Wood Lit

Through his books and his work as an educator, Tom Wessels teaches people how to observe and interpret ecological landscapes. His latest book, The Myth of Progress, reflects something of a new…

Like no other element of the New England landscape, stone walls relentlessly remind us of the challenging existence faced by those who settled this corner of the world. Stone walls chronicle…

“With all the Web sites and links, with the near infinity of information available, who has time to – who wants to – read?” Melanie Simo poses this guilt-inducing question at…

Each of the 10 chapters in this book begins at a beginning, with the author discovering a new insect or other arthropod or a behavioral quirk of a previously known one. Then we are off,…

Lone Pine’s entry into the regional mushroom literature is a solid performer, treating just over 600 species found in eastern Canada, the Great Lakes states, and New England. (It ought…

As an ornithologist, many times I have witnessed an unusual bird behavior or been astonished by a bird’s beauty. And each time, I have muttered to myself, “if only I had a photograph of…

Anyone familiar with the 1956 Boughton Cobb fern book in the Peterson field guide series will feel at home reading this new edition. The overall arrangement – text on the left,…

This is a book that cannot easily be reduced to a brief review. It defies such review because it is itself a review of the writings, thinkers, and doers of the American environmental movement…

As anyone who has ever planted a few apple trees knows all too well, growing apples can be a perplexing and frustrating endeavor. The trouble is that apples are very attractive to many of…

It’s a pleasant Saturday morning, and a small suburban park is filling with people. While the adults set up lawn chairs and dig out soccer equipment, the youngsters frolic on the grass. Just…

Trees of New England by Charles Fergus is not another field guide, and thank goodness for that. If I were to lug around all that are available these days, or even a selection of those of most…

Hikers in the Adirondack Mountains of New York and the Green Mountains of Vermont often share a common reward when they emerge from the wooded lower slopes to the open summits: a marvelous…

It’s easy to speak of the elegance and charm of butterflies and moths: their gift of flight, their role as pollinators, their place in poetry, their gossamer beauty. But save some respect…

We all live with contradictions, and mostly we manage our internal conflicts without major incident. Sometimes, though, the warring emotions become a public battle as well, as happens in The…

This is not the book for you if you want the standard wildlife habitat fare: what kind of viburnum to plant at the edge of your yard, how to make a brush pile for chipmunks and sparrows, or…

In the past decade or so, vernal pools have received a fair amount of attention from people other than naturalists, ecologists, conservationists, and natural resource professionals. An…

This is a powerful book. It is relatively short as well, and if you are lucky enough to be able to read it over the space of a few days, it will work on your psyche the way a really good poem…

In February 2000, noted climber and writer Guy Waterman ascended to the summit of Mount Lafayette to freeze to death, deliberately. Laura Waterman’s new book, Losing the Garden, places the…

Hunting the Whole Way Home is a memoir of a lifetime of upland bird hunting. It’s also a paean to embattled wild places in northern New England (author Sydney Lea lives in the Connecticut…

“Looking at and seeing the natural world is a skill that takes years to acquire,” Ted Williams writes in his new book, Wild Moments; and that skill is one he has developed to a high level.…