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AUTUMN ’14 A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT THE FOREST Life Cycle of the Brook Trout A Logger’s Prayer Mast (and the animals tied to it) A 90-Mile Canoe Race, Meat-eating Trees, Red Spruce Guitar Tops, and much more $5.95 on the web WWW.NORTHERNWOODLANDS.ORG THE OUTSIDE STORY Each week we publish a new nature story on topics ranging from moose noses to damselfly wings. EDITOR’S BLOG Red was a 20-something Irish-looking kid with a kind face. Georgia was his mutt dog; piebald and floppy-eared with beautifully expressive brown eyes. Gentle. Well behaved.” From The Hiker WHAT IN THE WOODS IS THAT? We show you a photo; if you guess what it is, you’ll be eligible to win a prize. This recent photo showed a wool sower gall. Cover Photo by Nancie Battaglia Sign up on the website to get Paddlers in the Adirondack Canoe Classic wind their way through boggy Brown’s Tract near Raquette Lake our bi-weekly newsletter in the south-central Adirondacks. “The photo was made from a small airplane and shows nature coloring delivered free to your inbox. into autumn hues in the meandering marsh, and the challenge faced by the participants in this wilderness For daily news and information, maze,” said Battaglia. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK VOLUME 21 I NUMBER 3 REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS CENTER FOR NORTHERN WOODLANDS EDUCATION, INC. AUTUMN 2014 Virginia Barlow Copyright 2014 Jim Block Northern Woodlands Magazine (ISSN 1525-7932) is published Elise Tillinghast Madeline Bodin quarterly by the Center for Northern Woodlands Education, Inc., magazine Executive Director/Publisher Marian Cawley Tovar Cerulli 1776 Center Road, P.O. Box 471, Corinth, VT 05039-0471 Dave Mance III Andrew Crosier Tel (802) 439-6292 Editor Steve Faccio Fax (802) 368-1053 Patrick White Giom [email protected] Assistant Editor Bernd Heinrich www.northernwoodlands.org Robert Kimber Amy Peberdy Subscription rates are $23 for one year, $42 for two years, and $59 for three years. Stephen Long Operations Manager Canadian and foreign subscriptions by surface mail are $30.50 US for one year. Todd McLeish POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to Northern Woodlands Magazine, P.O. Emily Rowe Brett McLeod Box 471, Corinth, VT 05039-0471 or to [email protected]. Periodical Operations Coordinator/ Susan C. Morse postage paid at Corinth, Vermont, and at additional mailing offices. Web Manager Bryan Pfeiffer Published on the first day of March, June, September, and December. Joe Rankin All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written Jim Schley consent of the publisher is prohibited. The editors assume no responsibility Poetry Editor Michael Snyder Adelaide Tyrol for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Return postage should accompany all submissions. Printed in USA. Chuck Wooster For subscription information call (800) 290-5232. DESIGN Northern Woodlands is printed on paper with 10 percent post-consumer Liquid Studio / Lisa Cadieux recycled content. Northern Woodlands / Autumn 2014 1 Center for Northern from the enter Woodlands Education C BOARD OF DIRECTORS Well, it took some practice, but I’ve finally learned to pronounce “anthocyanin.” President This is the pigment that manifests as deep, glossy red in staghorn sumac – one Julia Emlen of the earliest shrubs in our woods to change color, and also one of the most Julia S. Emlen Associates spectacular. It’s a chemical nudge, akin to the two-minute warning at the end Seekonk, MA of a football game. Time to do the work that will be hard to do later. Brush Vice President hog the sled run. Remove the wren nests. Roll the studded snow tires out of Marcia McKeague the barn. Katahdin Timberlands At the Center for Northern Woodlands Education, we’re also working down an autumn task Millinocket, ME list. The nonprofit’s fiscal year ends on September 30, so in addition to all the normal activity at Treasurer/Secretary the office, there are numbers to crunch and decisions to make as we consider how, and where, Tom Ciardelli to focus educational resources in the next year. Biochemist, Outdoorsman We’re also heading into our busiest time for subscription renewals. Here’s how that Hanover, NH typically starts: One day in October, a first wave of Northern Woodlands readers rise from Si Balch their dens, sniff the cooling air, and decide that today is the day to renew their subscriptions. Consulting Forester This will continue, on and off, through the second half of December. It’s an awe inspiring Brooklin, ME seasonal phenomenon, right up there with hawk kettles and monarch migrations … but it Sarah R. Bogdanovitch sure gets busy around here. Paul Smith’s College Another fall event that we’re eagerly awaiting is our first annual writers’ conference, taking Paul Smiths, NY place on the weekend of October 17-19 in Fairlee, Vermont. Sponsored by The Trust for Richard G. Carbonetti Public Land, the conference will be hosted by the Hulbert Outdoor Center on beautiful Lake LandVest, Inc. Morey. If you enjoy this magazine, it’s a good bet that you’ll also enjoy the weekend – we’ll have Newport, VT writers’ talks and workshops, as well as walks in the woods, s’mores by the fire, syrup tasting, Starling Childs MFS and opportunities for informal discussions with naturalists, educators, and, of course, the Ecological and Environmental Northern Woodlands crew. So please join us. You can sign up via the link on our website or by Consulting Services Norfolk, CT calling Hulbert’s office at 802-333-3405. And finally, a bittersweet note – this issue of the magazine is the last that will include Ed Esther Cowles Wright and Marcia McKeague on our Board of Directors. Ed and Marcia share bragging Fernwood Consulting, LLC Hopkinton, NH rights for longest tenure on the board – so long, in fact, that they’ve come smack up against the bylaw limit of three successive terms (nine years total). Both have been enthusiastic, Dicken Crane thoughtful contributors to the board’s work and are representative of the forest stewardship Holiday Brook Farm Dalton, MA culture this nonprofit promotes. They will be missed. Timothy Fritzinger Elise Tillinghast, Executive Director, Publisher Alta Advisors London, UK Sydney Lea Writer, Vermont Poet Laureate Newbury, VT Bob Saul Wood Creek Capital Management Amherst, MA Peter Silberfarb Dartmouth Medical School Lebanon, NH Ed Wright W.J. Cox Associates Clarence, NY The Center for Northern Woodlands The mission of the Center for Northern Education, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) public Woodlands Education is to advance benefit educational organization. Programs include Northern Woodlands a culture of forest stewardship in the magazine, Northern Woodlands Goes Northeast and to increase understanding to School, The Outside Story, The of and appreciation for the natural Place You Call Home series, and wonders, economic productivity, and www.northernwoodlands.org. ecological integrity of the region’s forests. in this ISSUE features 24 The Life Cycle of a Brook Trout ROBERT MICHELSON 30 Theology of a Quaker Logger MARTIN MELVILLE 36 Big Trees of New Hampshire PATRICK WHITE 24 40 Adirondack Canoe Classic KATIE JICKLING 50 Timber Theft KRISTEN FOUNTAIN 56 Autumn’s Unheralded Mast Species SUSAN C. MORSE 62 Timber Rattlesnakes TED LEVIN departments 2 From the Center 4 Calendar 5 Editor’s Note 7 Letters to the Editors 9 Birds in Focus: The Rockin’ Robin BRYAN PFEIFFER 36 40 11 Woods Whys: Forest Fragmentation MICHAEL SNYDER 13 Tracking Tips: Moose Rub SUSAN C. MORSE 14 Knots and Bolts 23 1,000 Words 50 48 The Overstory: Pin Cherry VIRGINIA BARLOW 66 Field Work: At Work Searching for Sweet-Sounding Spruce ROSS CARON 69 Upcountry ROBERT KIMBER 70 Discoveries 56 TODD MCLEISH 74 WoodLit 77 Tricks of the Trade: The Perfect Splitting Block BRETT R. MCLEOD 79 Outdoor Palette ADELAIDE TYROL 80 A Place in Mind DAVID BUDBILL 62 Northern Woodlands / Autumn 2014 3 CALENDAR A Look at the Season’s Main Events By Virginia Barlow September October November FIRST WEEK Blueberries are eaten by white-footed Sparrow migration is well underway, with Monarchs begin arriving at their mice, chipmunks, skunks, and bears, as white-crowned, song, chipping, white- overwintering site in Mexico; some have well as by many birds / The snapping throated, savannah, swamp, tree, and fox travelled 3,000 miles. In March, they’ll turtle eggs that were laid about three sparrows all on the move / Wood turtles head north but will lay eggs part-way months ago are hatching. Some hatchlings return to streams, rivers, and ponds to home, leaving it to the next generations head for the nearest pond, but others will mate before hibernating in undercut banks to get back to New England / Luna moth remain in place until spring / Honeybees and root masses / Hard-up birds may be cocoons, wrapped in brown leaves, have are gathering nectar from goldenrods / eating jack-in-the-pulpit berries, generally fallen to the ground / Some golden- Mourning cloak butterflies are fattening up considered to be a low-quality wildlife crowned kinglets migrate, but some are for hibernation. They overwinter as adults food / Damselflies and dragonflies may still found here through the winter, which is and can be seen flying in spring before the be flying around, mating, and laying eggs amazing considering that they aren’t snow melts much larger than a hummingbird SECOND WEEK Dry days will cause milkweed pods to October 7-8: Total lunar eclipse / Apple Rattlesnake plantain (it’s really an orchid) open, releasing streams of fluffy para- cider pressing is in full swing / It’s skunks stays green all winter. The leaves are chutes that are each attached to a seed. that leave those small conical holes in covered with a net of white veins and All the seeds in a pod are from just one the lawn while doing pest control for grow in a small rosette / Bruce spanworm flower; it’s the rare flower that makes you: beetle larvae are a skunk favorite / moths, also called hunter’s moths, may seeds / Crickets may move into buildings Halloween lady beetles are seeking shelter be abundant in sugar maple stands on as they search for places to hibernate.

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