Magazine Series

In the last installment, we conducted a leak check on a chainsaw that had damage to the top end of the engine (piston, rings, and cylinder). Before replacing those components, a leak-down…

Worldwide, biodiversity is in crisis. Species are disappearing at an estimated 100 to 1,000 times the historical rate, driven primarily by habitat destruction and climate change. According to…

During a trip with Saint Michael’s College students to Bunratty Castle in Ireland, our guide explained that medieval castle defenders poured scalding liquids on invaders through a…

In early June 2023, I was driving down the Taconic Parkway through New York’s Hudson Valley when I noticed an abrupt change to the roadside scenery. The lush forest canopy that had been…

Named for the string of lakes where the Connecticut River begins its 400-mile flow from northern New Hampshire, the Connecticut Lakes Headwaters region has long been prized for its thick…

A red maple tree in the backyard stretched well above the two-story house where I grew up. It was not an easy tree to climb, but it was the best one. I would jump up to grab the lowest branch…

Many of us associate bees with gardens or fields of wildflowers and are familiar with the common eastern and golden northern bumble bees we see there. However, forests also provide critical…

One floor above the taxidermied polar bears and crocodiles, in an annex adjacent to the eclectic collection of geological wonders and historical artifacts from faraway places, the Fairbanks…

At 10, I believed all rivers flowed south, pulled by gravity, down the face of a map. These many years later, such a notion seems naïve. Yet that idea – built upon a certain…

I was pushed out of my mother’s body one April, cold and wet, in the fifth season of the year. A measure of frost and mud. It was past the last sap boil, more amber than gold. I was a…