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Adirondack Logging: The Early Years of Mechanization

There’s a lot of talk in the forest industry these days about “mechanized logging.” Some lament the passing of an era – the loss of the sounds of a revving chainsaw, a…

What’s in a Name? Tree ID for Ordinary Mortals

“Do not be afraid to go out on a limb…that’s where the fruit is.” Anonymous Here I am, going out on a very long limb, freely admitting that despite living among trees,…

Easy Wood, an Opinionated Reflection

Castle Freeman wrote here recently [“Easy Wood,” Autumn 2017] about his prolonged tussle with a major limb that had separated from an old butternut tree in his backyard...a job…

What Cats’ Eyes Tell Us About Their Souls

A predator’s physical senses determine the manner in which it hunts. Wild canids, for instance, favor their sense of smell – you can see this as they trot along the hedgerows,…

Biocontrol: It’s Bug Versus Bug in the Fight Against Invasive Species

The mixed hardwood forest on the edge of the town of Dalton in western Massachusetts looks healthy to the untrained eye, but the researchers from the University of Massachusetts who visited…

Snakes on an Island

On an early spring evening in March 2017, a large crowd packed a public meeting in Ware, Massachusetts, to discuss a controversial proposal to establish a rattlesnake colony at the nearby…

The Maple Syrup Model: Conserving Small Woodlots with Acorn-Finished Pork

In the summer of 2013, as part of her graduate work at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Jennifer Milikowsky was talking with small-scale landowners in northeastern…

Easy Wood

If you have much to do with firewood, and if you have retained your amateur standing, you will eventually become acquainted with a certain principle – a bitter, rue-laden principle that…

Song of the Balsam Fir

Kakabeka, northwestern Ontario 48°23’45.7” N, 89°37’17.2” W I stand on a stony bluff overlooking a valley filled with the textures and hues of northern forests:…

Saving New England’s Rare Plants

Carla Fenner strode along the railroad tracks outside Burlington, Vermont, on an August afternoon, wearing an orange surveyor’s vest and carrying a large volume entitled New Flora of…