Rain falls on a forested hillside in the mountains of western Maine, 2,000 feet above sea level. Water collects in the narrow valley surrounded by a forest of pine, hemlock, oak, beech, and…
Features
Finding Gibbs Swamp
“Don’t even try it,” my friend said, chuckling and shaking his head slowly. “That’s Gibbs Swamp. People have lost horses in there.” It had been a year since…
Forests to Water: A Connected Landscape
Taking a watershed-level approach to forest management – also called “ecological forestry” – can sustain and restore the essential interconnections and functions of a…
Raptor Rehab
Being a wild bird rehabilitator requires something akin to parenting skills, combined with the grit of an emergency room doctor. The injuries and illnesses encountered are varied, as are the…
Recognizing a Literature of Place
Learning From Dawnland Voices Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Abenaki, Nipmuc, Wampanoag, Narragansett, Mohegan, Schaghticoke. These names represent Indigenous people living…
Staying Safe on the Trail
An interview with author Dee Dauphinee This year’s surge in hiking and other woods-based recreation inevitably comes with greater risk of people getting lost off trails. Dee Dauphinee is…
Swamp Otters
It’s mud season in central New York, and along the edge of a pond created by a massive beaver dam, patches of melting snow are interspersed with ankle-deep mud and seeps of water…
A Boost for Red Spruce
By late fall of 2017, I was suffering from slingshot finger. It was caused by routinely firing off an 8-foot version of the weapon traditionally wielded by fiendish little kids. I’d…
Allagash Wilderness Waterway
A magnificent 92-mile-long ribbon of interconnected lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams flowing through the heart of Maine’s vast northern forest, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway (AWW)…
The Table from Montpelier
A hundred years ago the black cherry tree in the gully behind our house on Cliff Street sprouted in a hillside pasture. It hasn’t moved, but the village has crept up the hill and the…