Approximately 8,000 years ago, a period of global warming called the Hypsithermal Interval stimulated timber rattlesnakes to move north from the vicinity of Long Island. They followed river…

At first, Beverly Kaiser and her husband Phillip were pleased when a father-and-son logging team stopped by their house in Washington, Vermont, in late August 2008. Ken Bacon Sr. and Jr. of…

Friends sometimes express surprise when I tell them that I’m a Quaker logger, and that I find logging to be deeply spiritual work. How, they ask, can it possibly be spiritual when…

The word mast is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and originally described an abundance of acorns on the forest floor, eagerly devoured by domestic swine. The Old German root meant “to be…

People who fish tend to be poetically inclined – it probably has something to do with the hours spent in silent contemplation. And of all their piscatorial muses, the brook trout reigns…

“It should be right up here ahead of us,” promised Kevin Martin, his focus alternating between his handheld GPS and the knee-deep water that surrounded us. He was looking for the…

On the morning of September 6, 2013, 275 canoes and nearly 700 paddlers converged at Old Forge Beach in New York’s Adirondack Park. Eager anticipation lingered in the air as canoers…

The ice storm of 1998 provided a lesson on the resilience of the northern forest. The precipitation started falling on January 5th, and for four days the gargantuan ice storm of 1998 pounded…

One of our favorite recent pieces was Tony Donovan’s photo essay on Amos Congdon, which ran in the Spring 2013 issue. Amos was a woodsman from Lyme, Connecticut, who ran a sawmill in the…

A living jewel hangs suspended beneath the microscope. An emerald sheen shifts with its every pulsing breath over iridescent silver, gold, and bronze swirls. Aquamarine legs hang poised,…