Site Discussions

Excellent article.  We see so little of the birds’ life, don’t we?  At my office, during the daytime, we looked after a clutch of downy woodpeckers who lost their nest tree.  One day while working during lunchhour, I couldn’t hear myself think until I went and gave the downies their feeding!  One can’t help being impressed with the work involved in raising these guys until they are ready to fly.

I once saw a yellow and black caterpillar which pupates underground. I wonder which moth/butterfly it came from.

The graph suggests an interesting evolution of the white pine lumber industry.  There are now, in many places, markets for white pine of less than saw log size.  Also, there are now log grades for white pine.  The same graph these days would start at a younger stand age, and have some steps matching the improvement in grade from one class to the next.

When thinking about white pine then and now, one should keep in mind two things.  First, often agricultural land abandonment was done in two steps.  Active land was used a pasture before being abandoned completely.  Since cows prefer hardwoods to pine, the result is the creation of pine stands on many abandoned pastures.  Second, the l939 Great Hurricane happened during a really good white pine seed year, and the huge amount of exposed soil from blow down created an ideal seed bed.

I live on a property in the Catskill Mountains.  White pine seedlings are the only kind I have, in spite of the fact that most of the mature trees on my property are hardwoods.  The deer eat every seedling - even hemlock that come up - usually within a few days.  The white pine is the only thing they don’t eat, so I am seeing the forest composition in the beginning stages of a radical change.

I found a small clump growing in South Orange Reservation, NJ. This is a very cool little plant; I would love to find a way to cultivate them. I am doing a lot of research. I don’t want to take the one clump I found, if I could find a way to grow them from seeds. When the plant dies off I think maybe they may grow from the flowers?

This morning, a large silkworm moth was struggling to survive in a pet water dish.  I scooped it out and showed it to my husband.  He had been in a hurry to get to the office but this moth made him whip out his camera and take photos from all angles.  It is one of the most beautiful bugs I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen a lot of beautiful bugs in amazing places.  Your post helped me identify it and I’d like to think that one of your moths made it to my home in Fairfield County.

Is there a bird other than a Robin that makes a rounded nest with blue eggs? A bird nearby resembled a lark.

Can someone advise me? Every year I have mourning doves that nest on my patio and raise babies. This year in May that built a nest, laid 2 eggs, after a couple of weeks they abandoned it. The eggs were left motherless for almost a week. It was in the 50’s at night. They dove came back and sat on the eggs like nothing happened. It’s July. She’s still
sitting there on those 2 eggs, which I think are dead eggs. What do I do? Will she eventually give up?

I remember the oaks that lined our street dying when I was a child. It didn’t change just the side of the street, it changed the feel of our neighborhood.

I’m living in a different part of Maine now, deep in the woods of Washington County, and delighting in the return of the elm tree. When we bought our land 17 years ago it had none, and now there are a dozen visible from the house. I hope they make it. I would hate to lose them twice.

Hope someone reads this: it’s July and no one is probably decorating their Xmas tree! Milkweed fluff makes great “snow” to toss on your tree! Just pick the dried pods before they have been completely relieved of their precious cargo and toss it into the branches of your tree. I found it to be easy to work with and not a problem like the needles of a Xmas tree, remaining behind to haunt you, sometimes into the middle of next year! The fluff is pretty and when you put your tree outside in January to hang food for the birds, the fluff will blow away to germinate in the spring and await the hungry Monarch larvae!

This story reminds me of a giant southwestern centipede discovered in my Arkansas home as a kid. Talk about scary! The local folklore of that time was that your skin would rot anywhere one of these walked. They were so terrifying to look at, the story was totally believable.

Thank you for your article on Asiatic Bittersweet. Growing up with ‘Timber Harvesting’ and ‘Northern Woodlands’ magazines in the family home, I saw your publication carried a gravitas appreciated by my small woodlot-owning father and uncle. 

I myself, an out-of-stater in Maine-speak am coming up north and warning my family about the threats of this terrible vine. I see what it is doing in the green spaces of Philadelphia, PA. The complete suppression of growth on what few seedlings the deer dont eat, and the girdling and shading out of all young to large sized trees. And winter fall/breakage of softwood branches from the strain of the vines compounded by the weight of any ice/snow from storms.

I always knew Massachusetts had a terrible kudzu problem, and that loosetrife, knotweed, and milfoil were plant invaders in Maine.  However, I never heard of Asiatic bittersweet, and even with an active interest in this topic (Im now supporting a land trust as a volunteer preserve steward) I never saw bittersweet in my readings, and once aware, found others who I shared this information with equally perplexed. 

Aside from our insect and fungus invaders, I see Asiatic bittersweet as the largest threat to our forests.  And too few people know about it.

It is a terrible threat, for its girdling, strangling, thick spreading roots, and aggressive complete colonization where present.  People might not realize, this is a WOODY vine.  It has the strength of a dog lead and yet the flexibility and propensity to grow like a morning glory vine.  Further, the presence of one plant means an almost 100% likelihood of spreading within 5 miles, as the seeds are so favored by birds and thus well dispersed. They are successful in sprouting.

For those managing woodlands, even for your trees that survive, dropping a tree with vines in the top can easily add 20 minutes to a single normal cut. We dont have (native) grape or virginia creeper in our (northern) Maine forests and so arent used to this extra burden. The Bittersweet even further complicates tree felling. The recent 295 corridor widening near the Freeport exits must have been a dangerous, frustrating ordeal with all of the bittersweet tangled in those trees.

And so, my comment for readers of this article who love and care about our northern woodlands - this is one plant to know.. and put sweat labor behind reducing/eradicating.

For a Northern Woodlands writer/editor,  can you refresh this topic and write an update article for your readers? 

Thanks much!!

It would seem the outcome was an unfortunate cautionary tale…

@Katz I have the Gransfors Bruks splitting maul.  I would get that along with two wedges.  I have been using them for a couple years and haven’t come across something that I can’t split.  It’s heavier than the splitting axe and may tire you out more but you will split more wood in less hits.  I actually just ordered the splitting hatchet from Gransfors last night as the one drawback with the maul is it’s so heavy that when you go to do smaller logs for kindling it’s a little unwieldy and over-gunned and while doing the one hand on log, one hand dropping the maul I’m afraid I’ll mis-strike and injure myself so I figured the splitting hatchet will be good for kindling cutting.

Quebec does have, north side of Lake Memphremagog, stone structures that may be primitive, to respond to Paul Gosselin. But what is a modern-day border of political need?  Nothing.

I’ve just been looking online at stone chambers around the world, and the ones near me in central NH could tuck right in with those and look like them. What does that mean?

Hey Frank in Philadelphia, We played with poly-noses when I was a kid too! Great fun. However I learned more recently that the ones we used with the sticky sap are Norway Maple, not a native maple. So, be cautious about eating them until you know they are okay.

I have a Great Lakes-style basket of uncertain age, probably of split ash (it’s signed “Ruby Lincoln” on the bottom and might be Menominee or Ho-Chunk).  The material has gotten brittle; what can I use to preserve it?  I’ve heard that linseed oil will turn the basket black with time.  Is lemon oil OK to use?  If not, what can I put on the basket to nourish and preserve the wood?

This is a very informative article. Makes it simpler to find out the bird from its nest. Check out these amazing bird nests made in the strangest places.

If the tree was defoliated by insects, or frost, or something external, then it should recover and be fine. If it just didn’t set leaves, it’s a very bad sign. If you still see green you might give it a year just to be sure, but more than likely it’s dead.