NW Educator’s eNewsletter

August 30, 2019

Phenology Calendar

A Look at the Season’s Main Events

Virginia Barlow

First Week of September

Ospreys begin moving south.

Trees with leaves suck a huge amount of water from the soil. If it’s not too rainy, conditions for logging may be excellent from now until leaf fall.

A cold front followed by gentle northwest winds will trigger many migratory birds to head south; look for hawks above the ridges, songbirds in the woods.

Timber rattlesnakes are returning to their ancestral hibernacula to bask in the autumn sun before turning in for the winter.

Second Week of September

Time to look for recipes that use a lot of green tomatoes.

The northern fall field cricket is silenced by the first hard frost, unless it gets into the house. If that happens, the once-lovely song may become annoying.

Warbler migration is underway, but their confusing autumn plumage and relative silence make identification difficult for most of us.

Early signs of the rut among white-tailed deer, with bucks establishing hierarchies of dominance.

Northern Woodlands

We recently received this photo for the August readers’ photo gallery, along with this explanation from Bonnie Honaberger: “I found this chrysalis on the ground, thus the straight pin”…

Wait…where did summer go? Your August photos showed the transition from new life to maturity and even the first faint hints of autumn. An adult cicada emerged from its nymphal shell, an eight-point buck posed in his velvet, and a common nighthawk began its southern migration.

We’re now looking for September 2019 photos that relate to northeastern forests. These could be images of people, plants, wildlife, weather, forest management, wood processing, educational activities, recreation, art, landscapes, or events.

Submission Deadline: Monday, September 30, 2019

Last week, a game camera in Strafford, Vermont, captured this wildlife selfie. What are we looking at? Or, rather, what is looking at us?

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 newsletter.

This week’s contest deadline is 8:00 AM, Wednesday, September 11, 2019.

Congratulations to our winner Margaret Huber!

The photographer was drawn to this tree (in mid-July, on a rich site) by a loud hum coming from its canopy. What’s the tree species, and why was its canopy humming?

NW Answer:

The tree is a basswood and it’s in flower. The hum was caused by many, many bees visiting the flowers.

Northern Woodlands News

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

NASA and UMaine join forces on a three-year forest health study. A free six-week course is aimed at educating the state’s landowners on forest management. A Maine farm overtaken by monarchs. Cornell student scientists are studying the long-term health of New Hampshire’s sugar maples. Five autumn hikes in the Granite State. Overhiking in the Adirondacks, where century-old fire towers are getting a second life. Celebrating Smokey’s birthday. Biking across Vermont. Horseshoe crabs help save lives; now some New England scientists are working to protect theirs. Looking at the Amazon fires using satellite imagery. Why doctors are increasingly prescribing nature. Strange but true: rolling poop balls and boar wars in Europe. Ancient stone tools offer clues to a long-ago epic trek to North America. CBD products: pop culture versus science.

INDUSTRY

A major federal grant will help Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont create better data on New England forests and their economic impact. Observing the positive role that new wood product technologies are playing in Maine’s forest industry. Making the case for biomass in New Hampshire. Bottling up beech syrup in New York and Vermont. A political battle is brewing over logging in Alaska.

STORIES YOU’VE SHARED

Anne Dannenberg, a member of the Northern Woodlands community and a director at The Huntington Public Library in Huntington, Vermont, developed a collection of tree and forest books for that library that she shared with us. Click here to download. “I hope it will be useful in some regard to others who enjoy expanding their world through books,” said Dannenberg. Happy reading.

Alan Robertson passed along information about HR 3244, bill proposed by Congressman Peter Welch, to fund research on native tree species recovery, and funding for the Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS). Here’s a summary of the bill from Vermont Business Magazine and a link from the American Forest Foundation.

Alan has also been recognized as the 2019 Vermont Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year. The Vermont Woodlands Association is hosting an event at his woodlot on September 14th. Registration is required; you can find details here.

Join us at the Hulbert Outdoor Center on October 18-20, 2019 for a fun, informal weekend and vibrant mix of speakers. This year’s gathering includes natural history talks, readings, writing workshops and hands-on experiences, from nature journaling to photography to late-season bee lining!

Early Bird Special: Register before August 31 and receive 10% off!

Use code EarlyBird to secure this special rate.

The Autumn edition of Northern Woodlands features: