“There is, I think, great hope for the continued presence of nature in the metropolis.” — Elizabeth Barlow, The Forests and Wetlands of New York City, 1971 Surrounded by a…
Magazine Series
Art Review: Joyce Kahn
“When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you, a tree, a house, a field, or whatever. Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink,…
When Life Gives You Cranberries…
It was August in northern New York, and the leaves still shone an optimistic green. But Labor Day was closing in, and my wife Lisa and I would soon join millions of other parents as empty…
Aging a Tree with an Increment Borer
One of the most common questions that foresters get is, “How old is this tree?” Often, the response is less than satisfactory, as the forester carries on about site…
Effects of Deer on Forest Ecosystems
And the Use of Slash Walls for Forest Regeneration
White-tailed deer are so abundant in the eastern United States that it may be hard to believe the species was absent in many areas, including most of the Northeast, just a century ago.…
1,000 Words
While walking in a milkweed patch at dusk, Tig Tillinghast found a flower crab spider that had just ambushed and immobilized a fly. “It was difficult to get adequate depth for this…
Young Bird Development and Parental Care: Evolutionary Tradeoffs
Mere hours old, a comical procession of 12 downy puffs drop one by one from their nest cavity 30 feet high in a white ash snag. Scrambling to keep up with their mother, a female wood duck,…
Beyond the Orb: A Summer Spiderweb Sampler
While orb webs – with their appealing spiral geometry – are the most familiar, spiderwebs take an amazing diversity of forms, each an ingenious fit for its maker’s hunting…
Summer Bat Habitat
Two of the regular columns in the Summer 2023 issue of Northern Woodlands magazine are related to northeastern bats. Forest Insights describes opportunities to promote summer bat habitat in…
Managing Forests for Bats
I’ve seen some bats flying around the edge of my woods, and I’d really like to help them because I know that they’ve been hit pretty badly by white-nose syndrome. Where are…