Site Discussions

I have learned at Pocono Environmental Education Center that black bear eat skunk cabbage first thing when they awaken from hibernation.  They do this because it is a diuretic, and it cleans them out from their months of winter sleep.

Enjoyed reading this well-written article by my colleague Yurij Bihun.  Having worked in Romania on these issues for more than decade, I could not agree more that a historical lens is essential for understanding anything related to forests and forestry in that part of the world.  For more information on our research using remote sensing to document illegal timber harvesting, please see:

http://www.uvm.edu/rsenr/wkeeton/pubpdfs/Korn et al. 2012_Biological Conservation.pdf

http://www.uvm.edu/rsenr/wkeeton/pubpdfs/Knorn_et al_Loss of old-growth-forests in Romania_Env Cons_2013.pdf

Likely the purple is harmless, and it will likely disappear as the spouts are seasoned in the tree. I wouldn’t worry about it too much this year. Longer term, though, if it were me i’d upgrade to 5/16” spouts. You get something like 90% of the sap with a lot less wounding to the tree. And they’re made out of plastic, aluminum, or stainless steel, so the oxidation problem will go away.

No discussion of the external appearance of the bark -  probably a very distinctive feature. Do the dead leaves persist in fall and winter?

We have some old taps, cast iron, from the 1940s. They cleaned up nicely but the first bit of sap that came from the trees through them was purple in color! We are small scale hobbyists but we’re given 300 of these taps from a friend to help us upgrade our operation. What should we do?

Reading your assessment of the season so far sounds like just one steaming load of good news after another. Thank goodness that maple sugaring is so much dang fun and easy money too! And you only have to do it for a few weeks in the nice spring weather!

Hello. I have found a big bees nest in a hole in a tree by my house. It is about 10 to 15 ft High. They look like honey bees but I’m not 100% sure. I drilled the hole in the bottom of the tree and this black liquid started pouring out of it. Can somebody tell me what this liquid is? And if they are honey bees, how would I get to the honey? Thank you for your help.

Y’all think raccoons could be taught sign language? Like, are the hands good enough (even w/o opposable thumbs)? And surely they’re smart?

I tried using Ivermectin once to treat a wild fox who lived near my house, but because the fox wasn’t captive, I couldn’t ensure that the affected fox was eating the ivermectin-laced food and not some other fox or different animal. And if you research the drug you see it’s very dose sensitive and some species of dog have toxic reactions to it; it seems reasonable to think some wild animals might, too. All of this said to me that it was a bad idea to be trying to administer a drug in the wild in this haphazard way, so I stopped.

Hi, I does seem wrong to cut down trees to make a fence post! I’d rather have the post be the tree and increase in strength over time.
To avoid using any metal on our tree, we are using polymer nails (all plastic) to screw insulators directly on trees to cover 10 acres of wooded pasture.
Raptor is the name of the company that makes the nails.
We use claw insulators (2 nails/insulator) on all in-line trees.
We keep an eye on them but if insulator get swallowed by the trees, we can chop them off and install new ones. The plastic won’t be a problem for sawing the tree in the future.

Mange in foxes can be treated with 1% Ivermectin put in food.  I ordered it on Amazon as Noromectin.  Directions can be found using Google. You need a syringe to get it out of bottle.

My dad always used an axe to split wood, he could get stuff to really fly.

I tried a maul in Canada and hated the thing, was quite tempted to sharpen it,  though that was vetoed. Went back to using an axe…just more intuitive for me and got along a lot better with it.

From mid-November through late February, I had 16 wild turkeys in my yard, just about every.  As the weather started to get colder I started to feed them.  Every morning they would be waiting for me in the back yard.  As soon as they saw me come out of the house they would run up and greet me.  One day I was late and they were knocking at my door.  It was fun watching them during the day.  They would play and sleep.  There was always a couple of the BIG turkeys standing gaurd.  As the day wound down and it started to get dark, my turkeys would leave.  They would get in perfect formation - once again, the bigger turkeys at the front and the back of the line.  They would not leave until all the turkeys took their place in line.  The 1st week of March they spent the day in the yard, got into formation and I have not seen them since.  That was 3 weekks ago.  Anyone know what could have happened?

Nice forum!

According to an information sheet from the NH Division of Historical Resources, there’s a state law addressing stone wall theft, and a stone wall protection policy that the state follows for road building/widening projects. You can learn more at this link: https://www.nh.gov/nhdhr/publications/documents/stone_wall.pdf

I’m hoping you can answer a question- last night my husband heard a sound, and when he went to check, some sort of small animal was scratching at our dog food bag, trying to get in.  IT was definitely not a mouse, as it was closer to guinea pig sized.  In the dark it appeared fuzzy and maybe dark gray in color, and did not seem to have a tail.  It was very bold- we’ve had mice get in before, but never has a creature climbed the steps to the main floor of our home before (it’s a raised ranch, and our two dogs stay upstairs)- they always have stayed in the basement.  When it saw/heard him it ran down the steps and disappeared, and it was FAST.  My coonhound thinks mice are tasty snacks, but he wouldn’t go near whatever this was last night.  Any ideas?

Is there any laws that you can inform me of or how I can get information concerning illegal timber harvesting.  I keep getting the run-around.  Thanks

I just wanted to thank you for helping me learn more about diatomaceous earth. It’s kind of cool that it should be applied after rain or irrigation to make sure it adheres to plants. I’m kind of interested to learn if it should be done as soon as it stops raining or if it could be good to wait about an hour or so to make sure the rain really stops.

Is there a law in N.H. about disturbing stonewalls?

The production efficiencies and amount of money being invested in maple are amazing. I’m concerned that we may be losing forest health.
Healthy, rapidly-growing trees seal tap wounds quickly. They also add thicker growth rings, allowing sugar makers to tap at the same location sooner without damaging the tree’s defenses against discoloration and decay.

Those who make massive investments in collection (taps and pipelines) and processing equipment demand returns on their investment (5 to 10 years?) then look for another investment opportunity. Will that next investment be in maple? Only if the trees are managed so they grow vigorously and are healthy enough to produce sap for the next 5 to 10 year investment cycle.

If the forests are not managed well for sustainable maple production, the investors and their money will leave the forest of depleted trees behind and we will wait a looong time for it to recover.