One fall a young beaver, probably a two-year-old kicked out by its parents, built a small lodge in the old mill pond below our house. On cold January days when temperatures were below zero, I looked…

Maine's Native American basketmakers have brought a tradition back to life. For Jeremy Frey, of Maine’s Passamaquoddy Indian tribe, weaving ash baskets is a family tradition. He learned to…

Growing up, I never got along that well with school, but I always loved to read and especially loved to read hunting stories, which were their own genre back then. Wilson Rawls’ Where the Red…

I manage a lodge in the Groton forest on behalf of Vermont State Parks. One warm fall day, while standing outside the lodge, I noticed movement inside one of the window wells around the basement.…

Meghan Oliver found this on her dog after a walk in the woods in early November. What is it?

A maple leaf frozen in time (and ice) near the edge of a small pond in northern New Hampshire. “The blue seen in the shot is the reflection of a cloudless sky,” said Kaczmarek. “The…

Susan Morse has contributed to this magazine since its early years. One of her first articles appeared in our Winter 1997 issue. The topic was lynx. The opening paragraph mentioned her involvement in…

I had never thought of eastern hemlock as a forest giant until I visited the mountains of western North Carolina. In my northern New England experience, an old-growth hemlock was a good-sized tree,…

When I was a kid, we stopped by neighboring sugarhouses a few times a year to pick up a gallon of Grade B. I’d hold the plastic jug in my lap on the ride home, and on a few of those lucky trips,…

Follow-the-dream memoirs comprise a good chunk of North Country literature – probably because so many of us came here looking for a better life. Taproot is one such book, and from the first page…

What is the definition of environmental art? The simplest, shortest explanation is that it is art that addresses environmental or ecological concerns. Historically, environmental art grew out of a…

My old boss Walter Medwid recently published this op-ed raising the issue of Fish and Wildlife funding in Vermont. It’s a wonky issue, I’ll grant you, but it’s something that…

The Spruce Budworm Returns, A Primer on Plant Signatures, Weaving History (and Ash), French Forestry, Salvaging Sunken Wood, Neat Things About Needles, and much more

As you put together a dinner plan for this Thanksgiving, perhaps you're looking for something to add a little variety to the traditional holiday meal, or ways to eat healthy food while supporting…

Wood-splitting is a rural pastime rooted in tradition and experience – experience that’s often measured in broken axe handles and creative curses directed at knotty chunks of cordwood.…

It may be tough to believe after this past year, but it appears that winters are getting shorter and shorter. By studying the growth cycle of vegetation at daily intervals, a team of British…

Since 2010, many white pine trees in northern New England have become infected with one of several fungal diseases that have caused yellow and brown discoloration of one year old needles, particularly…

By late October, with the summer birds long gone, I find myself growing ever more appreciative of the birds that stick around, including wild turkeys. With their leathery necks and odd gaits, they are…

When Maine zoned two percent of the northern part of the state as deer wintering areas in the 1970s, its goal was to provide habitat that would increase deer density to 10 animals per square mile. But…

Bruce Connor of New York sent along a photo of this “large growth by the leaf pile,” noting that the multi-tool included for reference is 6 inches long. What is it?