We humans tend to cringe at winter temperatures. We put on extra layers, crank up the thermostat, and wait impatiently for the tell-tale drip of spring thaw. However, there are plenty of tiny…

Many years ago, I lived in San José, California where the weather forecast went something like this: Sunny for three weeks, one day of rain, followed by many more weeks of sun. There was a…

Russ Cohen, rivers advocate with the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game, took this photo in September in southern Vermont. It seems appropriately colorful and festive for this time of year, so…

Thanks to everyone at Northern Woodlands for the warm welcome I’ve received as the magazine’s new assistant editor. It’s a personal and professional pleasure to be working on a…

In the frosty, pre-dawn darkness, three friends and I pulled off on a lonely stretch of road in Windham County, Vermont. The aging Subaru had bumped and heaved over the frozen ruts. We emerged,…

One of my family’s cherished Christmas traditions, back at our farm in Virginia, is to search out mistletoe balls growing high in the hedgerows. Then we take out a 20-gauge shotgun and blast…

Deep in the winter-dark woods, beneath the roots of a fallen tree, a mother black bear hibernates with her two yearling cubs. In the spring, they will wake up in a near starvation condition, their…

Environmental scientist Robert Cabin pointed out recently in a story that ran in Earth Island Journal that political liberals in general, and environmentalists in particular, can put an inordinate…

What’s so special about this maple log?

There’s probably no better example of a love/hate relationship than the one between the forest landowner and her deer. (At least from a human perspective – deer seem to regard us with a…

My favorite season tends to be whatever comes next, which means, for now, deep winter. With our storm windows installed and four tons of wood pellets put up, I'm feeling smug as the ant in…

Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! vile thing, let loose, Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent! -William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream The aroma of wood smoke lingers as you take…

The roar of a chainsaw breaks the stillness of the cold winter morning. I wade through knee-deep snow to retrieve a newly fallen balsam fir. With sappy gloves, I drag the fir pole to a fresh bundle of…

This picture was taken by board member Richard Carbonetti. Yup, it was taken in the woods. What is it?

There are three weekends of rifle season in Vermont, and as such the season unfolds in acts, like a play. We opened the first act on Friday night, the boys arriving in camp at various times…

In November, as the last colors of autumn are fading, the stark outlines of tree branches are revealed. During this time you might be lucky enough to see an occasional dark mass, looking from a…

Thomas Crotty, a Massachusetts native, moved to Maine in 1964, drawn by the power and beauty of its coastal landscape. At the solo retrospective of his work at the Portland Museum of Art, then…

Of all the silvicultural techniques available to forest owners, perhaps no method is more underused than coppicing. Coppicing is a reproduction method where a tree is cut back periodically to…

I know many of you reading this don’t hunt. But even so, I’ll bet you’ve heard the one where the hunter bags his first buck. How the opportunity came as a surprise after he’d…

A postcard arrived in the mail last week, encouraging me to “clean up” or “sell out” my woodlot. There were people in my area waiting to assist me! I should act now, before my…