Rebuilding the American Chestnut Tree
Rescuing a Forest Icon By Ruth Melville From Connecticut to Mississippi, along the Appalachian Mountains and into the Ohio Valley, the American chestnut tree, able to grow as big as 130 feet tall and 10 feet in diameter, once dominated the forest canopy. Although American chestnuts were almost wiped out by disease by 1950, […]
Through the Garden Gate
“All Gardening is Landscape Painting”—Alexander Pope By Leslie Watkins “The two arts of painting and garden design are closely related,” landscape architect Beatrix Farrand wrote in 1907, “except that the landscape gardener paints with actual color, line, and perspective to make a composition . . . while the painter has but a flat surface […]
It’s Only Natural
Reading the New England Jungle By Hans M. Carlson Jean’s Trail, on the western edge of Great Mountain Forest, makes a loop out through the “Raggy Lot,” on what was once the Dean Farm. The Deans were from the Mount Riga area, probably explaining the name. Although the local term “raggy” means “charcoal maker” (and […]
It’s Only Natural—A Walk Up Stoneman
Merging ecology and history By Hans M. Carlson A black squirrel runs across Canaan Mountain Road as I walk north toward the intersection of Steep Road and toward the Iron Trail up Canaan Mountain. I see this squirrel regularly, just north of the Great Mountain Forest (GMF) offices, and it always surprises me a little. […]
It’s Only Natural
A Harsh Winter’s Effect on Local Wildlife By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo I came home one bone-chilling February night to find a vole half-submerged in a marrowbone that I had given my dog earlier in the day. It was my first nonavian wildlife sighting since December. The average temperature had been less than 15 degrees for […]
It’s Only Natural, March 2015
Looking for Antlers in the Winter Woods By Wiley Wood Deer hunting season ends in November, but a new season starts in February: shed hunting. It doesn’t require a gun or a license from the state. The point is to find antlers in the woods that have been shed recently by white-tail bucks. I learned […]
It’s Only Natural
Holding Ground: A New Approach to Land Conservation in a Changing Climate By Susannah Wood It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the news on climate change: polar ice caps melting at alarming rates, sea level rising, the oceans both acidifying and warming, levels of C02 closing in on 400 ppm, 2014 was the hottest year […]
The Christmas Bird Count
Citizen Scientists Make Their Mark By Susannah Wood On December 14, in the dark and cold of 4 a.m., Ray Belding is going to be in the woods calling to owls. For the next 10 hours or so he and his team will be counting every bird they see for the annual Audubon Christmas Bird […]
It’s Only Natural
Birth of a Fawn Bu Marie Lowe It is not often that people are privileged to view the miracle of new life in the natural world. My husband, West, and I were fortunate recently to do just that, in triplicate! While gazing out our bedroom window early one morning this past May, we noticed a […]
It’s Only Natural
Birding by Ear By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo There’s a certain lonesomeness that accompanies time in nature, which birding eliminates. It also affords a rare opportunity to glimpse into a secret natural world and observe a multitude of species. It is no surprise that birders are everywhere, especially this time of year. On a recent birding […]
