Wood Lit

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.…

In the world of forestry and conservation, one of the most significant developments in the last three decades has been the steadily increasing use of conservation easements. Through a process…

If you were to climb the recently reopened Azure Mountain fire tower on a clear day, you would see an immense arc of the Adirondacks, from the Park’s northern edge to the High Peaks. You…

Recently, I had the chance to examine an old stone wall in some detail. I was crouched under a hemlock tree on a ridgetop, wondering at dawn about the likelihood of finding a deer in the…

This is a wonderful book about three rivers (the Shepaug, the Housatonic, and the Naugatuck), their valleys, and their people. Like a braided stream that occasionally divides into several…

A late summer day in New England brings the opportunity to relax and have fun poking through the woods or along a quiet dirt road looking for things to eat. Just the experience itself demands…

Did you know that the eastern cottontail was introduced from the southern U.S. and may be displacing our native New England cottontail? Or that eastern newts can use Earth’s magnetic field…