By Joe Rankin Forests for Maine’s Future Writer Autumn, or at least the fall foliage part of autumn, is rapidly disappearing in the rear view mirror. One day is golden — and red and maroon and orange — and then a fall nor’easter blasts through, stripping the color from the trees. Fall in New…
Charles Fergus loves nothing better than to rev up his walk-behind DR brush hog and mow his fields. Photo courtesy of Garet Nelson He’s not aiming for anything like a golf-course close cut, or a neat suburban lawn. Or even a nicely manicured pasture. He just wants to cut back the pencil-thick aspens and other…
“Outdoors” people, even those that don’t consider themselves naturalists, can identify trees, at the least common species. And the common wildflowers. But, when it comes to ferns, well, ferns tend to look alike. Sort of lacy and delicate and . . . green. That is unfortunate, say fern lovers and fern experts. Ferns are a…
It’s not easy being a whitetail deer in Maine in the winter, especially northern Maine. The snow piles deep, the frozen winds howl down out of Canada and food is scarce, especially foods that provide the necessary calories to help you cope with the harsh weather. Enter the deer wintering area. Or “deer yard” as…
Travel the rural roads in this part of the country and you’ll see them along roadsides and driveways and in yards. Green in summer, a painter’s palette of orange, yellow, and red for a few glorious weeks in the fall. These giant sugar maples are New England’s signature trees, now that most of the old…
A thinned white pine stand photo courtesy of City of PortlandTwo years ago, logging crews spent the first three months thinning the woods surrounding Riverside Golf Course along the Presumpscot River. Not unusual, this is Maine, after all, the most forested state in the country. But it is noteworthy because it occurred in Maine’s largest…
By Joe Rankin, Forests for Maine’s Future Writer Editors Note: This story was originally published in 2018. In 2021, researchers from the University of New Hampshire identified southern pine beetle for the first time in Maine. Sometimes the name of an organism carries weighty meaning. For instance, that of the southern pine beetle, Dendroctonus frontalis….
Robert Perschel has worked in forestry for a long time. As an industrial forester, a forestry consultant, with The Wilderness Society and a chair of the Northern Forest Alliance. He’s a co-founder of the Forest Stewards Guild. Perschel has seen a lot of different types of forestry. And he’s often grappled with the question of…
People have been gluing up wood for thousands of years. Prehistoric peoples bonded spear points and ax heads to wood with glue. The ancient Egyptians 5,500 years ago figured out how to make veneer. Plywood is old hat: invented the year the American Civil War ended. After World War II chemists and engineers figured out…
They produce gun stocks, flooring, cedar shingles, log homes, wooden playsets. They make cigar tips, wooden pack baskets, doors and staircases. Cutting boards and chairs, cabinets and baseball bats, grilling planks canoe paddles. Colorful wooden eggs made by Wells Wood Turning in Buckfield have been featured at the White House Easter Egg roll since 2006,…
