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You Can’t Be a Macho Man

Larry "Tweeter" Felion is the old school. His family couldn't afford high school tuition, so he went to work logging with his father after the eighth grade. He's now 81 and…

Black Racers: Living on the Edge

HOW ONE OF NEW ENGLAND’S LARGEST SNAKES IS MANAGING TO SURVIVE Most of us have experienced an unexpected encounter with a snake while doing yard work or taking a walk in a local forest…

Caddisflies: Underwater Architects

If you live near water, then beginning in late spring, you likely will have some fascinating insects flocking to your porch. Caddisflies might pass for gray, brown, or black moths, but they…

Harvesting Wood in the Big City

On a recent sunny day, Jeff Tarling, city arborist with Portland, Maine’s Department of Parks, Recreation, and Facilities, pulled his truck to a stop at Pine Grove Park, a 12-acre green…

A Quest to Save Wild Orchids

After climbing a steep, winding road through a gap in Vermont’s Green Mountains, my car descended into Addison County, rolling past fields bright with purple aster and goldenrod. A black…

The Colonel: A Sort of Remembrance

Loving the woods, loving working in the woods – it’s difficult to do either without an appreciation of history; after all, the forest we see today reflects the actions of those who…

Cobbling Together a Living

If you listen casually to the news about the so-called gig economy these days, this idea of people freelancing instead of working for a big, stable company can seem like a new phenomenon. And…

Shadows on Craft and Culture: The Loss of Ash

THE LOSS OF ASH IS FELT BEYOND THE FOREST With snow on the ground in mid-March, trees in Connecticut’s Naugatuck State Forest presented a dense network of bare branches against a sky the…

Backcountry Zones: Where Skis Meet Trees

Once upon a time, skiers had to hike uphill for the exhilarating reward of gliding down through the trees. The earliest ski trails in New England were cut through forests in the 1930s –…

Allure of the Moon

My New Year’s resolution is to not allow political despair to affect the allure of the moon. Yesterday at about 4:30 in the afternoon, just before dark here in late December Vermont, the…