If you were to climb the recently reopened Azure Mountain fire tower on a clear day, you would see an immense arc of the Adirondacks, from the Park’s northern edge to the High Peaks. You might…

Recently, I had the chance to examine an old stone wall in some detail. I was crouched under a hemlock tree on a ridgetop, wondering at dawn about the likelihood of finding a deer in the neighborhood.…

A landowner once phoned to ask me to visit his property to see all the good work he’d done extending his landscaping efforts from his yard into the surrounding woods. He was pleased with his…

Most of us have been at least annoyed, if not infuriated, by porcupines from time to time. Their desperate need for salt in the summer months gets them in big trouble around the house. They spend the…

A forest community is the net result of a wide variety of relationships among and between different organisms interacting in a particular place over time. The key word here is relationships. The…

One of the great pleasures of wandering in the undeveloped woodland in our area is finding cellar holes, barn foundations, and all kinds of old fences, and imagining what a particular place might have…

I was given two CDs for Christmas. The first, by Louis Armstrong, begins with his classic, “What a Wonderful World.” Hearing it makes me know what it means to experience tears of joy. The…

Before the trees leaf out is a great time to walk your property lines, a practice that should be an annual event for all landowners. Locating property boundaries often requires the ability to read and…

Scientists have recently found that, when it comes to making offspring, American redstarts have good years and bad years. More specifically, a good year will likely be followed by a bad year, and vice…

Two of the most important components of biodiversity are species diversity (how many species are out there) and genetic diversity (how wide a variety of genes are present in one species). Islands are…

Fragmentation of forests is one of the biggest threats facing animal populations in the Northeast. Some forest animals, especially amphibians, are considered to be especially vulnerable to…

One way to find speckled alder in the spring is to listen for the plaintive fee-beo of the alder flycatcher. Whenever I’ve followed this little bird’s song to its source, it’s been…

All through the winter months, we’re treated to the sight of huge flocks of turkeys scratching out a living in our neighbor’s frozen cornfield. Watching 100 or so birds unalarmed at your…

In October 2004, New Hampshire Project Learning Tree (NHPLT) celebrated its 25th anniversary. There are PLT programs at work training educators in every state in the union. So far, more than a quarter…

Want to improve wildlife habitat on your land? Want help paying for those improvements? Then check out the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP), a cost-share program of the Natural Resources…

At its annual meeting in November, the New England Wildflower Society presented its 2004 Taylor Education Award to Northern Woodlands magazine. In making this presentation at the Society’s…

By this time of year, most local farmers and gardeners have finished pawing through the seed catalogs and planning this summer’s harvest. What most have tried not to think about is the other…

What was it we learned about earthworms? When we were kids, they were squiggly things that either fascinated or disgusted us. If we fished, they were likely the key to our first angling success. As we…

Could it really be true that no two snowflakes are alike? Most New England school children are raised with the story of Warren “Snowflake” Bentley of Jericho, Vermont, an introverted…

Spreading salt to make treacherous ice magically disappear from road surfaces must have seemed brilliant in the early days of its use. Naturally occurring, abundant, and cheap, road salt allows us to…