WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – Native plants are great and all, but what if all they have at the garden center is a closely related, non-native species imported from Asia or Europe? Will it matter to our insect friends if you fudge the sourcing just a little bit? For a research paper published[Read More…]
Columns
Helping to Keep Gardens Healthy
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Every gardener wants a healthy, productive garden whether they’re growing vegetables, berries or flowers. While some problems are outside our control, there are a number of things to do to help keep a garden healthy all summer long. Start with healthy soil. Have a soil test[Read More…]
Milkweed is not a Weed at All
NORTHFIELD – Milkweed may seem like a weed because of its name, but it’s actually an incredibly important plant. The leaves of milkweed are the primary food source for monarch caterpillars. The flowers provide nectar for the adult monarch butterfly and countless other pollinators and insects. The monarch (Danaus plexippus),[Read More…]
Still, We Persist
EAST MONTPELIER – Donald Trump is a tough target for journalists and commentators to hit. Like a high-flying bomber that spews metallic chaff out its back end to confuse the radar of missiles, he so consistently floods the news cycles with outrages that by the time anyone has the chance[Read More…]
Heat Departing; Another Split Weekend for Precipitation
EAST HARDWICK – Much of Vermont is in the wake of a short burst of extreme heat, which saw temperatures reaching the 90s for two days in a row. Although temperatures stopped short of qualifying this event as a heat wave (three days of 90 degree-plus highs), humidity during the[Read More…]
Up and Down Again: How Montane Birds Navigate Spring Weather
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – It’s a sunny day in early June, and your plan is to beat the I-93 summer crowds with a hike up the Franconia Ridge in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. But as you ascend, you reach a point where the trail disappears under a monorail[Read More…]
Life in a Shell: Eastern Box Turtle
MILLBROOK, N.Y. – As a budding naturalist growing up in the concrete-heavy environs of Boston, I would regularly thumb through my family’s collection of nature books and daydream about the creatures within. One species I was particularly drawn to was the eastern box turtle. These charismatic terrestrial turtles have high-domed[Read More…]
Helping House Bats Raise Pups
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – Hear a new rustling up above? It could be mice. Or it could be another small, adorable, furry critter with wings. Little Brown and Big Brown Bats, also referred to as house bats, are common visitors to residences from about mid-April to October (although the Big[Read More…]
Dapper Sparrow of Underbrush: Eastern Towhee
NORTHEAST – From forest edges and thickets on late spring mornings in the Northeast comes what sounds like an exhortation from across the pond: drink-your-tea! This is not a British parent’s plea, but rather the song of a chunky, colorful sparrow: the eastern towhee. The eastern towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus, or[Read More…]
Strawberry Season is in Full Swing
BURLINGTON – There’s nothing like the taste of a fresh-picked strawberry. Sweet, juicy and flavorful, it’s the first fruit to ripen on our local farms, and this year’s crop is a good one. The buds that produce strawberries were formed last fall. Growers then tucked the plants away under a[Read More…]
Rail Trail Signs Ask for Identification Help
BURLINGTON – Visitors on Vermont’s rail trails this summer will notice new signs asking for their help identifying a fast-growing introduced invasive tree called tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima). This tree is the preferred host of the spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula), an invasive sap-feeding insect that poses a serious threat to Vermont’s vineyards[Read More…]
A View of my Beloved Country
EAST MONTPELIER – Making hay while the sun shines and the roads are free of slippery impediments to travel, I did a little extra driving this past weekend. In the process, I got a better-than-usual view of my beloved country, on the car radio, passing through small towns, on my[Read More…]
