Site Discussions

Many thanks, Virginia, for the detail you included two years ago in your description of the Nannyberry (viburnum lentago).  From April to October in 2012, I have taken photos of this plant on a walk I take and this helped verify that it is indeed the nannyberry.

Greatly enjoyed your article, Ben! I’m a huge fan of wild rice, and love to look for it along the river and marshes in CT. A year ago I wrote an article for our local Audubon Society’s newsletter concerning wild rice, and a few times a year I purchase wild rice from Native Harvest in Minnesota. Thanks again for the excellent article!

IS there a way to strip the dead leaves from oaks?

I am working with students in high school and we are identifying trees and it is difficult to determine which spurce trees are which.  Your website was extremely helpful.

Ingrid Volikas

Well, I am definitely sure that I saw a catamount the beginning of this week. To be exact, it was on Monday,Sept.17,2012 at 11:30 am. I was sweeping leaves on my back deck which overlooks a meadow and brook which flows thru my back yard. The phone rang and I stopped raking to answer. My daughter from San Fran was calling. I was literally leaning on the deck railing and speaking to her. All of a sudden, I heard a movement in the woods and looked over to see this catamount walk gingerly from the meadow across my bottom lawn that parallels the brook. I told my daughter what I was seeing. The catamount was about 3feet long,perfect girth size,head and face and ears I was totally able to idenify this catamount. My daughter said for me to make a noise to see what he would do. I made a sound and he stopped, looked up the hill at me, then immediately jumped the brook without touching the water and walked up from the water bank into the woods. I was thrilled to see this and called my neighbors and farmers on my road to let them know. Quite an experience! Next time I will have the camera ready.

Elise, I want to wish you my heartiest congratulations on your new position.  I look forward to seeing regular postings of your wonderful writing!  Best, Rose

Are you 100% sure it wasn’t a bobcat, Kara? The size sounds bobcatty, as does the hair color. Many eastern bobcats are very tawny colored; if the belly fur is obscured, they may not appear spotted at all.

Check out the photo gallery at the end of this article:

http://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/woods-ghost-bobcats-on-a-comeback1/

At a quick glance, the 4th pic from the end looks just like a lion on the plains of africa (or a catamount in someone’s backyard) to me.

I was just driving home from work w/my 2 year old son.  About an 1/8th of a mile from my house I saw what looked like a Mountain Lion or Catamount.  After looking online I see that it is said that Catamounts are extinct in Vermont.  What I saw looked like it was the size of a medium dog.  It had flat fur, like a boxer dog and it was tan.  The head looked like a female lion.  I live in a very rural area surrounded by corn and soy bean fields.  The cat walked across the road from a corn field and stopped in the road when I slowed down.  It jumped into a ditch and into another corn field.  It was only a few feet in front of me and I know it wasn’t a bobcat.  Could it have been a Catamount?

If current use is suppose to be a state “jobs program” for the timber industry, why are the jobs influenced by what seems to be a handful of consulting foresters? There could be many more small logging operations in business if the state was involved in fairly dividing out the work.

  Think we just saw a lunar moth caterpillar over in crawford notch on the 29th of August by the waterfall.Some woman was taking video of it. Was at least 3-4 inches long.Found this site cause was looking it up and the first thought that came into my head was Lunar moth caterpillar.Quite a few years ago saw an adult in my yard and it was gorgeous.Didn’t think there were cherry trees in the Notch though.I thought they would have already done their thing by the fall but didn’t know that they overwintered up here.

Have to retract my earlier comment!  Sorry to report that what I saw Tues morning was not a catamount cub, but a fox suffering from mange.  The practically hairless fox had been terrorizing local chicken coops and was caught in a local barn.

Nothing is black or white and I am not opposed to trapping.  Having said that, a good friend’s large dog was killed in a trap on his neighbor’s property just last December.  There might have been a problem with the trap itself of the way it was placed.  At any rate it was extremely traumatic for my friend.  Traps still have the ability to kill non-target species.

This morning around 11:30, I spotted what looked like a catamount cub run across my field.  It was an interesting tawny color with a very long tail and a lopey run that was definitely not that of a house cat.  I’m located near some state land and Cottonbrook Reservoir.

If you have large acerage in native viburnum suceptible to the VLB (e.g. arrowwood)there is a partial remedy.This is working on my 35 acres: First choose one or two plants/acre - the strongest specimens. Then fertilize and mulch heavily and follow the Cornell advice on pruning out the eggs- these plants only. They will survive: probably the only ones. But the VLB population comes in waves and it will crash to a remanent. Likely they will fruit the entire time. Now if you wish to support the migratory bird populations and local grouse replant a colonizing mixture of resistant viburnum + gray and silky dogwood. This fills the niche nearly as well as the susceptible viburnum. In my case (wet silt) I use nannyberry with the dogwoods. Lotsa fruit, grouse and thrushes.

Thanks for writing about this—I just went out and checked my highbush cranberry and found the beetles!

It took us 3 years to build our 16 x 20 cabin on a ridge overlooking a panoramic mountain view. It is on 70 acres and at the end of the road, even farther in a few hundred yards on a trail. We rent it and people seem to love it. It is off grid yet fully equipped, simple all you need.

My husband and I built it using local fir and spruce (spruce is much harder to peel and has lots of knots;  fir peeled like a banana!) We let the logs sit one year and then peeled them, then they sat another year. (we work slowly)

Using a skid steer we were able to lift the logs up and do a complete log cabin, gable ends, purlins and all! But we had to drag each log about 1/2 mile using an ATV and snowmobiles to the site. (no road) So far no signs of ants or rot. We built on solid concrete blocks dry stacked on ledge we dug to after probing with rebar. No settling either. Keep the logs high off the ground, as the moisture will rot them underneath. And try to keep a solid stain under them every few years.

Compost toilet and wash water collected in rain barrels, pumped up to bathhouse ceiling and kitchen copper vessel and spout using a sump pump and small inverter connected to ATV battery while running. A pretty simple system, all you need. Right now, a 60 year old woman and her two sons are there for 12 days! People love the area, lots to do.

We used solid stain, as the logs were badly greyed by the time we finished and we did not want to bleach them since there was no water or electric to rinse. My husband did a great job corner scribing the saddle notches one by one. We used Perma-chink to seal the joints, expensive but worth it in our opinion. We live in a similar log home and takes a lot to rip it; other materials will crack and let water in. Then you are in for a complete rebuild soon, like in the article.

We love our Camp Winona (named after a friend who died too early from cancer) and are planning to live there temporarily if we ever sell our house and are able to build again. It is nestled in the tall pines, yet has the commanding view of the Andover Valley.

See pictures at:

http://www.facebook.com/CampWinona

If anyone has any questions, happy to answer.

Yes we did, congratulations to Tim Silva of Leominster, MA. You can view our updated answer here: http://northernwoodlands.org/witwit/legless-lollygagger

Ann, I noticed in your article that you said, “The land is open to hunting, fishing, and hiking.”  Was that something that you chose to do?  Or was it a requirement to participate in this program?

So - Are you going to select a new “winner” from the batch of now correct Northern Watersnake entries?

100% northern water snake. I worked at a science center as a kid that had a shallow pond full of frogs (and northern water snakes), and as a result handled dozens of these amazing critters. Color and darkness variations present themselves with age and environment (and with shedding). Wetness also changes the “appearance” of their markings. The triangular head coupled with the red / rust lateral bands + the environmental clue of being near water all add up.