Magazine Series

Vernal pools, ephemeral wetlands that come to life in early spring with wood frogs, spring peepers, fairy shrimp, and a variety of salamanders, are celebrated by ecologists and woodland…

“Don’t even try it,” my friend said, chuckling and shaking his head slowly. “That’s Gibbs Swamp. People have lost horses in there.” It had been a year since…

They may look like large puddles, but vernal pools teem with life. Among the most dynamic wetlands to explore in the spring woods, they provide critical breeding habitat for wood frogs,…

A decade or so ago I had the opportunity to try out some of the early battery-powered electric chainsaws. I wasn’t impressed. They were heavy, underpowered, and had a pitifully short…

Depictions of the natural world have existed since prehistoric time. Whether created to record the cyclical rhythm of the year, to express religious devotion, or to document scientific…

A twisting tunnel chewed through dead grass, a line of bounding paw prints in mud, a translucent snakeskin on a sunny rock. Those creatures that have passed this way before me stitch their…

Each spring, as melting snow liberates the forest floor, I seek out wildflowers. I flip through Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide, counting petals and leaves to tell hepaticas apart and to sort…

The Impact of an Extreme Rain Event on a Headwater Stream in Maine’s Western Mountains In “At Chapman Brook” (Spring 2021), author Catherine Schmitt describes the important…

Maine Audubon’s Forestry for Maine Birds program is designed to give landowners, foresters, and loggers tools to enhance, create, or conserve current and future bird habitat. You can…

Taking a watershed-level approach to forest management – also called “ecological forestry” – can sustain and restore the essential interconnections and functions of a…