Magazine Series

Photographer Erik Gehring captured this otherworldly image just after sunrise on top of Mount Zealand in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Gehring calls the piece Frozen Krummholz -…

Those dead, bleached-brown beech and oak leaves rattling in a January wind – but somehow still clinging to their twigs – are symbolic. Like ecological pennants, they announce that…

In light of the down economy, Vermont, like many states in our region, is looking for ways to reduce its annual budget. Last year, the legislature attempted to take $1.6 million from the Use…

The ancient Celts spoke of “thin places” in nature – places where the veil between heaven and earth is worn thin. To those with Thomas Cole taste, “thin” could be…

Deep in our deepest nature is the environment we knew as a child, so that when we meet it later in life, we know we are home. Such is my feeling for the part of rural Vermont where I live.…

Oftentimes the first question a young child asks upon entering a natural history museum and seeing the stuffed specimens is: “Are these real?” Barn Owl with Rust #2 begs the same…

First, a few clarifications. This trip took place neither in Switzerland nor in a Swiss canoe. What made it Swiss was the presence here in Maine of our Swiss relatives, Vreni and Ueli. Before…

Your modern chainsaw has a precision engine that can be rendered into a worthless chunk of aluminum with just a few careless mistakes, like running straight gas through it, or spending an…

Exotic invasive plants get the headlines, as they crowd out native species, deprive wildlife of food, and generally devalue the Northern Forest. But in certain cases, native plants can cause…

A decade or so ago, a friend showed me his copy of a book called Make a Chair from a Tree. Now who could possibly resist a title like that? With its step-by-step procedures for making a…