My early knowledge of sassafras brings to mind the legendary blind men describing an elephant. One man touches the tail, another the flank, another the tusk, and in the end, there’s no agreement…

There was a time when people who lived in rural areas and owned acreage made their living from the land. Subsistence living was neither an alternative lifestyle nor a quaint anachronism. It was what…

Connecticut forester, logger, and all-around woodskeeper Bob Haines abides by two principles: waste not, want not; and take the time to do it right. Haines has an aura of calm thoughtfulness. His…

In the spring of 1780, Jonathan Carpenter and his cousin set out from their home in southern Massachusetts to start a new life in Pomfret, Vermont. On May 13, they bought 100 acres of land, and two…

Honeybees have been domesticated for millennia, but they don’t always rely on the housing beekeepers provide them in exchange for harvesting their honey. Honeybees remain wild enough to survive…

In December, 2009, a few days after we published a story in our winter issue about wood industry woes and low mill prices, a logger in northern New England fired up his chainsaw and cut down a nice…

Photographer Jim Block photographed this blue-gray gnatcatcher in Lebanon, New Hampshire, as the bird was collecting tent caterpillar silk to use for her nest. While the gnatcatcher is a common bird,…

Shade tolerance is the relative capacity of tree species to compete for survival under shaded (which is to say, less-than-optimal) conditions. It is a tree trait, a functional adaptation that varies…

Out-of-control fungi that kill entire populations across a wide geographic area are usually viewed with utter horror: late blight on our garden tomatoes and potatoes and the white-nose syndrome that…

For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed feeding birds around my home. Hours have been spent with Peterson and Sibley close at hand and DeGraaf and Yamasaki’s New England Wildlife not far…

I grew up in a rural Vermont town, the son of a forester and a public school teacher. The Vermont part’s not important, but the rural part is. Stories around the Thanksgiving dinner table, then…

When I took on the responsibilities as executive director and publisher of The Center for Northern Woodlands Education (our formal moniker), the tangible parts of the organization were laid out on the…

The United Nations has coined 2010 to be The International Year of Biodiversity, so it’s only fitting that insects play a starring role in the pages of our summer issue. Insects, after all, are…

Our friend Bryan Pfeiffer shared this wonderful picture with us. What kind of bug is it? (Hint: you really have seen it before, especially at this time of year.)

As I’m writing this, a bill that would ban felt-soled waders is sitting on Vermont Governor Jim Douglas’s desk. If he signs it – and there’s no indication that he won’t…

Our abnormally early spring caught many by surprise. Take, for instance, Gary Pelton, who manages natural resources for the Army Corps of Engineers at flood control dams on the upper Connecticut…

Early May is a gut-wrenching time for those of us who love ash. The trees take their time leafing out, appearing stone-cold dead for weeks after the maples have flowered and put on their fine show.…

Have things seemed early to you this year? Early buds? Early peepers? Early trips to the drugstore to buy Claritin? Turns out your hunch is accurate, at least about the buds and the Claritin. Tom…

Many mammals, including opossums, red foxes, woodchucks, raccoons, skunks, and cottontail rabbits, use holes for den sites, sometimes simultaneously. This particular hole is only being used by one…

Spring wildflowers live hurried lives. They push out of the ground as soon as it begins to thaw, or soon afterwards, and then some of them disappear for the year – shrinking back into their…