Members of the board of directors and the staff of The Center for Northern Woodlands Education met in western Massachusetts this July for a planning retreat focused on change. We discussed ways to…

Biomass Debate Heats Up Native Invasives on Your Woodlot Habitat for Woodcock Making a Windsor Chair Why Paper Birch is White Poisonous Mushrooms, and much more

Flyfishing from a canoe in a small headwater pond at the tippity-top of the Connecticut River is usually a quiet experience. That’s why the sudden splash caused me to turn my head just in time…

Like a forest fire that appears to be contained before exploding into an inferno, biomass has gone from being a topic of interest primarily to foresters and energy experts to one that can draw…

It’s late afternoon on a dog day of summer, and you’ve just finished a joyful canoe ride along the banks of a big pond shaded by hills and trees. Now it’s time to pull the Old Town…

You'll need to tell us what it is to win, but feel free to also include your Rorschachian interpretations.

At this time of year, honeybees fly in and out of their hive in such numbers that on a sunny day there’s danger of a log jam at the entrance, as some bees scramble to get out to forage and…

Darting through the air while twittering in constant conversation, chimney swifts are a cheering presence over many cities and towns. True to their name, which comes from the Old English swifan…

“Rats with wings,” says Marsha, a student in my field ornithology class, when I point to a pigeon flying overhead. “Pigeons are very interesting birds,” I respond, trying to…

I spent part of yesterday on my belly at the base of a tree with a knife and a length of wire in my hand. I was trying to kill something. The tree was an apple, a Cox’s Orange Pippin to be…

This animal skull was found partially buried in a Vermont hardwood stand. What kind of animal is it?

There’s an artificial quality to a red pine plantation that you don’t find elsewhere in Vermont and New Hampshire, a vibe that stems from the fact that all the trees were put there, by…

People most often climb New England’s high mountains seeking grand views from their treeless summits. But even on the cloudiest days, when the big views are obscured, there are exquisite sights…

Dartmouth College Professor Richard Holmes has been counting caterpillars at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest for more than 20 years. He was mostly interested in understanding the abundance of…

After helping to decipher the genome of the poplar tree in 2006 and finding it had 45,000 different genes, University of Toronto Professor Malcolm Campbell turned to the next logical question: What do…

The push for new wind power facilities across the country is driving research to understand the various ecological impacts wind turbines may have. One such study may play a role in the siting of new…

One day in the next few weeks, you may be walking through a field on a sunny day. You may see a tiny blue butterfly, with wings the size of thumbnails, flitting over the meadowsweet. If you know your…

Our proofreader discovered this strange object in a spruce tree near her home. What in the woods is it?

Editor’s Note: Walter Medwid, the Executive Director of Northern Woodlands, is on blog duty this week. Before joining the team at Northern Woodlands, I served as Executive Director at NorthWoods…

There has been a lot of bad buzz about bee populations lately, mostly about the decline of European honeybees that are used across North America to help pollinate everything from California almonds to…