Sometimes the name of an organism carries weighty meaning. For instance, that of the southern pine beetle, Dendroctonus frontalis. The first name, that of a genus of bark beetles, means tree murderer. That genus has a lot of members, some of which are already present in Maine. The southern pine beetle isn’t. But that may…
Photo courtesy of North Maine WoodsThere is the north Maine woods: the vast expanse of trees and mountains and ponds that makes up a significant portion of the Pine Tree State. Then there is North Maine Woods, the organization that manages recreation on 3.5 million acres of the state owned by a variety of landowners,…
Brett Mitchell has a vested interest in keeping tabs on the population of spruce budworm moths — he and his son own a 45-acre Christmas tree farm — 45,000 balsam fir trees — in St. Agatha at the northern tip of Maine. So, when he heard about a program looking for would-be citizen scientists to put…
