When friends and colleagues hear that we’ve written a book on the ants of New England, their first reaction is always to ask: “I have ants in my ... (kitchen, walls, pants). How do I get…

Many years ago, a friend and fellow naturalist encouraged me to raise cecropia moths as a way of increasing the local population, which had become scarce around my home in southern Connecticut. The…

It’s All Latin to You: The Edifying World of Scientific Names The Remarkable Life of the Woodland Ant A Paper Mill Remembered from the Inside Out No Dry Matter: The Facts of Wood Moisture…

Over the past several months there has been a spate of interesting cases involving media ethics. In January, theater artist Mike Daisey’s one-man show highlighting Apple’s unsavory…

  Betsey Garand Hark II 17 3/4” x 15 5/8”, Lift-ground aquatint monoprint and monotype, 2010   Hark: v. to listen attentively, to pay close attention. Hark is an apt word to…

Photographer Frank Kaczmarek captured the small, private world of developing spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) still in their eggs. The salamanders, which can be found throughout the…

In Leicester, Vermont, up a rutted driveway off Route 7, Kevin New cobbled together a sugarhouse out of an old goat barn and plywood. He boiled a lot of sap this spring, long after most sugarhouses…

Sure you can identify the five-needle bundles of the white pine, the ribbed leaves of a beech, and the shiny bark of a yellow birch, but what about the wee trees? Can you identify this sapling?

Sure, OK, I love the environment. I want a canopy of green leaves to hike under each spring, blossoming wildflowers, pollinating bees, and bears that have plenty of land to roam. I know my local…

Have you noticed a few more wisps of gray of late? An ache in your joints? Crow’s feet clawing around the corners of your eyes? If so, you’re well on your way to becoming a victim of one…

Vacuum tubing systems have revolutionized maple sugar production, and more and more sugarmakers are getting into the game, drawn by the allure of making an average of .4 gallons of syrup per tap,…

If we were to arrange optimal conditions for growing the perfect tree, we would provide a site that’s a perfect match for the species’ particular needs. It would begin its life in strong…

Hikers in the mountains of the Northeast spend most of their time in the forest, emerging above the timberline for the occasional long view, then plunging back again into the greenery. The forest is…

My inbox has been full, of late, with press releases about the Sportsman’s Heritage Act, a hodge-podge of a bill that recently passed the House of Representatives. Some environmental groups…

Our popular What in the Woods is That? contest is a bit different this time around, with a video of editor Dave Mance III quizzing you on your firewood identification skills. Do you know what you’re…

If you’re one of the 10 to 20 percent of the population who’s afflicted with seasonal allergies, you know that spring is in the air – literally. While the itchy eyes and runny nose…

Songbirds pouring from the skies before dawn. Thousands of hawks gliding past a mountain summit. Rare oceanic birds blown in to shore. Birdwatching like this doesn’t necessarily begin when you…

The emerald green stems of newborn ostrich ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris) poking out of the decaying leaves on the forest floor are one of the early signs of much-awaited spring in the Northeast.…

An encounter with fairy shrimp is one of the great joys of visiting a woodland vernal pool. These small, shrimp-like crustaceans are as ephemeral as some orchids – appearing in abundance one…

A Vermonter went out to collect eggs and was surprised to find a guest in the coop. Who is this intruder?