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A Look at the Season’s Main Events
Virginia Barlow
Third Week of November
November 17-18: The moon will be nearly new and won’t get in the way of the Leonid meteor shower as it peaks.
Partridgeberries are red and many birds and mammals are said to eat them. However, you find plenty of these fruits in the spring, too, so they may not be such a preferred food.
Ruffed grouse are enlarging their shoe size in preparation for winter. They grow little fringes along each side of each toe to keep them from sinking into the snow.
Fourth Week of November
Healthy bear cubs now weigh at least 75 pounds and will soon follow their mothers into winter dens.
Raccoons are headed for their winter quarters; sometimes shared with several other raccoons.
Porcupines are mating. One – never more than one – little porcupine will be born in the spring.
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Dave Mance III
One of our regular magazine contributors sent me this email this week: An awful thing happened this weekend here in Plainfield. I was walking in the fields near my house with my little dog Henry and he stepped on a coyote leg trap. It was just awful, awful, awful. I couldn’t get it open, and I had to leave him there howling…
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Northern Woodlands Readers
Berries abound in your October photos, which depict a basket full of lowbush or true cranberries, so-called highbush cranberries hanging from a Viburnum, and the lovely but toxic fruit of blue cohosh. While these seeds await dispersal in packets of pulp, those of milkweed and thistle float away on silky tufts, known as pappi. This month’s gallery also features fishers, bears, and forest stewards walking in the woods, plus two remarkable whitetails: a ten-pointer and a squirrel!
We’re now looking for November 2017 photos that relate to northeastern forests. These could be images of plants, wildlife, weather, forest management, wood processing, educational activities, recreation, art, landscapes, or events. To submit your photos, please use the form below. Thank you!
Submission Deadline for the November Gallery: Monday, November 27, 2017
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Susan Shea
Late last June, we drove south from Seattle, then north, circumnavigating Puget Sound. Through occasional showers, we caught glimpses of our destination, the jagged Olympics, clothed in forest and shrouded in mist…
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Declan McCabe
A few Thanksgivings ago, my then-ten-year-old daughter and I went for an afternoon stroll. Unseasonably warm weather made for a longer than planned walk through a power line right-of-way and on down through steeply sloping woods to the Winooski River…
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Brett Amy Thelen
Every so often, my friend David texts me a picture of roadkill. A fisher trailing a single strand of blood-red sinew. A wind-roused pile of porcupine quills. A bobcat in graceful, permanent repose…
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What happened to these beech trees?
Every other week we run a photo of something unusual found in the woods. Guess what it is and you’ll be eligible to win one of our Season’s Main Events Day Calendars. A prize winner will be drawn at random from all the correct entries. The correct answer, and the winner’s name, will appear in our next e-newsletter.
This week’s contest deadline is 8:00 AM, Wednesday, November 29, 2017.
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Congratulations to our winner George Thomas! George receives one of our Season’s Main Events day calendars.
A wheelbarrow full of small chunks generated while working up a load of log-length firewood. This byproduct probably wouldn’t have existed 10 years ago. What are they and what changed?
NW Answer: The homeowner removed these nubs when processing his log-length firewood. They had been left on the logs because it had been limbed by a feller-buncher. Feller-buncher saws don’t always cut as flush as a logger can when limbing trees with a chainsaw. This is particularly true on low-grade/low-value logs because processing time/effort is more of a concern and firewood buyers have lower standards than sawlog mills.
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Our cup runneth over. Actually, our inbox spilleth over. Either way, we have a lot of interesting news stories that cross our desks. Here were some of our favorites:
NATURE
Remembering “the year that Maine burned.” The forest understory: diverse, dynamic, difficult. A vine that is taking over New Hampshire’s landscape. Can ATVs reinvigorate the economy in the northern part of that state? Vermont solar developers see treasure in old trash dumps. Debate over expanding the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge. Vermont Coverts receives a major gift. New York voters approve a land bank amendment. And, after Sandy, a maritime forest is planted to protect against the next big storm. An 82-year-old becomes the oldest everto thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. Brazil wants to be paid for protecting the Amazon from logging. Uncovering Antarctica’s fossil forests.
INDUSTRY
The University of Maine and Irving Woodlands partner for forestry research, while the Maine Wood Products Association announces award winners. The Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands will lead a national effort to promote the Master Logger Certification program. A five-year plan to ignite advanced wood heating in Vermont. Penn State creates food packagingfrom wood. Statistically, logging ranks as the most dangerous job in America. Finding new markets for sawmill residues. Softwood lumber duties set in U.S./Canada dispute. One of the last logging railroads in North America shuts down after a century. China is buying wood aggressively and moving shipping containers to logging sites in the U.S.
STORIES YOU’VE SHARED
NorthWoods Stewardship Center has announced Vermont Land Trust forester Dan Kilborn as the recipient of the fifth annual George Buzzell Forest Stewardship Award. In honor of the esteemed county forester for which it is named, this award recognizes an individual who is making a positive impact on Northeast Kingdom forests. “As the VLT forester for the Northeast Kingdom, Dan is a gifted communicator who understands that good management comes from a strong connection to the land; he works daily to educate landowners and the public in the latest forestry ideas and best practices,” the organization stated. An award ceremony will be held at 5:30 p.m. at the NorthWoods Stewardship Center on Wednesday, November 15. Learn more here.
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The Hulbert Outdoor Center, Fairlee, Vermont
Mark your calendars to join us for our fifth annual all-things-woodlands conference!
More Info Coming Soon!
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 Shedding Light on the Working Forest
This remarkable catalog, produced by Kathleen Kolb and Verandah Porche for their collaborative traveling exhibit, contains reproductions of 29 paintings and drawings by Kathleen, three poems by Verandah, nine narratives, and essays by Northern Woodlands editor, Dave Mance III, and writer Debbie Hagan. $24
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