While pulling taps the other day I was marveling at some big trees in our sugarbush – the largest is the 50-incher you see here. To think that it started its life competing with thousands of…

This polypore shelf fungus was found on a large aspen tree in Vermont. But what’s that living inside?

One of the first steps to understanding animal behavior is to recognize that many species interact with the world through their noses. Beavers are a prime example. Once they establish a territory,…

Like many North Country residents, I typically light my woodstove in November, burning 16-inch logs until April. While carting an armload last winter, I noticed tunnels ranging from the size of a…

The marsh-marigold (Caltha palustris) (also known as cowslip and kingcup) is not a marigold at all; it is a member of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) that grows in shaded marshes, ditches, and…

When I was a child, I looked forward to spending summers with my grandmother at our family cottage on a Canadian lake. Every year, as soon as I was out of the car, we would run to the point to look…

"It’s a truss structure with purlins, as well,” said John Medose, looking up at the rafters of the Osmore Pond picnic shelter in Vermont’s Groton State Forest. “The purlins…

During my walks through the woods these days, I am often accompanied by curious children. These children, who are my own, notice many things that I often do not, and they are filled with questions.…

Dive-bombed by deer flies and jabbed by blackberry thorns, I was in a rush to cut down the beech trees that were blocking the growth of some young white pines, a preferred species for my hundred-acre…

This substance was recently discovered beneath a hemlock that displayed multiple holes and oozing sap. What is it?

Our farm bush shut down in early March, but the Hall bush is higher elevation and north facing and is still producing. We sold the sap we collected last week to a sugarmaker up the road, and when he…

Swarming stoneflies and salamanders! Your March photos revealed early harbingers of spring.  Maple sap flowed, woodcocks danced, and frost heaves popped up along the roads. What’s the…

Driving home from work the other day, I saw my first road-killed skunk of the year. And if this year is anything like the last few, it won’t be the last one I see this season. While April…

Man and Nature, published by George Perkins Marsh in 1864, has long been acknowledged as a monument of environmental literature. In 1931 Lewis Mumford memorably called it “the fountainhead of…

Contrary to popular notion, bears are not ravenous upon emerging from their dens in April. Instead, they remain uninterested in food for several days, though perhaps nibbling on the occasional green…

To enter the cave, we donned hard hats and descended a vertical drop with the aid of a rope. We crawled on our knees and bellies through a wet, narrow passageway, emerging into a large underground…

Back to the basics for this one: what in the woods is this?

In winter, camera trapping gets both harder and easier. The challenges include short days that limit the opportunity for color daytime photos, cold temperatures that can tax equipment, and a reduced…

I boiled for 14 hours the other day, and in between draws and fire-loadings read a column by David Brooks in The New York Times about marriage. He said that people tend to view the institution in…

My friend Gordon Russell sent me a letter recently describing a wildlife encounter. He had been following deer tracks along a stone wall when a movement caught his attention. “Almost before its…