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What Are Mycorrhizal Fungi and What Role Do They Have in the Forest?

Fungi are a fundamental part of forest ecosystems. They break down dead plant material, releasing nutrients for other organisms to use, and they help plants access water and nutrients needed for…

Foraging for Fashion

While studying for a master’s degree in architecture at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Aleksandra “Sasha” Azbel discovered a new love: textiles. She was intrigued by the…

1,000 Words

Lenny Gorski first noticed piebald deer – two of them – while searching for bucks to photograph more than three decades ago. “A piebald deer will have white mixed into its coat, and…

Editor’s Note

The nature of a quarterly magazine timed to publish with the change of seasons means that I’m writing my column for this Autumn issue during the hottest, muggiest days of summer. The green…

Bumble Bees: Iconic and Essential

Bumble bees are culturally iconic and essential to our environment. While unwittingly inspiring classical music, soft toys, and jewelry, bumble bees pollinate flowers both obscure and important to…

Reservoir

Today, four days from the end of October, I plan to walk the edge of a small creek. As the raven flies, it’s 15 miles east of our house, two ridges into the Ridge and Valley, yet I’ve…

From the Center

About a year ago, I took over Northern Woodlands’ This Week in the Woods blog, which my predecessor and skilled observer Elise Tillinghast began during the pandemic and wrote for four years.…

August: Week Four

This week in the woods, a red eft ventured out of the leaf litter in defiance of the dry conditions and flaunted its orange skin, more luminous even than the impending fall foliage. You might see this…

Native Plants at Work

Native Plants at Work: Attracting Summer Visitors

The garden is attracting so much life! Each day brings new or familiar visitors – monarchs drifting among the flowers, hummingbirds flashing past, bees and wasps at work, and tree frogs tucked…

Issue 126: Autumn 2025 $12.00

This issue features: Game of Logging Maine Forest Bioproducts Foraging for Fashion Alpine Stewardship, and much more! Order a copy of this issue or visit Subscription Services to subscribe to our…

Wood Lit

Nature Journal

Seasonal Notes

Fire Ecology with Mike Gallagher

Mike Gallagher is a research ecologist and the lead scientist at the U.S. Forest Service’s Silas Little Experimental Forest in the New Jersey pine barrens. Mike has turned his lifelong interest…

Anyone Home?

Reader Will Durkin came across this nest in a farm field in Franklin County, Vermont. What animal created it?

Autumn 2025

Turtlehead Tests Bumblebees’ Mettle

Among the blooming perennials of late summer is one that guards its secrets closely. The lockbox blossoms of white turtlehead (Chelone glabra), a native plant in the plantain family, are an ideal…