Beaver, grooming It's always been difficult for me to spend days indoors; the woods beckon. But these raw, cold days of early winter are making it a bit more tolerable to sit at a computer and edit footage (yuck!). As a result, another hour of the "Beaver Pond Wildlife" series is finished. Part 4, "Mid Summer - Fall" is now available on our Youtube channel. This continues the chronology of a ..read more

 If I had to choose just one kind of natural habitat to spend all my outdoor time in, it would have to be a beaver pond. Ideally, it would be deep in an old-growth forest. But, old forest surroundings or not, it would be a pond. Why? Because there's so much wildlife to be found there, more so than any other habitat I know of. That's why it's been a longtime plan to create a film about such places ..read more

 Terrestrial ecologist and author Tom Wessels has a lot of fans, especially in New England. His "Reading the Forested Landscape" book and our film series of the same title are inspiring a lot of people to be forest detectives. There's no one more skilled at interpreting what we see in northeast woods than Tom. If you've ever been on one of his forest walks, you know how interesting his programs ..read more

If you'll be in the White Mountains of New Hampshire at the end of July, 2021, you may want to attend a special event.  400-year-old eastern hemlock forest  The Colonial Theatre in Bethlehem, NH, in partnership with Ammonoosuc Conservation Trust, will host a screening of our film The Lost Forests of New England on Friday, July 30, 2021. The program is part of their new "Wild Thing" film ..read more

In "Beaver Pond Wildlife: Part 1 - Early Spring", we began a series of films to document a year's wildlife activity at beaver ponds. Initially, the thought was that a one-hour film would be enough to cover four seasons. But as we spent long days gathering footage over a few years' time, it became apparent that there was going to be more material we wanted to include than could be crammed into a ..read more

In a place like New England, or most anywhere else in the country for that matter, those of us who are fascinated by the daily goings-on of animals can get our wildlife fix at a beaver pond. A brief stop at the pond may or may not reward us with some kind of animal action, but a longer stay almost always will. Osprey captures fishThings typically don't happen in rapid-fire succession here ..read more

    The northeastern quadrant of the United States is fortunate to be treated to an annual spectacle... the fluorescent foliage of fall. Many of our tree species here in New England present a glorious display, but as a group, the maples win the prize for the widest range of colors. You might think we Yankees would all be confident in our ability to distinguish each local maple species from its kin, given that no other place on Earth can match this pageant. But if you can't, there's no need to cower in shame; you just need to watch our latest film, The Magic Maples of New England ..read more

Once touted as the premiere stand of old eastern white pines (Pinus strobus) in New England, the legendary, lofty Cathedral Pines were summarily brought to the ground in 1989 by three (!) tornadoes (apparently, one wasn't enough).   Cathedral Pines, 1970's (Jack Sobon photo)   The 42-acre grove of tall conifers sprouted from seed on agricultural land sometime in the late 1700's, and soared skyward over the next two centuries. A road rambled through the tallest of the pines at the base of a hill, providing the namesake cathedral experience for visitors. That scene was profita ..read more

Bob Leverett, co-founder of the Native Tree Society, co-author of The Sierra Club Guide to the Ancient Forests of the Northeast, and co-author of American Forests' champion tree measuring guidelines, has been leading the charge to give the black birch tree proper recognition for the height stature it achieves. The following is an essay penned by Bob. The Birch Quintet Lessons in Natural History, Tree-Measuring, and Ecology with Aesthetic Overtone by Robert T. Leverett   Introduction How is the tree species black birch (Betula lenta) related to classical music? This is a question to which ..read more

As this is being written, Americans, and many others around the world, are keeping their distance from each other, fearful of contracting the new Corona virus COVID-19. We're staying out of work, school, restaurants, sports events, and other places where people gather. This is likely to go on for many weeks. Many are probably wondering what they can do to pass the time and forget about viruses. Well, for me, there's no better way to escape the saturated media Covid coverage than to head for the nearest forest and beaver pond. It's late winter. Actually, spring begins in a couple days on Marc ..read more