Skip to navigation Skip to content

Magazine Series

Saving Herbie: New Life for a 217-year-old American Elm

There was no saving Herbie, at least not literally, not after its caretaker saw the unmistakable spread of Dutch elm disease in the upper reaches of its crown. Frank Knight – he’s 101…

Halloween Ladybeetle

The ladybeetle family includes many cute and shiny beetles – they’re usually bright orange or red, with some black and white thrown in for contrast. As a group, they specialize in…

Too Many Whitetails?

Bill Schmidt, of Elysian Hills Tree Farm in southeastern Vermont, says his current deer problem is not as bad as it was twenty years ago. Back then, the deer had a habit of congregating in his…

At Work Turning Wood with Richard Montague

The nineteenth-century English bodger is a romantic figure in woodturning lore. Members of that extinct breed made their living in the hilly beech forests north of London. They felled trees,…

Slolly, Sprinklers, and Mackinawed Men

Almost 100 years ago, Dr. Edward H. Risley, a Boston doctor and registered Maine guide, left the city for a January journey to his “Leetle Cabain,” a oneroom camp in Maine’s…

1,000 Words

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 -…

Why Do Some Leaves Persist On Beech and Oak Trees Well Into Winter?

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…

Debunking Misinformation About Vermont’s Current Use Program

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…

Editorial

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…

A Place in Mind

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.…