We start putting food up in August – about the time we can smell the sun-warmed tomatoes, even before we gather them for canning. “Putting food up” is a curious expression.…

Recently, a reader left a comment on our website relating to a 2009 article by columnist Susan Morse. This article describes the early fall behavior of deer and moose, when males thrash their antlers…

My students and I were conducting research in the Winooski River floodplain at Saint Michael's College last week when the buzzing became particularly intense. A brisk walk is enough to outdistance…

Susan Bull Riley has the eye of a naturalist, the discipline of a classical musician, and the sensibility of a plein air artist. These three attributes combine in a wonderfully unique way to lend her…

Earlier this summer, my daughter persuaded me to bring home a monarch egg. I had misgivings. This wasn’t my first butterfly rodeo, and previous experience was discouraging. Two summers past, a…

This week, a WITPIT (What In The Pond Is That?). Ben Haubrich spotted this organism attached to the bottom (about a foot deep) of Scoby Pond in New Hampshire while out kayaking with friends. He pulled…

A co-worker sent me this email the other day: Hi there, a very lovely elderly subscriber just called and he wants to know more about what has happened to the forest industry over the past 10-15 years;…

The fisher darted through the trees from one overgrown field to another. The narrowest sliver of moon had set: a perfect night for hunting. Three hours later, just before midnight, it bounded back the…

Easy Wood by Castle Freeman; Snakes on an Island by John Burk; Song of the Balsam Fir by David George Haskell; The Maple Syrup Model: Conserving Small Woodlots with Acorn-Finished Pork by Benjamin…

More than 3,000 years ago, the Chinese believed that a dragon ate the sun during a solar eclipse, so they gathered outdoors to drive away the beast by beating pots, pans and drums. Some 500 years…

As human population grows, forests often become more and more fragmented as trees are cut down to make way for roads, housing developments, office parks, and shopping centers. Most research on forest…

Many scientists have predicted that as the climate warms, most bird species in the Northern Hemisphere will shift their ranges northward or up the slopes of mountains in order to remain in their…

Lawns cover 63,000 square miles of the United States, making turf the largest irrigated crop in the country. As much as some ecologists consider lawns to be biological deserts that Americans should be…

Not to endorse stereotypes too much, but I’m a card-carrying cheap Scot. As I walk through the local farm and forestry supply store, my mind instantly wanders to question, “how could I…

A small boy asked “what’s your favorite insect?” I answered without hesitation: caddisflies.  Not the short-lived adults, which while charming in their own hairy moth-like way,…

We found this tasty-looking polypore growing on an oak stump while picking low-bush blues in mid-July. What is it?

A friend shared this great video with me the other day of Neil Young – not the pop star but a town-elder-type from around these parts – recounting a bobbin mill fire he fought in the…

Your July photos captured the remarkable diversity of life forms that inhabit northern woodlands – animals that waddle, paddle, hop, and scamper, others that flutter, crawl, and glide. This…

East Hampton, Connecticut — To the left of the driveway is a circular steel sawblade hung in an oak-post frame, bearing the name of the family business painted in red: “STRONG FARM AND…

Walk through a hardwood forest this month and it may seem more like October than July. Trees that normally provide cool shade have bare crowns with just a hint of green. And is the bark on that sugar…