I ended my last update with an examination of the abnormally warm February weather we had, and what it meant for production. It subsequently got cold and snowy – the picture here shows…

As a longtime resident of Sugar Hill, New Hampshire, Holly Hayward has an intimate knowledge of the landscape here. And she comes from a long line of foragers. She remembers gathering dandelion greens…

May is bird heaven in our region. All the species that headed south the previous year are back: the flycatchers, vireos and thrushes; the warblers, wrens and swallows; even the ruby-throated…

Author and Northern Woodlands contributor Jamie Sayen recently released a new book entitled You Had a Job For Life, published by University Press of New England. It’s the story of the life and…

I had just finished my safety talk to some middle school students when I heard a bloodcurdling scream. In many years handling aquatic insects and other small water creatures, I have never been…

This photo came in to us a few months back from Pam Landry, wildlife education specialist with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife. She came across this beaver pond with a group of…

Soon we’ll talk shop. But first, a typical early-season evening. It’s February 19, late afternoon, and I’m in the Hall bush, so named for the family who owns the land and rents the…

“Some say the world will end in fire; some say in ice.”  - Robert Frost Your February photos show ice holding the upper hand, but flames burned, too, as people in Montpelier set their…

“A mistake is beside the point, for once anything happens, it authentically is.” John Cage I asked Fritz Gross if he experienced angst as an artist; if he considered any of his paintings…

I recently walked a woodlot with a landowner who had pruned his younger trees according to instructions that he found online. The problem was that those instructions didn’t differentiate between…

A big-city reporter called one day wanting to know how many sugar maple trees there are in Maine – and how Maine compared to Vermont, a state virtually synonymous with syrup production. It took…

Just about the time that this magazine reaches your mailbox, Northern Woodlands will be hopping the Connecticut River to take up residence in Lyme, New Hampshire. Our nonprofit’s new…

A Primer on Apple Tree Release and Grafting Techniques In the early nineteenth century, John “Johnny Appleseed” Chapman sallied forth from Leominster, Massachusetts, to sell and sow apple…

I have been living with an otter. He’s long and sleek, a graceful swimmer with an insatiable appetite for fish. At first he was just my boy, a chubby little toddler, happy to snuggle and follow…

The Herbs Around Us by Meghan McCarthy McPhaul;  Floodplain Forests: Resurgence of a Long Lost Ecosystem by Tim McKay; A Hayfield Home for Fish by Tom Rogers; Making Paper at the old Groveton…

In folklore and literature, Jack Frost is often portrayed as a mischievous guy, sort of Old Man Winter’s younger self. He’s a personification of everything cold. In our region he’s a…

Strange markings on a red maple tree’s bark. What caused it?

In the old days, when most people were farmers, the deep cold months were spent working wood. Maybe you logged the back 40 for income, maybe you just put up 50 cords to burn in your drafty,…

Eastern cottontail rabbits are frequently described as crepuscular, meaning active at dawn and dusk. The Virtual Nature Trail at Penn State New Kensington, an online site documenting various plant and…

I have been keeping a close watch on my birdfeeders. Not only because I love seeing the juncos and goldfinches that arrive in flocks, and the black-capped chickadees that zip around, and even the blue…