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Newsletter
April 22, 2011
In This Issue
Editor's Blog
The Outside Story
What In The Woods?
Last Week's Contest Answer
Northern Woodlands News
Quick Links

chestnut leaf EDITOR'S BLOG
A Gift of Chestnut
Walter Medwid

 

The package of chestnut lumber arrived. Maybe a dozen pieces of various lengths, all in floorboard width. It came from a barn in Virginia, traveled to become flooring at a good friend's home in Wisconsin, and eventually the leftovers arrived at my home in Vermont courtesy of the Post Office...


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skunk THE OUTSIDE STORY 

Season's Greetings From Your Neighborhood Skunk 

Kent McFarland

There is nothing like the fresh smell of a spring morning, unless, during the night, a skunk skulked about your neighborhood. The striped skunk is armed with just a teaspoon of odoriferous oil in its two anal glands, but a little bit goes a long way...

 

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ellens mystery WHAT IN THE WOODS IS THAT?
Our Biweekly Guessing Game!

Reader Ellen Snyder took this picture last weekend at College Woods in Durham, New Hampshire. What is this dark splotch?

 

Every other week we run a photo of something unusual found in the woods. Guess what it is and you'll be eligible to win a copy of The Outside Story, a paperback collection of our Outside Story newspaper columns. A prize winner will be drawn at random from all the correct entries. The correct answer, and the winner's name, will appear in next week's column. 


View the full image and enter this week's contest

This week's contest deadline is 8:00 AM, Wednesday, May 4, 2011.
messy spaghetti Previous Contest Answer

Congratulations to our winner, Bonnie Caruthers of Walpole, NH! Bonnie receives a copy of our book, The Outside Story.
 

Reader Garry Plunkett took this photo on his small suburban woodlot in Tiverton, Rhode Island. What is it?  


NW Answer: Alder Tongue Gall (though as music fans of a certain age, we

especially appreciated the guess that it was tangled cassette tape from a 1970's vintage Lynyrd Skynyrd offering (Gimme Back My Bullets, no doubt) that had been tossed from the open window of a speeding car and subsequently lodged in a young apple tree.)

 

The alder tongue gall results from a fungus (T. amentorum) that infects the female fruit-scales of alder trees. The scales are deformed and grow to several times their normal size. Color-wise, the outgrowths progress from green to bright orange to red before finally turning brown, like the ones seen in this photo.

 

 Visit our What In The Woods Is That? contest archive.

NW Woodpecker logoNORTHERN WOODLANDS NEWS

New Resource: Educator's E-Newsletter  

         

The Northern Woodlands Goes to School (NWGTS) program is pleased to announce a new environmental education resource: a bi-weekly educator's e-newsletter. To sign up for this e-newsletter and to learn more about the NWGTS program, visit the For Educators page on our website.    

 

Cool New Book


Long-time readers of Northern Woodlands may remember Sarah Smith's story on the women of Turkey Pond in the Autumn 2002 issue. This World War II-era crew of women took over the duties of running a sawmill that was salvaging lumber from trees blown down by the 1938 hurricane.


Smith, a forester with UNH Cooperative Extension, has now published a book on the subject called They Sawed Up A Storm: The Women's Sawmill at Turkey Pond, New Hampshire, 1942. The 1938 hurricane blew down millions of board feet, much of it white pine. Southern New Hampshire was hit hard, and the glut of logs from the salvage operations was stored in ponds like Turkey Pond, in Concord, to keep them sound. More than three years after the hurricane, there were still ponds full of logs, and the women were called in to finish the job when the men went off to war. Period photos help Smith tell the very engaging and inspiring story.


The book is available at the author's Website: www.turkeypond.com 

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The mission of the Center for Northern Woodlands Education is to encourage a culture of forest stewardship in the Northeast by producing and distributing media content to increase understanding of and appreciation for the natural wonders, economic productivity, and ecological integrity of the region's forests. Our programs give people the information they need to help build a sustainable future for our region. Through Northern Woodlands magazine, the Northern Woodlands Goes to School program, and special publications, we make a difference in how people care for their land.