In the middle of a frozen New Hampshire night in January 2015, Geoff Schwaner was in Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, standing on the back of a UTV and spraying water 100 feet up into the…
Magazine Series
What Does the Fox See?
A revisionist theory about the fox has been circulating for a while that challenges the animal’s legendary cunning, suggesting instead that the Reynard of fable doesn’t actually…
Outdoor Palette: Josh Simpson
Josh Simpson creates planets that are midway between the micro and the macro. They have some of the mystery of the atomic level and much of the complexity of the cosmic. - Neil Armststrong,…
From the Center
Owl snow angels can appear at the end of a line of paw prints. But more often I see them without context, on an otherwise unblemished blanket of white. The narrative is implied: one day, a…
Tracking Tips: Hair - Hair!
The ability to detect the passage of the most elusive wild animals without relying on fresh tracks is a skill that amazes novices. They sometimes assume that such a tracker, like a legendary…
Outdoor Palette: Visionary Art
The spectacular American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore is the official national art and education center for intuitive, self-taught art. It opened in 1995 with a mission to highlight…
1,000 Words
“I was following a porcupine one fall day as it ambled up a slight wooded incline,” said naturalist, writer, and photographer Mary Holland. “At one point it took a misstep…
Wild Water
Water gets its poetic due, and with good reason. As composer Paul Winter wrote in Marjorie Ryerson’s book Water Music, water “represents an aspect of wild nature without which we…
Lake Laboratory
Technology tracks the toll road salt, phosphorus, and invasive species are taking on Lake George Ancient legends say that when a mermaid dies, her soul rises from the depths to become foam, or…
Birds in Focus: Canada Geese
The Canada geese now honking overhead in V-formation, perhaps more than any other birds, exemplify the fall migration. Except when they’re not really migrating, and except when…