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Educator's E-newsletter
| February 10, 2012
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 A Look at the Season's Main Events Virginia Barlow Third Week of February Meadow voles breed almost all year round. Fortunately, they are eaten year-round, too, and are the major food now of hawks and owls.
Northern winters are hard on opossums. They don't store enough fat to get through the winter, and when they go foraging, they often get frostbitten ears and tails.
Evening grosbeaks may be feeding in box elders, the only maple to hold its seeds through winter.
Fourth Week of February
The opening buds of pussy willows are a sign that winter is losing its grip.
Deep snow will give snowshoe hare access to a surfeit of browse. They feed on the needles, buds, and small twigs of a variety of trees and shrubs.
Chickadees begin the "feebee" songs that help establish their breeding territories. Spring is in the air.
These listing are based on observations and reports in our home territory at about 1,000 feet in elevation in central Vermont and are approximate. Events may occur earlier or later, depending on your latitude, elevation - and the weather. |
Snug as a Snow Bug
Michael J. Caduto
One frosty winter's day, while tracking a mink along the edge of a stream, I discovered some tiny winter stoneflies creeping on top of the snow. Unaccountably, the stream-dwelling larvae of these insects metamorphose into adults and emerge in the depths of winter. Feeding on algae, they move along the rocks, snow, and tree bark. After mating, females lay eggs back in the stream...
Full Article TextDownload the Article
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 Bringing History to Life
Sandra Murphy
Slolly, Sprinklers, and Mackinawed Men, by Dr. Edward H. Risley
Dr. Risley's journal offers a vivid, first-person account of life in rural Maine in the early 1900s. Use this article as a springboard for launching an oral history project with your students. Your local community is likely filled with elders who can help bring your community's history to life. Help students identify community elders to interview, through your community's historical society, elder-care program, churches, and so on. Have each student select an elder to interview. They may choose to focus on a particular skill or expertise of their elder, a particularly memorable outdoor experience in that person's early life, or perhaps inquire about recollections of daily life back in the day. Or you may, as a class, decide to create a particular, central question or series of questions that each student poses to their interviewee. Whatever approach they choose, students should try to draw vivid, detailed descriptions from the elder they interview. Have students then create a presentation of their elder's history. Let students choose a form of presentation that fits the information they've uncovered through the interview process-it could be anything from an oral history performance in which they play the part of their elder to a display that draws upon photos, drawings, memorabilia, and quotes.
Website: The Grandparent/Elder Project. This Library of Congress website offers lesson plans and resource suggestions for learning history by interviewing community elders. Designed for 9th graders and adaptable for 7-12, this website can help your students formulate their approach to conducting the interview and generate interview questions. Download the Teacher's Guide (This activity is on page 2) Download the Article: Slolly, Sprinklers, and Mackinawed Men Click here for the complete Teacher's Guide archive!
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WHAT IN THE WOODS IS THAT?
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 Our Biweekly Guessing Game!
This winding vine, bedecked with puffballs of silky filaments, was found throughout a roadside thicket. What is it?
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.
This week's contest deadline is 8:00 AM, Wednesday, February 22, 2011. |
 Congratulations to our winner Karen E. Holmes of Cooper, ME! Karen receives a copy of our book, The Outside Story.
What are these gnarled formations on this birch branch?
NW Answer: Birch budgall.
The gnarly formations on this tree branch are birch bud galls - a plant tissue deformation caused by eriophyid mites (also known quite suitably as birch bud gall mites). The parasites, which overwinter on bud scales, begin feeding in the spring, initiating gall formations as the leaves and flower buds open.
This week's winner is Karen E. Holmes, who not only identified the gall, but the mites that caused it.
Visit our What In The Woods Is That? contest archive.
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Educator's Workshop: Ethics and the EnvironmentFriday, February 24 9:00 am - 3:00 pm Hartford, Connecticut Connecticut's Project Learning Tree (PLT) will hold a one-day workshop on teaching social studies and ethics with a focus on the environment. Participants will receive a PLT activity book, a copy of the Connecticut Walk Book (East or West), light refreshments, networking opportunities, and eligibility to receive GreenWorks! grants from PLT. Workshop Fee: $40 per person with financial assistance available. For more information and how to register, click here. Position Announcement: MEEA and NEEEA Project CoordinatorThe Maine Environmental Education Association (MEEA) and the New England Environmental Education Alliance (NEEEA) seek a Projects Coordinator to support the work of both the MEEA and NEEEA Boards of Directors. The purpose of this new position is to efficiently manage specific capacity-building projects for these growing state and regional nonprofit associations, coordinate efforts to implement the Environmental Literacy Plans of the six New England states, and build membership, participation and collaboration through marketing and communication. Click here for more information and how to apply. Do you have news or an event you'd like to share? Let us know!
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If you are an educator who finds Northern Woodlands magazine useful in your classroom, you are eligible for a complimentary subscription. Simply e-mail your completed registration form to the NWGTS coordinator Emily Rowe.
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We Welcome Your Questions and Comments
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Northern Woodlands
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P.O. Box 471
Corinth, VT 05039
Toll-Free: (800) 290-5232
Phone: (802) 439-6292
Fax: (802) 439-6296
Email: emily@northernwoodlands.org
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The mission of the Center for Northern Woodlands Education is to advance a culture of forest stewardship in the Northeast and 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.
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