Have you noticed the cheery evergreen sprig with pearly berries, currently perched over the doorways of Yankee traditionalists and those desperate to be kissed? That’s common mistletoe (Viscum…

Through the cold and snow of winter, some plants remain evergreen. Here are four we found recently in the woods. What are they?

Your November photos included split milkweed pods and wind-borne seeds, forest plants in fall color, spectacular autumn skies, and the arrival of ice and snow. In Stoddard, New Hampshire, Sue Lichty…

Michael Wojtech remembers being enthralled by the natural world from a young age. But it wasn’t until well into adulthood that he became fascinated, in particular, by trees. A decade after the…

Santa’s reindeer need fuel to pull that sleigh full of toys, and one of their primary winter foods is reindeer lichen, also known as reindeer moss. These are puffy, many-branched, pale green or…

Wooden boat builder and outdoorsman Kevin Martin discussed his new book Big Trees of Northern New England. He shared how he got involved with the Big Tree Program and how it relates to his boat…

Grinning and giggling, my one-year-old son ran across the living room, only to trip over his own feet and faceplant on the carpet. Sometimes, two legs can be too many to coordinate. How, then, do…

Axes and crosscut saws have survived in the American mind as evidence of our utilitarian relationship with forests. Most of the crosscut saws I see today are hung above mantles or serve as a canvas…

The world’s forests are an essential site of carbon sequestration and storage. As nations work to achieve “net zero” emissions in the coming decades, detailed estimates of how much…

Jackie Robidoux captured this great blue heron pair during a late winter snowstorm in Horse Hill Nature Preserve in Merrimack, New Hampshire. A photographer and wildlife rehabilitator, Robidoux has…

Soft drinks are the very model of industrially processed food. No one is surprised that they contain artificial colors, flavors, and sweeteners. But people might be surprised that root beer, one of…

On the New England breakfast table, two things reign supreme: coffee and maple syrup. No stack of pancakes would be complete without a cascade of Grade A and a hot cup of joe – but the…

This rust-colored log reminds us of Picasso’s 1910 work, “Girl with a Mandolin.” Assuming that the artist hasn’t reincarnated and begun traipsing around the woods of the Northeast, what…

Forest succession is the process of forest development, a series of stages through which forests progress, each stage following – succeeding – the last. It is tempting to think of…

Roger Damon served more than 48 years on the Mount Washington Volunteer Ski Patrol, but he didn’t know that we would be publishing a photo essay in this issue focused on the Mount Washington…

Many of us turn to the natural world to gain perspective, to learn, to find order and beauty in species and systems outside ourselves. While smartphones and social media have the potential to boost…

Last winter, I joined a friend on a walk at the Maine Forest and Logging Museum trails at Leonard’s Mills in Bradley, Maine. It was a perfect winter day, just cold enough to make our cheeks…

The Maine Forest and Logging Museum at Leonard’s Mills in Bradley, Maine, celebrates the woods craft and ways of life of colonists in Maine’s North Woods from the late 1700’s to the…

Imagine this, once upon a time in the Maine Woods.... On a bitter cold day in the winter of 1912 near Ross Lake in northern Maine, Si Walsh stepped up to the steering box at the front of the Lombard…

In 2018, Lindsay Ware decided to combine two of her interests – conservation biology and dog training – to found Science Dogs of New England. What started as an interest in helping hunters…