By Joe Rankin As if the emerald ash borer’s incursion into northern New England wasn’t enough, now there’s another potentially devastating forest pest marching this way: the southern pine beetle. Dendroctonus frontalis – the first name means “tree murderer,” we […]
Category: The Outside Story
The Outside Story
Rosy maple moth: contender for the cutest moth award
By Barbara Mackay The church service was about to begin when some breathless kids pulled me out of my seat to “come see this awesome, pretty, pink-and-yellow, fuzzy baby moth!” on the Sunday school door. It was a rosy maple […]
The Outside Story
Web decorations
By Rachel Marie Sargent When I was little and tagging along when my dad tended his vegetables, I would sometimes find large black and yellow garden spiders. They were beautiful, and I noticed they had a curious trait: they often […]
The Outside Story
Mute swans, beautiful but harmful
By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul The big white birds paddling gracefully across a Massachusetts pond last November surprised me. I’d grown up in the town I was visiting and had never seen swans there, although my friend assured me they were […]
The Outside Story
April showers
By Carolyn Lorié In the pre-dawn hours of April 22, the Lyrid meteor shower will peak. About 15 to 20 meteors will be visible each hour, which really is not very many. By comparison, the Perseid meteor shower in August […]
The Outside Story
Porcupine salt cravings
By Susan Shea When I was growing up, my family rented a vacation home on a mountain in southern Vermont. One night we were awakened by our dogs barking. Soon we heard a persistent gnawing on the outside of the […]
The Outside Story
Spring: raccoons and other mischieveous critters
By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul Often, during my forays into the woods behind our house, I wonder who might be occupying the holes carved into tree trunks by time and nature. The barred owls I hear hoo-hoo-hoo-hooing, maybe, or the chittering […]
The Outside Story
Stone walls
By Joe Rankin When you think about the iconic landforms of the Northeast, what comes to mind? The mountains, of course. The lakes. Of course. Rivers? Probably. But there’s another. Stone walls. An estimated 100,000 miles of them. They might […]
The Outside Story
Quaking Aspen: capturing winter light
By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul Near the house where I lived during my Colorado years, there was a trail that wove through a sprawling grove of perfect quaking aspen trees. In spring, the soft green of emerging leaves was one of […]
The Outside Story
The afterlife of logs
By Declan McCabe My three children have participated in a Four Winds Nature Institute program that recruits adult family members to lead grade-school nature learning. I have worked with several moms and dads over the years to pull together materials […]