Site Discussions

I found a wooly bear (?) today in my garage.  It appeared to be all black.  I saw on another site that popular belief is that the less orange/brown on this caterpillar means a harsher winter for that area.  I hope not, but I’m sure it still won’t compare to other parts north of us.

What might be a sudden killer of healthy Wh. Pine saplings?

Two years ago nearly all of the 6-10 ft Wh. Pine saplings that had been prolific and healthy after a thinning and pruning of a pine-dominated section of our woodland.  The thinning was done professionally about 25-30 years ago over a 10 acre area. Most of the saplings died completely within a short time.

There is no obvious sign of or weevil damage, or blister rust, with no known currant or gooseberries on our immediate area.  (There is a commercial red and black currant operation on the opposite side of Springfield, about 5 miles away. )

Can young beeches that came in along side the pines interfere by cutting off much of the open overstay?  Any other ideas for the die-off of so many pines?

Thanks in advance for your advice.
Betsy Owen

P.S.  I have been a huge fan of Northern Woodlands and particularly your pieces in it!

I can not remember an acorn harvest like this year’s.
I find the variety fascinating. One species has a tiny and very delicate tip.., it resembles the shape of a candy kiss.
Some retain their caps better than others, and some are more colorful, or more striped, than others. Some caps embrace their acorn nut, and some have a fuzzy flare.
The beauty of their creation is certainly no (accident).
Thank God for these little delights of nature.
Squirrels are smiling all the way to their winter nests.

A shrew wouldn’t eat birdseed, would it? So if what I caught in my birdseed bag in my house is definitely not a mouse, then it must be a vole, right?

I have what I thought was a mouse in my house and I’ve been trying to catch it to release it.  This morning I saw something moving in the bag of bird seed so I quickly closed the bag and took it outside. Yay!!! It had a short tail so not a mouse, but it was mouse sized. The snout wasn’t really long but it wasn’t really rounded either. Its fur was brown.  I tried to get a picture but it kept moving and I let it go.  I think it was a vole, especially since they’re herbivores whereas shrews are carnivores, plus I think shrews are smaller than mice and more gray. I know that we have mice, shrews, voles, and moles around here; I live in Long Island New York if that helps. Thanks!

I have seen blackthorn and white thorn grown as naturally ‘barbed’ fences.  They were grown in a row spaced a couple of feet apart.  Once they reached a desired height a slash hook was used to partly cut through the main leader.  The partly cut leaders were bent over the adjacent shrub, and the leader of it’s neighbor was bent over that and so on down the row.  The last one in the row was tied down with bailing twine and the result was an impenetrable thorny living hedge.

Structure Diversity means the variability of a stand’s structural attributes (dbh,  no. of trees per hectare, etc) whereby stand complexity is more of a generalized ranking of the level of this diversity: either patchy, dense or multi-storied   (moving from simple to complex levels).

My kids saw the Wooly Bear Caterpillar and wanted to know what it would turn into.  Thank you for your site.  I love that I don’t have to know everything but instead can share in the adventure of learning with the kids.  They are 6 and 8.

We go kayaking on Lake Champlain every summer. This summer we could not help but notice the near total absence of zebra mussels in the area of Button Bay.

I photographed a praying mantis on the leaf of a house plants I left on the front porch recently.  It was very green and I’d say at least four inches long. The abdomen was very large.  It was very curious and watched me intently while I took its picture. It’s the second one I’ve seen this year.  The other at the beginning of summer was climbing over my herb plants.

I think it’s always a bad idea to feed wildlife, Sandy. You’re training the skunk to associate humans with food, and your neighbor might not have the same tolerance that you do. If you want to encourage skunks in your yard, encourage beetle larvae in your lawn. Leave your garden a mess so the skunk can glean leftovers. Creating habitat will help skunks and other wild animals; turning wild animals into trained dogs who come in for dinner is just asking for problems. My two cents.

I just identified a tiger moth caterpillar. Thanks for the informative website!

Hi: 
Just read your interesting article on the Journal of Earnest Magoon.

Going to Ancestry.com I found a fair amount about him,  He was born on March 11, 1886 to Asa Magoon and Nellie A. Magoon.  He was one of 7 brothers and sisters as of 1910 Census and at that time was 23, single and lived at home helping his father on the family farm.  He married Christine Hurd Magoon and they had two children, Doris Nellie Magoon Hutchins and Edna Irene Magoon Wilson.  He died on October 8, 1959 and is buried in the West Topsham Cemetery.

There was a lot of other data also readily available.

I am a long time subscriber, having a vacation home in Pomfret and a daughter living in Bradford.  I find your articles and magazine among the most interesting items I read.

Cal Carver

At the time this journal was written, Mr. Magoon was living on the farm were I grew up and my parents still live. His mother lived on the farm I presently own.

What interested me was how much lumber and firewood he cut off these farms and surrounding woodlots and I have cut a lot of wood of the same properties over the past 45 years and they have more wood than ever. A testament to the sustainability and productivity of these forests.

Today, I caught one in my front yard - never thought they lived this far north. Seemed harmless enough so I released him back into his wooded habitat.

Some entrepreneurial lumber dealers around here sell blue-stained pine, which has a blueish hue. We did a column on the fungus: http://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/blue_stain_fungi 

I have been feeding my skunks chicken, ears of corn some peanuts..is this a healthy diet?

All the hinge is doing, Flip, is keeping the tree attached to the stump, which is safer. You want to cut your notch in the direction you want the tree to fall. And you want to use wedges on the bad side of your lean. It’s very hard to explain good technique in writing, though, so our official answer is hire a professional.

My oak is having a mast year and has more acorns than in the last 10 years. However, the last year was a terrible oak moth year. We lost many oaks in the area due to drought and the caterpillars. I’ve seen the caterpillar (oak moth) wave come and go and know that is natural. The resulting acorn abundance, while we’re still in a drought, is interesting. Maybe the trees think they are dying?

I moved 3 sweetfern from a friend’s property in Maine (with permission) 3 summers ago.  Only one survived and it is pretty magnificent with new babies/suckers this summer.  I have it right at the entrance to yard so I can brush against it.  Healthy as anything but too large for the space since my yard is tiny and it’s crowding out, or hiding, False Solomon seal and my hellebore utterly.  How to prune?

My doctor read an article about mining timber from lakes (he thinks in New England)...he mentioned something about blue wood. He wants to build his own house. I surf the web and offered to look for him since he FORGOT where he read the article! (Maybe he’s thinking of the colorful decay..I’ve seen that in my nephew’s cafe. Can you help?
Suzi