Magazine Series

Life can be rough for the bobolink, a charismatic grassland bird whose population is declining. Halting that decline is a challenge for North American ornithologists. After all, bobolinks…

How Long Is Forever? And Can Anything Be Done in the Meantime? My wife and I own a 100-acre farm in eastern Vermont, where we raise and sell lambs, chickens, vegetables, honey, maple syrup,…

It’s important for a boy to have older male role models who aren’t their father. When I was growing up, Ed Colvin was one of those men in my life. Ed was my neighbor and my best…

A simple shot of a black bear nursing her cubs, right? Photographer Roger Irwin explains there’s more to the story. “I had put a dead cow out for the coyotes, bobcats, and fishers…

I’m interested in learning more about how trees self-prune. How does a tree “decide” that a branch is no longer useful? Think of it as nature’s cost-benefit analysis.…

Someone left a plastic zip bag full of soggy pink something, labeled “bobcat,” in the office sink. Naturally, I asked Dave Mance for an explanation. He pushed back from his…

"The closer the connection we feel to nature, the more we're likely to stand up and defend it." - Charles Johnson How do hundreds of sawn discs hanging from a ceiling evoke a…

After bucking this year’s firewood, I found myself with a collection of odd-shaped ends and crotches, perfect for charcoal-making. Charcoal is essentially wood that’s been…

Looking closely at plants, we can learn a lot – about local habitat, climate, hydrology, wildlife, and soils. For example, succulent leaves indicate that a plant may thrive in sandy soil…

Tom Shafer’s business is mining trees. It’s not really harvesting; maybe re-harvesting. “Recovering a forgotten forest” is his company motto. He likes to think of it as…