As autumn nears, I find myself returning to botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer’s line in Gathering Moss where she describes ecological succession as “a tale of the interwoven fates of mosses,…

This week in the woods, we try to follow the chaotic, speedy flights of sulphur butterflies over fields and along woodland edges. Difficult to chase down, highly variable, and often nearly…

The staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) is a ubiquitous shrub of human-impacted northeastern habitats. Sumac stands occur along most highways and county roads, as well as in disturbed areas and abandoned…

Discover how thoughtful stewardship can transform a working forest into a thriving, wildlife-friendly ecosystem. Consulting forester Donn Downey will lead a walking tour of his Thetford, Vermont,…

This week in the woods, a paw print, claw marks, and scat all come from black bears, which enter a period of increased feeding activity called hyperphagia in the fall. We are most likely to see them…

Paul Pouliot is the Sag8mo, or the principal male speaker, for the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook-Abenaki People, headquartered in Alton, New Hampshire. His wife and research partner Denise Pouliot is…

This lipstick-looking form was found in Errol, New Hampshire. What is it?

Our August Reader Photo Gallery brims with the vibrancy of late summer, while offering the first glimpses of the season ahead. In Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, Karen Dapp’s photo of…

When I imagine scientists discovering new animals, I picture them traveling to far-off jungles or remote mountaintops – not investigating local roadsides, utility cuts, or other edge spaces of…

This week in the woods, along the edge of a protected forest in West Fairlee, Vermont, thin-leaved sunflowers continued their long, radiant bloom. While also known as the ten-petal sunflower and…

A yellowthroat warbler sang, “witchety, witchety, witch,” as I carefully made my way through the tangle of an alder swamp one afternoon not long ago. I looked about, hoping to catch a…

“A personal connection with the environment is at the heart of my work, which is first and foremost a celebration of the natural world.” – Ava Roth Ava Roth is a Toronto-based…

Maine’s forests, stretching across 89 percent of the state, have long been the backbone of its economy, sustaining generations of loggers, truckers, and mill workers. Over the course of four…

Dozens of people contribute to creating each issue of Northern Woodlands. Here are a few of the people whose work is featured in the Autumn magazine. {image2} Loren Merrill (Discoveries, page 68, and…

To run, your chainsaw needs air, fuel, spark, and compression in the cylinder. If any of those components are missing, your chainsaw won’t work – or at least won’t run and cut…

Two miles down the trail that’s still drunk from coal dust though the rails screamed their way to scrap half a century since, we quit walking calm, start skewing wild as if those old ghost…

Since the late 19th century, the six-million-acre Adirondack Park – as big as Vermont, bigger than Yellowstone, Glacier, Everglades, and Grand Canyon national parks combined – has defined…

My neighbor Judy Smith, who is a geologist, told me one afternoon that the shale cliffs we looked up at from her cottage porch, along the north branch of the Susquehanna River, are Devonian rocks,…

When John Adler, at the age of 23, first heard Swedish logger Soren Eriksson talk about new techniques for harvesting trees safely and efficiently, he saw an opportunity. Adler had been cutting wood…

Shagbark hickory (Carya ovata) trees are a familiar sight along rural roads and field edges over much of the Northeast. They are recognizable year-round by their telltale bark, with pieces peeling off…