AUTUMN ’15 A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT THE FOREST The Blister Rust Battle Resumes A Cornucopia of Cones New Fiction by Howard Frank Mosher Vaccine Ravioli, Ukrainian Forests, Cashing in on Carbon, and much more $5.95 on the web WWW.NORTHERNWOODLANDS.ORG Cover Photo by Roger Irwin Photographer Roger Irwin called this bull moose down from a ridge of East Mountain, near Line Brook in the town of East Haven, Vermont. “I could hear him coming for 15 or 20 minutes before he came into sight,” says Irwin. “It is always a thrill to call in a nice bull; they will stop every so often to rake the bushes with their antlers. I took this shot as THE OUTSIDE STORY he was leaving….He had decided I really Each week we publish a new didn’t look like a cow moose!” nature story on topics ranging from bee mimics to edible weeds. EDITOR’S BLOG “At the water there was a sky like in a Hudson River School painting. Seabirds – common terns, I guess – were circling, and feinting, and then plunging through golden light into the gunmetal sea.” From: On The Coast 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 three American chestnut seeds. Sign up on the website to get our biweekly newsletter delivered free to your inbox. For daily news and information, FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK VOLUME 23 I NUMBER 3 REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS CENTER FOR NORTHERN WOODLANDS EDUCATION, INC. AUTUMN 2015 Virginia Barlow Copyright 2015 Jim Block Northern Woodlands Magazine (ISSN 1525-7932) is published Elise Tillinghast Marian Cawley quarterly by the Center for Northern Woodlands Education, Inc., Executive Director/Publisher Tovar Cerulli Steve Faccio 1776 Center Road, P.O. Box 471, Corinth, VT 05039-0471 Dave Mance III Giom Tel (802) 439-6292 Editor Bernd Heinrich Fax (802) 368-1053 Patrick White Mary Holland [email protected] Assistant Editor Robert Kimber www.northernwoodlands.org Stephen Long Amy Peberdy Subscription rates are $23 for one year, $42 for two years, and $59 for three years. Benjamin Lord 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. NorthernWoodlands / Autumn 2015 1 Center for Northern from the enter Woodlands Education C BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Last autumn, at our first writers conference, we set up a table featuring 10 Richard G. Carbonetti LandVest, Inc. different brands of maple syrup from around New England, New York, and Newport, VT Quebec and encouraged people to pick their favorites. Picture the scene: a Vice President too-small table, teetering stacks of paper cups, spilled syrup, and a crowd of Bob Saul happy, sugar-buzzed, smack-talking partisans from different states. In other Wood Creek Capital Management words, a mess – but a happy mess. We came to no conclusions about which Amherst, MA part of the Northeast makes the best syrup, but we did score a photo of the Treasurer/Secretary Northern Woodland’s crew and staff alumnus Chuck Wooster, posed with a bottle of Log Tom Ciardelli Cabin™’s finest. Biochemist, Outdoorsman This year’s conference will take place over the weekend of October 16-18. The Trust for Hanover, NH Public Land is once again our sponsor, and the Aloha Foundation’s Hulbert Outdoor Center Si Balch is our co-organizer and host. We’ll have some great speakers, including plenary talks by Peter Consulting Forester Forbes, David Macaulay, and Bernd Heinrich. The schedule encompasses a range of interests: Brooklin, ME there will be writing workshops and discussions, a bark identification walk, presentations on Sarah R. Bogdanovitch black bears and cougars, an outdoor illustration class, a children’s book workshop, and an Paul Smith’s College educator’s panel discussion led by David Sobel. Also on the agenda are good meals, cozy cabins, Paul Smiths, NY and s’mores by the fire. Teacher professional development certificates are available. Heck, Starling Childs MFS there’s even an open mic session. Ecological and Environmental All of this is a lot of fun, but there’s a serious purpose behind it – to encourage more people Consulting Services Norfolk, CT to talk, write, create art, and otherwise share their interest in forests. I’m inspired by The Trust for Public Land’s “Parks for People” vision, which imagines “a park or natural area within 10 David J. Colligan Colligan Law, LLP minutes of every person in the country.” Riffing on that language, how great would it be if Buffalo, NY every person in the Northeast was never more than a couple of hours or a turn of the page away from some expression of why someone cares about forests, and maybe they should, too. Esther Cowles Fernwood Consulting, LLC You can learn more about the conference by looking on the right column of our homepage, Hopkinton, NH www.northernwoodlands.org. And while you’re there, skim through the bears, hawks, and Dicken Crane bobcats in our readers’ photo gallery archive. This is a project that we started last December, Holiday Brook Farm and it has been steadily growing. Again, the purpose is to connect with a broader audience Dalton, MA than we reach with the magazine. Julia Emlen Finally, speaking of galleries, I encourage you to check out the advertisement on page 51 of Julia S. Emlen Associates this issue. Subscribers of this magazine know Adelaide Tyrol as our Outdoor Palette columnist Seekonk, MA and the illustrator of Virginia Barlow’s articles. She has also, for the past 13 years, contributed Timothy Fritzinger illustrations for our weekly Outside Story article series, supported by the Wellborn Ecology Alta Advisors Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. Her fall shows include some of that work, London, UK as well as her fine art paintings. Sydney Lea Elise Tillinghast, Executive Director, Publisher Writer, Vermont Poet Laureate Newbury, VT Peter S. Paine, Jr. Champlain National Bank Willsboro, NY Kimberly Royar Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department Montpelier, VT Peter Silberfarb Dartmouth Medical School Lebanon, NH 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. a culture of forest stewardship in the Programs include Northern Woodlands Northeast and to increase understanding magazine, Northern Woodlands Goes 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 54 28 Where is Don Quixote? HOWARD FRANK MOSHER 36 High-Hanging Fruit: Conifer Cones SUSAN C. MORSE 42 An Old Enemy: White Pine Blister Rust JOE RANKIN 52 The Power of Microbursts JOHN BURK 54 A Part of Nature BARBARA MACKAY 60 The Diminishing Woodpile JONATHAN STABLEFORD departments 2 From the Center 4 Calendar Editor’s Note 28 5 36 6 Letters to the Editors 9 Birds in Focus: Common Nighthawks BRYAN PFEIFFER 11 Woods Whys: Can I Fertilize My Forest? MICHAEL SNYDER 13 Tracking Tips: Beavers SUSAN C. MORSE 14 Knots and Bolts 27 1,000 Words 62 Field Work: Forest Carbon Offsets PATRICK WHITE 66 Discoveries TODD MCLEISH 70 The Overstory: Mountain Ash 42 VIRGINIA BARLOW 73 Tricks of the Trade: Chainsaw Carving BRETT R. MCLEOD 75 Upcountry ROBERT KIMBER 76 WoodLit 79 Outdoor Palette NONA ESTRIN 80 A Place in Mind 52 MIKE MINCHIN NorthernWoodlands / Autumn 2015 3 CALENDAR A Look at the Season’s Main Events By Virginia Barlow September October November FIRST WEEK North winds will increase the number of The beautifully colored leaves of white Watch for the last autumn meadowhawks migrating hawks. Look for them in the ash, in all shades of purple, are among (Sympetrum vicinum) hunting from sun- middle of a sunny day / Woodchucks the first to fall / White pines drop half their warmed rock walls or gravel drives. This are packing it in, especially at dawn and needles every autumn. Don’t be alarmed / small, red-bodied skimmer is still active in dusk, to create a layer of fat that will last Tiny spiders go ballooning on strands of November / Unseasonably warm weather all winter / Virginia creeper and poison gossamer and may remain aloft for two stimulates peepers to sing from woods ivy leaves are red, attracting migrant weeks. In the right light conditions you can and fields, sometimes far from ponds, birds to their ripe berries / The plaintive, see their silken threads in the sky / Some before they go belowground for the three-note, whistling song of the eastern golden-crowned kinglets go south of our winter / Owl pellets consist of the wood peewee can still be heard, although region in winter but others stay. Somehow indigestible parts of recently eaten food, most of these flycatchers have headed these tiny birds survive bitterly cold nights usually the hair, teeth, skulls, and claws out by now of mice, shrews, and voles SECOND WEEK Bunchberries have turned red / Jack-in- Crush a few leaves of sweet fern, a shrub Snow buntings may be seen.