A common species of moss (Ceratodon purpureus) that lives in weedy and forested habitats has been found to use an unusual strategy to reproduce: it produces a chemical scent to recruit tiny…

“I’ll be darned; the little critter is sharper than I give him credit for,” writes now-retired Maine Game Warden John Ford of a young warden recruit. Together, with another warden…

It’s a guidebook, but hardly one to slip in the backpack or back pocket while hiking. With its glossy color photos, New England’s Natural Wonders: An Explorer’s Guide, by John S.…

Genevieve Jones was ahead of her time. Born in 1847 in Circleville, Ohio, into a tight-knit and nurturing family, she grew up observing the natural world with her father, Nelson, and her brother,…

We’re used to tracking spring’s progression through flowers (colt’s foot to purple trillium to columbine) or bird sightings (phoebes to sapsuckers to warblers). Spend time near a…

In summer, you always know when a striped skunk has been around. But in winter, these animals make themselves scarce, hunkering down to wait out the onslaught of ice and snow. Unlike most rodents and…

If you’re considering building a log structure, you’ll need to learn to scribe logs. In most cases, you’ll be scribing for a saddle notch, used to join two logs perpendicularly,…

Where the Wild Things Go: How Young Animals Disperse The Ballad of Amos Congdon A Gym Floor from Local Trees Old Logging Films, Squirrel Sap Taps, Chainsaw Sharpening, and much more

I can’t say for sure exactly how many of my childhood birthdays were celebrated on the ice of Lake Champlain, but a good number. That’s what happens when your father likes to ice fish,…

These snowballs weren’t made by the neighborhood kids. So who, or what, made them?

Ice fishing. The sky’s the color of grungy nickels. The wind is picking up. A bottle is produced from the inside pocket of a wool hunting coat to ward off the morning chill. I don’t…

Ask a group of foresters, tree farmers, or loggers how to promote American beech, and there will likely be a pause, a few grins, perhaps a chuckle or two, and then, the faint sound of crickets. That…

Crossbills are one of our most specialized groups of birds, feeding almost exclusively on conifer seeds.  These hardy, nomadic finches have evolved oddly-shaped bills that allow them to exploit…

Skeletal tissues of living animals are constantly being renewed and replaced as wear and tear creates stresses and microfractures. In order to know how much bone needs replacing, the skeleton must…

A new study led by a researcher at the U.S. Geological Survey suggests that there are early indications that soils are recovering – at least in red spruce forests – from the detrimental…

“Dead wood coming down.” “All clear, Bear.” “Thanks!” THUD. A dead oak branch crashes to the ground after a brief but thorough exchange between two arborists. One…

My friend John the blacksmith lent me an old book, A Natural History of Trees, by Donald Culross Peattie, which is both quaint and authoritative. Maybe it’s this combination of qualities that…

Winter is a hard time for wildlife. It brings deep cold, leafless terrain, and a shortage of food and water. Animals have few choices. Most songbirds abandon the region via a perilous migration to…

Blueberries? In the dead of winter? What plant is this?

We took a break from the pre-sugaring-season woods work last weekend and went to the annual Vermont Maple Sugarmakers’ Association (VMSMA) conference in Bellows Falls. It’s always a nice…