gardens or fields of wildflowers and are familiar with the common eastern and golden northern bumble bees we see there. However, forests also provide critical habitat…

At the height of May’s morel season, I approach a standing dead elm, its loosened gray bark peeling back like partially husked corn. My morel eyes are a point of pride, and somehow it feels like…

One floor above the taxidermied polar bears and crocodiles, in an annex adjacent to the eclectic collection of geological wonders and historical artifacts from faraway places, the Fairbanks…