Magazine Series

I’ve developed an intermittent habit of gathering birdsong in the morning. It began on holiday visits to my childhood home in western Massachusetts after I moved to Maine in 1998. The…

Animal sign is all around. Nipped vegetation, chewed bark, animal runs and burrows. Are you in a field, spruce, hemlock, hardwood forest? It’s a whole universe out there, and you can…

Lately, citizen scientists, gardeners, and outdoor enthusiasts of all types have become increasingly concerned with recorded declines in pollinating insect populations. From the Pollinator…

The American landscape has been altered more by the axe than by any other tool. It is estimated that more than 300 million acres of timber were cut prior to the advent of the chainsaw in the…

In the Summer 2020 issue, we feature two poems from Norwich University professor Sean Prentiss’ debut book of poetry, Crosscut. Here, Prentiss reflects on hand tools, the gifts and…

I was 22 and volunteering with an amphibian monitoring project that summer. Standing along a roadway in the woods of Sumner, Maine – armed with a clipboard and a headlamp – I…

When the Wild River Wilderness in the White Mountain National Forest was designated in 2006, wilderness management policy called for removal of all man-made structures. The Blue Brook Shelter,…

Museum of Hand Tools Nine hours after we start, Strings bellows, Tool count. Everyone halts in mid-swing & lays tools upon trail as if at a museum of hand tools. We count & re-count…

Amidst the historic homes, posh estates, and manicured lawns of southwestern Connecticut, a new, almost radical, movement is gaining strength. In a growing number of Fairfield County…

Northern New Hampshire exerts a strong pull on millions of people attracted to its deep woods, cold ponds, and rugged terrain. Riverside towns add to the draw, combining historic charm and…