History, Natural History & the Arts
Every year my husband and I cut a Christmas tree on family land. We look for a young balsam fir growing in the power line right-of-way or in a forest clearing.
Fir is our favorite type of Christmas tree because of its delightful, pungent fragrance. While Christmas tree farmers cultivate a variety of fir species, balsam fir is the only type of fir native to Northern New York. [Read more…] about Balsam Fir: A Native New York Christmas Tree
Bayard Cutting Arboretum is a 691-acre New York state park situated along the Connetquot River on the south shore of Long Island in the town of Islip.
The former Westbrook estate of Mr. William Bayard Cutting (1850-1912), a hobby botanist and conifer enthusiast, holds a rich history of landscape design and botanical specimens dating back to the nineteenth century. [Read more…] about Tracing the Roots of Bayard Cutting Arboretum
Years ago, a hitchhiker found a baby red squirrel beneath a tree and brought it to the nature center where I worked as a naturalist and wildlife rehabilitator. The squirrel kit had not yet opened its eyes, so we estimated it was only three weeks old. Most squirrels are born in the spring, but this one arrived at the center in November and was likely born in mid-October. [Read more…] about A Young Red Squirrel Grows Up
Last February, several evening grosbeaks, which we rarely see here, visited our bird feeder. About the size of robins, the males were yellow with black and white wings, a black tail, and a bright yellow band above the eyes.
The females were silver-gray with tinges of yellow and similar coloration to the males on the wings and tail. Both sexes sport a massive, conical bill – the origin of the name grosbeak – used for extracting and cracking seeds. [Read more…] about A Tale of Two Grosbeaks: Colorful Winter Finches
My yard is full of eastern white pine trees, and every three years or so, it is full of pine cones. This is one of those years. Pine cones have fallen all over the yard, the sidewalk, the driveway.
The neighborhood wildlife seem pleased by this bounty. A resident gray squirrel has made a fallen log in my yard its snack site. Pine cone fragments are neatly arranged in a circle around the squirrel’s perch. [Read more…] about Pine Cones: The Complicated Lives of Conifer Seeds
During this season of giving, it is only right to include the environment on your list of those that need a gift.
While a tie, sweater, or a pair of socks is not appropriate for Mother Nature, the item that many individuals should consider bringing to our fields and forests is the ashes that are produced by wood stoves, fireplaces and outdoor wood boilers, as this material is one of the most precious commodities that our environment can use. [Read more…] about Wood Ash: A Christmas Gift For Nature
Some of the most enduring memories of the winter holiday season are those associated with smell.
For Santa, a whiff of reindeer dung probably brings the spirit of the season into focus, but we have loads of sweeter smells to remind us of Christmases past. [Read more…] about An Arborist Considers Christmas Trees, Evergreen Traditions
It’s simple physics. In a cold environment, small objects lose heat at a faster rate than large objects. This is why most warm-blooded animals that reside in a northern climate tend to be large in size.
Yet, for every rule, there is always an exception and when considering birds, the golden-crowned kinglet (Regulus satrapa) is a perplexing anomaly. [Read more…] about The Golden-Crowned Kinglet in Winter
Of all life’s synergies, I appreciate most the one between my propensity for domestic procrastination and my love of moving through the outdoors – countless adventures are born of it.
During a late November weekend, when faced with a day spent winterizing our home, my husband and I instead packed up our children and headed for Mount Moosilauke, a 4,802-foot-high peak in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. [Read more…] about How Trees Prepare for Winter
For thousands of years, people have decorated their homes with evergreen boughs, a symbol of eternal life, during the darkest time of the year – around the winter solstice and Christmas.
In addition to common species such as spruce and fir, I’ve noticed another evergreen in my neighborhood: a low, sprawling shrub growing on the slope of the ravine above a stream. [Read more…] about American Yew: A Native Evergreen
If you are prone to looking up as you walk (or pedal or drive) among trees, you may have noticed a bumper crop of cones clinging to the highest branches of white pine trees this summer and fall.
Around my yard, the red squirrels have been busy gathering cones, chattering away as they scamper through the branches. But I’ve also heard another sound this autumn – beyond the scolding squirrels and familiar chickadee calls – a gregarious twittering from high in the trees. [Read more…] about Nomadic Finches: Pine Siskins Irrupting
It’s evening, and you’re in the forest. You close your eyes and inhale the sharp, sweet, turpentine scent of pine. The air is still, yet the branches overhead seem to nod at your presence. You shine a flashlight and catch a glimpse: a fleeting, tiny ball of fur, arms and legs outstretched, tail like a rudder, gliding through the night. It lands on a tree trunk, pauses, then launches itself again. A flying squirrel, in its glory. [Read more…] about When North Meets South: Flying Squirrel Hybrids
The eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) isn’t really a crop-bearing tree, but it has borne priceless fruit for American democracy. Physically as well as culturally massive, there are many accounts from the early 1800s of white pines over 200 feet tall being harvested. One credible report pegs a white pine at 247 feet, and unverified accounts have claimed that 300-foot-tall leviathans were cut back then. [Read more…] about White Pines: Physically & Culturally Colossal
Rolling into the summer months, the Adirondack High Peaks Wilderness experiences a sharp expansion of its wildlife community.
Insects adapted for survival in an often cool, high-elevation environment emerge from their long winter dormancy and are engaged in eating and breeding. Various species of birds have traveled to upper elevation slopes to mate and nest, and numerous mammals that reside in this harsh climatic zone are now busy rearing infants which can temporarily double their populations. [Read more…] about The American Marten in the Adirondacks
A winter walk in the forest reveals a flurry of wildlife activity that often goes unnoticed during other times of the year. Often among the many tracks in the snow are the nearly heart-shaped prints of whitetail deer. Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are common throughout the United States, with an estimated population of 30 million nationwide.
Deer are an important part of the ecosystem, but their foraging behavior can wreak havoc in forests, where browsing may contribute to the spread of invasive plants – and decrease species diversity. [Read more…] about Whitetail Deer & Spreading Invasive Species
After Hudson River logging sharply declined by 1905, the Adirondack railroad line known as the Mohawk & Malone kept NYS lumber companies in business for at least another twelve years. A big part of this was due to logging north of Big Moose, shown on this New York Central & Hudson River railroad map, with eight station stops northward toward Tupper Lake (shown at left), three of them as junctions for logging railroads — Wood’s Lake, Brandreth, and Nehasane.
Beaver River Station was shifting from logging to tourism. Little Rapids was a flag stop, Keepawa unlisted in an 1895 train schedule. This article will describe the logging history of Wood’s Lake and Beaver River stations, beginning with a new lumbering operation just north of Big Moose. [Read more…] about Adirondack Logging History: Wood’s Lake & Beaver River Stations
In winter, when temperatures dip well below zero Fahrenheit, especially if they fall precipitously, things go bump in the night. Frozen lakes and ponds emit ominous groans, snaps and booms that reverberate through the ice. Wood siding and old knee joints might creak. And if soil moisture is high and snow cover sparse, the soil can freeze deeply, causing the earth to shift in a harmless, localized cryoseism, or “frost quake” that produces a nerve-rattling bang. [Read more…] about Trees, Knees, and Other Deep-Freeze Creaks
The tradition of burning a Yule log has largely fizzled out in most parts of the world. While holiday cards often feature cute, picturesque birch rounds in the hearth, old-time Yule logs in 6th and 7th century Europe were monster tree trunks that were meant to burn all day, and in certain cultures for twelve continuous days, without being entirely used up. [Read more…] about Yule Logs & Firewood Science
My ex-wife gave me a shirt that reads “Change is Good. You Go First” when our divorce was finalized, a much-appreciated bit of humor in the midst of a challenging time. It’s hard to find the mirth in some changes, especially when we don’t have a say in them.
Climate change is a good example. Global temperatures are rising at an ever-increasing rate. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe with time, and no amount of denial will make it go away. We have to learn to roll with this one. [Read more…] about Tree Selection For Our Changing Climate
In the 1820s the State of New York encouraged Adirondack exploration and settlement, benefiting from the land sales and taxes (when they were paid). Lewis County newspapers were abuzz with praise for the 1825 completion of the Erie Canal, and in less than a year, the Black River Gazette launched a discussion on “improving” the Black River as a connection between the canal and the St. Lawrence River, anticipating the economic benefit Adirondack timber would bring when this opened a commercial route to the rest of the world: [Read more…] about Up Every River: Logging The Adirondacks (1820-40)
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