Natural History

The area above treeline in the White Mountains of New Hampshire is called the Alpine Zone. It is an inhospitable place for plant life which is exposed to extreme conditions including high wind, heavy cloud cover, high precipitation, low temperatures and a …

I hiked past a moose skeleton on my last  Appalachian trail section hike through the Mahoosuc Range, which crosses the border between New Hampshire and Maine. Moose are big animals and it was a pretty impressive sight. The picture above is of …

For many years, my primary motivation for hiking and backpacking has been to experience a form of meditation practiced by Buddhists called walking meditation. This differs from sitting meditation because the practitioner is moving outdoors with their eyes open, paying close attention …

Over the past few weeks, I’ve become fascinated by the different types of mushrooms and fungus growing in the New England forests where I backpack. I’m not interested in eating them or even touching them, but they’re a very cool life form …

I was out hiking last weekend in the Middlesex Fells just outside of Boston. I am working on a project that I've set for myself, which is to inventory and be able to identify all of the tree species that grow in …

I just finished reading an incredible book called Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England, authored by Tom Wessels, an ecologist and environmental biologist who teaches at the Antioch New England Graduate School in New Hampshire. This book teaches …

When I was hiking near Canada on the Long Trail last weekend, I saw a lot of beech trees in the woods. I've always loved their smooth silvery bark which is so different from the rough scaley bark of the other deciduous …

I took a long day hike this morning in search of the Catskills Aqueduct which flows underground through the Mohonk Preserve. Along the way, I spotted a lot of wildlife including a swimming beaver, white-tailed deer, wild turkeys and a unusual congregation …

Rock tripe is an edible lichen found in eastern parts of the US that is commonly found on rock faces and cliffs. It is very sensitive to air pollution, so when you see it growing abundantly, chances are good that the air …

When we think about which wild animal encounters to avoid in the backcountry, bears, snakes, and mice are on the top of most backpackers’ lists, not the homely porcupine. Perhaps porcupines should be taken a bit more seriously. You see, porcupines love …

If someone were to ask you, “how does a bear smell,” you could answer in two ways. Bears smell real bad – or so I’m told – or bears smell exceptionally well, as I discuss below. Bears are thought to have the …

Black fly season occurs from mid-March to mid-July in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, north through New York and New England, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and into Southern Canada. Some backpackers, campers, and fishermen avoid outdoor activities during black fly season, but …