A regular chore of mine is to dispose of the mice and moles trapped in our home. I place them on a 4 x 5-foot patch of dirt and rock – which I have named the grave site – beside my…
Outdoor Palette: Kate Emlen
“Through imagery that shifts between disintegration and integration, I intend to communicate the nature of memory while summoning up the place I most love.” —KATE EMLEN Kate…
Tricks of the Trade: Tractor Logging 101
Small, maneuverable four-wheel-drive tractors create an opportunity for woodlot owners to do more of their own forest management work. Since these types of tractors are primarily designed for…
Mosquitoes: Life Under Tension
A good friend was in touch; her son was enduring allergic reactions to mosquitoes and, like any good parent, she sought solutions. I told her that the most practical, non-toxic way to deal with the…
Christmas in July
Deep in a Vermont forest, we discovered these gift-wrapped tips of Christmas ferns, and only Christmas ferns, among other nearby growing fern species. Who did it?
What Will My Woods Look Like?
When she was young, Pam Wells aspired to be a forester. It was the late 1970s, and as she now wryly recalls, “I was not encouraged, as a woman.” So she directed her smarts and considerable…
Food Before Fledging
These photos were taken hours before a nest of yellow-bellied sapsuckers fledged. They were recorded 40 feet up in the canopy with a Canon full frame camera strapped to the top of a tree, using a…
The Brook Floater Mussel
Freshwater mussels are not exactly charismatic. They don’t flit gracefully about like a Karner blue butterfly, or munch on clover like a cottontail. They aren’t known for their sweet songs…
Swamped With Carbon
Biodiversity has long been known to be a significant factor in the amount of carbon stored in forests. Forests with many different species of trees store more carbon than forests consisting of fewer…
Buzzing About Mushroom Medicine
Researchers in Washington have discovered that a mushroom extract may be an effective treatment for reducing levels of at least two viruses implicated in the collapse of honey bee colonies around the…
Flight of the Luna Moth
On early summer nights I sometimes see large, pale green moths with long, twisted tails fluttering near our porch light. Later, I often find them dead on the ground. These beautiful moths are luna…
On the Hood
This scene was seen the morning after a rain storm. What are the orange items on the hood of this vehicle? (Fun tiebreaker: guess the vehicle make and model!)
June 2019
Leaping lady’s slippers! In June, a favorite photo subject was early summer wildflowers. Baby moose and fisher kits followed their mothers, a young fawn rested in the tall grass, and heron…
A Sliver of Hope Regarding Emerald Ash Borer
I’ve been an editor here for 11 years, and one of the most challenging parts of the job is figuring out how to tell stories about scientific research. There’s a lot of good and interesting…
Lovely Lupines
Lupine is one of the most spectacular flowers of early summer, painting long stretches of roadside with shades of purple and blue. Thanks to this tall, showy plant, even a stop-and-go drive to…
You Can’t Be a Macho Man
Larry "Tweeter" Felion is the old school. His family couldn't afford high school tuition, so he went to work logging with his father after the eighth grade. He's now 81 and is still logging,…
How to Eat a Thistle? Very Carefully
There are around a dozen wild plants in the Northeast known as thistles, and while most belong to several related genera, they vary greatly. Some are tall; some are short. Most have purple flowers,…
Tracking Tips: American Woodcock
Paul, my German shepherd, saw her before I did. He pointed, and I followed his gaze to a hen woodcock conspicuously flapping on the ground. She was feigning injury and no doubt trying to lure us away…
The Humble Hornpout
Consider for a second a fish that can live in turbid, low-oxygen water. Can breathe through its skin. Eats almost anything. Has a wickedly effective defense mechanism. And is a really focused parent.…
Spittle Bugs
If you've been out in a field recently, chances are you've seen spittle bugs' frothy homes. But have you ever peeked beneath the bubbles? These photos offer a macro view of the little…