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Newsletter
| March 22, 2013
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 EDITOR'S BLOG
Dispatch From The Sugarwoods
Dave Mance III
It won't be long now until baseball season starts, which in southwestern Vermont means John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman on the radio calling Yankees games. I don't even like the Yankees but I like both of these announcers, so I listen semi-religiously. Sterling is a showman, known primarily for his bombastic homerun calls - you can hear audio clips here...
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 THE OUTSIDE STORY
How Much Sap Would a Tapped Tree Have?
Dave Mance III
Our sugarhouse is within walking distance of an elementary school, so we've given tapping demonstrations to hundreds of school kids over the years. At the part where someone drills a hole in the tree and it sort of bleeds, the next question is invariably: "Does tapping hurt the tree?"...
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THE OUTSIDE STORY ARCHIVE FEATURE
In the Shadow of Ice
Ned Swanberg
In 1848, the bones of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) were uncovered in Mount Holly, Vermont, during excavation for the first railroad tracks across the Green Mountains. While these bones offer dramatic evidence of the ice ages that once scoured New England, they are by no means the only evidence. The testimony of ice is everywhere...
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 WHAT IN THE WOODS IS THAT?
Our Biweekly Guessing Game!
This tree is bedecked with some ugly flowers - and in winter no less. What's going on here?
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, April 3, 2013. |
 Previous Contest Answer
Congratulations to our winner Lisa Willey Critchfield of South Casco, ME! Lisa receives a copy of our book, The Outside Story.
This is a piece of antique maple sugarmaking equipment (coffee cup is for scale). What was it used for?
NW Answer: Filtering syrup.
This syrup filter was an invention of Colonel Fairfax Ayers, of Fairport Farm in Shaftsbury, Vermont. To use this device, you'd clamp a filter paper on the end of one barbell, flip it over, then fill the whole thing with syrup (the shaft in the middle is hollow). When the paper on the bottom got plugged with sugar sand, you'd affix a paper to the top, spin the thing 180 degrees (the little rod through the middle is for wall-mounting and spinning), and then your syrup could finish filtering out through a fresh paper. I'm not sure if this was just a prototype, or if some of these devices were sold on the open market. If any of you old timers have experience with this sort of filter, I'd love to learn more.
Visit our What In The Woods Is That? contest archive. |
 NORTHERN WOODLANDS NEWS
Morse Wins Environmental Leadership Award
Our friend and Tracking Tips columnist Susan C. Morse has won Unity College's 2013 Environmental Leader Award. The college will honor Morse on Tuesday, April 9th, at its Maine campus for her accomplishments in wildlife monitoring and conservation, and raising public awareness of the need for habitat protection. The award will be presented through the college's Women in Environmental Leadership Program (WE Lead). Each year the WE Lead program recognizes a professional woman who demonstrates outstanding leadership in an environmental field and serves as a model for future generations of women environmental leaders. More information on Keeping Track� and Morse's work can be found here.
Woodcock Walk
Join Emma Carcagno, University of New Hampshire Extension Cooperative Wildlife Program Assistant, to observe an early harbinger of spring: the woodcock. On this easy walk, participants will see the different habitats woodcock use and hopefully catch this strange little bird performing its elaborate courtship display. Other signs of spring will also be observed. The walk takes place March 27 at 6 p.m. at Piscassic Greenway, Bald Hill Rd., in Newfield, NH. To register, call the Southeast Land Trust at (603) 778-6088 or email.
Waterman Essay Contest
The Waterman Fund - dedicated to fostering stewardship and care of alpine areas in the Northeast - presents its sixth annual essay contest with a new theme centered on the use of technology in the wild. The Fund awards $1,500 for the winning essay and publication in Appalachia, a journal of the Appalachian Mountain Club; $500 is awarded for honorable mention and the essay is posted on the Fund's website. As handheld devices such as mobile phones are used more in the woods, a place where traditionally people would go to escape from the demands of everyday life, new questions arise about the bounds and ethics of wild places. What "technology" means and what "the wild" means are open to question and interpretation by nonfiction essay contestants. The deadline for submissions is April 15. Winners will be announced by the end of June. Click here for more information.
MA Forest Alliance Annual Meeting
The Massachusetts Forest Alliance presents its first Annual Membership Meeting on April 20. The agenda includes presentations on the history of women sawyers, obstacles facing landowners and industry professionals, and the future of biomass. The meeting also includes legislative updates and two panel discussions on shaping the future of the state's forests and lessons learned from the agricultural community. Register here by April 12. For more information, click here.
Growing Winter Greens Above the Notch
Year-round Vermont grower and chef Joe Buley presents "Growing Winter Greens Above the Notch." The workshop - April 20, 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. - is designed to help growers in the North Country and Northeast Kingdom meet the challenges of a very cold climate and a short warm growing season. The day will start with discussion of ideal high tunnel design and layout for production of winter greens, then move on to year-round production, cultivar selection, timing of plantings and growing techniques. The workshop will be shaped by the needs of participants, with plenty of time for questions and problem solving and includes lunch featuring Joe's Soup and salad featuring greens from his winter growing operation. Cost is $10 for Small & Beginning Farmers of NH members, $15 for non-members. For further information visit here or contact Sherry Young via email or at (603) 746-5233. |
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We Welcome Your Questions and Comments
Postal Address:
Northern Woodlands
1776 Center Road
P.O. Box 471
Corinth, VT 05039
Toll-Free: (800) 290-5232
Phone: (802) 439-6292
Fax: (802) 368-1053
Email: mail@northernwoodlands.org
General inquiries form
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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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