This week in the woods, for our last post of 2023, we’re celebrating one of our most common and beautiful bird species: the blue jay. These brazen, intelligent birds – members of the…

This week in the woods, we found a flock of house finches in a thicket, and this male bird was obliging enough to hop up on a perch and show off his rosy red plumage. Although nowadays house finches…

Of all life’s synergies, I appreciate most the one between my propensity for domestic procrastination and my love of moving through the outdoors – countless adventures are born of it.…

Your November photos included early ice formations, porcupines, and colorful autumnal skies. At a high school in the Bronx, New York, Lawrence Culleton captured an image of a red-tailed hawk on a…

We were excited to learn recently that the New Hampshire chapter of Project Learning Tree (PLT) is receiving new support, thanks in large part to the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association…

We spotted this only partially-frozen circular spot amid newly formed ice on the Ompompanoosuc River. What happened here?

In winter, river otters head upstream into the uplands, seeking areas of fast-moving water that remain open – at least open enough for an otter to slip into a stream in pursuit of fish. You…

This week in the woods, we encountered what looked like a patch of miniature Christmas wreaths on the forest floor. Thanks to identification help from the Upper Valley Land Trust’s Jason Berard,…

I’ve always loved the idea of watching the sky for shooting stars. But I’m much more likely to be up to watch the sunrise than I am to stay awake past midnight, when most meteor showers…

This week in the woods, cold and slushy “duck weather” defeated our best intentions, and we spent most of the past two days hiding inside with hot chocolate and slippers. We were thus…

This article is the last in a four-part series that focuses on forest carbon. A companion series, beginning this spring, will focus on climate change impacts and adaptation in forests. Alexandra…

With all the extreme weather events we’ve been having, I’ve been seeing lots of erosion on our access roads and skid trails. I’m concerned about losing access to my land and…

Surrounded by hardwood forest in northern Vermont, I process five cords of firewood annually for my family’s use. As gratifying as this work can be, I’ve often found myself wanting to do…

No other North American songbirds exhibit the unique bill structure, highly specialized diet, unpredictable movements, and opportunistic nesting behavior of our two crossbill species. Both the…

Brainstorm is a style of live-edge clapboards that vary from 10 to 14 inches in width and offer a classic, rustic look. Lore suggests that brainstorm siding originated with an Adirondack sawyer who…

Dozier Bell was a philosophy major at Smith College when she discovered that visual art could represent her deep philosophical notions in a vital and expansive way. Luckily for us, she switched her…

Brookfield Bees is a small farm located in central Vermont and owned by married couple Dan Childs and Marda Donner, who moved from Philadelphia to Vermont in 2007. The farm produces honey, apple…

I think of winter’s passing not as time, but as firewood. As the weeks progress, the woodpile shrinks; every day’s fire spends a little more of what I set aside through summer. I know that…

One of the year’s first insects to appear on my deck railing is the winter firefly, Photinus corrusca, which shows up on warm days throughout winter. A brown beetle with pink parentheses…

This neighborhood fox is working his route down the broad convergence between night and morning light down the wellspring valley through the little swamp and up across the neighbors’ driveway…