AUTUMN ’13 A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT THE FOREST The Great Hurricane of 1938 Who Pays for Fish and Wildlife Funding? Life in Your Logs The Dirt on Buck Scrapes Fir Blisters, Trout Spots, Autumn Olive Pie, and much more $5.95 21913_WOOD_AUT13_COVERS.indd 3 8/16/13 12:23:50 PM 21913_WOOD_AUT13_COVERS.indd 4 8/16/13 12:23:57 PM on the web WWW.NORTHERNWOODLANDS.ORG THE OUTSIDE STORY Each week we publish a new nature story on topics ranging from rattlesnake fungus to ants in the sugar bowl. EDITOR’S BLOG Step 3 was to conscript child labor. Tess, here, panoplied in OSHA-approved safety glasses and steel-toed Moon Boots, works for Cheerios. 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. Reader Judy Brook Cover Photo by James Volosin took this picture of a 10-inch- Photographer James Volosin captured this image of Hammond Pond in the Adirondacks on a photo wide colonial bryozoan. shoot that didn’t go according to plan. “I arrived at the trail head an hour before sunrise,” said Volosin. “And after much deliberation, took the wrong trail.” After realizing his mistake, he compensated Sign up on the website to get our bi-weekly with some “undignified sprinting” and a “chicken dance” at water’s edge, racing the rising sun. newsletter delivered free to your inbox. “The fog held the sun back just long enough for me to get into the pond and stand motionless, so For daily news and information, the reeds would come out sharp and static.” FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK VOLUME 20 I NUMBER 3 REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS CENTER FOR NORTHERN WOODLANDS EDUCATION, INC. AUTUMN 2013 Virginia Barlow Copyright 2013 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 Carl Demrow Fax (802) 368-1053 Amy Peberdy Steve Faccio [email protected] Operations Manager Giom www.northernwoodlands.org Bernd Heinrich Emily Rowe Subscription rates are $21.50 for one year and $39 for two years. Canadian Robert Kimber Operations Coordinator/ and foreign subscriptions by surface mail are $26.50 US for one year. Stephen Long POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to Northern Woodlands Magazine, Web Manager Todd McLeish P.O. Box 471, Corinth, VT 05039-0471 or to [email protected]. Jim Schley Susan C. Morse Periodical postage paid at Corinth, Vermont, and at additional mailing offices. Poetry Editor 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 Michael Snyder consent of the publisher is prohibited. The editors assume no responsibility 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 2013 1 21913_WOOD_AUT13.indd 1 8/16/13 11:41:08 AM Center for Northern from the enter Woodlands Education C BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Earlier this year, we decided to experiment with the “NPR funding model,” Julia Emlen Julia S. Emlen Associates seeking underwriting support from organizations that share our educational Seekonk, MA mission. The results of that decision appear in this issue. On page 50 is the first of four “Field Work” articles. Supported by Wagner Forest Management, Vice President Marcia McKeague this series depicts the variety of ways people make their livelihoods from Katahdin Timberlands the Northeast’s forests. A second series, supported by the Northern Forest Millinocket, ME Center – see page 58 – profiles manufacturers in the Northeast that use regionally sourced timber. Treasurer/Secretary Tom Ciardelli Both of these series celebrate the connections between people and the woods, and thereby Biochemist, Outdoorsman promote awareness that forests are not only good for bugs, birds, and photogenic fuzzy Hanover, NH creatures, but also benefit individuals and communities. Si Balch We’re grateful to Wagner Forest Management and the Northern Forest Center for helping Consulting Forester us to fund these stories. Brooklin, ME Also starting this fall is a new partnership in Massachusetts between Northern Woodlands Sarah R. Bogdanovitch and the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). On September 28, the Paul Smith’s College DCR, Massachusetts Forest Alliance, Bay State Forestry Service, and U.S. Forest Service Paul Smiths, NY will be hosting a conference celebrating “100 Years of Town Forests.” In conjunction with Richard G. Carbonetti this event, Northern Woodlands is providing educational materials through the DCR and Landvest, Inc. magazine subscriptions to Massachusetts conservation commissions. Town forests offer Newport, VT many benefits across our region, serving as hands-on nature classrooms, recreational centers, Starling Childs MFS water and habitat reserves, and renewable sources of local wood. Sounds like a reason to Ecological and Environmental celebrate to me! Consulting Services Finally, as school starts up this fall, please note that we have expanded our fundraising Norfolk, CT program for schools and environmental education groups to serve all of New England and Esther Cowles New York. If you are struggling to find funding for nature education, we may be able to help Fernwood Consulting, LLC you. Visit our web site at http://northernwoodlands.org/programs/subscribe-support or give Hopkinton, NH us a call. Dicken Crane Holiday Brook Farm Dalton, MA Elise Tillinghast, Executive Director, Publisher Timothy Fritzinger 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. 2 Northern Woodlands / Autumn 2013 21913_WOOD_AUT13.indd 2 8/16/13 11:41:12 AM in this ISSUE features 22 One for the Ages: The Hurricane of 1938 Battered New England’s Woods 75 Years Ago STEPHEN LONG 34 Life in Your Logs ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH 42 Paying for State Wildlife Conservation TOVAR CERULLI 52 Getting to the Bottom of the Scrape SUSAN C. MORSE 58 The Multiplier Effect: Rebuilding the Wood Product Manufacturing Base in the Northeast DAVE MANCE III departments 58 2 From the Center 22 52 4 Calendar 5 Editor’s Note 6 Letters to the Editors 7 1,000 Words 9 Birds in Focus: Hawkwatching Confidential BRYAN PFEIFFER 11 Woods Whys: What are those Blisters on the Bark of Balsam Firs? MICHAEL SNYDER 13 Tracking Tips: Red Squirrel Stashes and Caches SUSAN C. MORSE 14 Knots and Bolts 42 50 Field Work: At Work Cutting Wood with Paul “Butch” Reed JOE RANKIN 64 Discoveries TODD MC LEISH 66 The Overstory: Red Oak VIRGINIA BARLOW 71 Tricks of the Trade CARL DEMROW 72 WoodLit 75 Upcountry ROBERT KIMBER 79 Outdoor Palette ADELAIDE TYROL 80 A Place in Mind 34 TOD CHENEY Northern Woodlands / Autumn 2013 3 21913_WOOD_AUT13.indd 3 8/16/13 11:41:16 AM CALENDAR A Look at the Season’s Main Events By Virginia Barlow September October November FIRST WEEK Woodchucks are working hard to pack Ospreys reach their winter quarters, usually Common snipe are cold tolerant and in the extra pounds needed to get them in South America. Juveniles won’t return will often stay in meadows until hard through the winter. Being fat and wobbly for two or sometimes three years / Lots of freezes force them to fly south / Below earlier in the year would have put them sparrows are looking for seeds to fuel their the year’s first ice, eastern newts are at the mercy of their many predators / migrations / It’s not just deciduous trees swimming around in ponds / Better get The chatty song of the Carolina wren that shed their leaves. Half the needles that garlic planted before the ground (tea-kettle, tea-kettle) is being heard on white pines are falling now. The other freezes / Beavers become more active more often here as this bird has moved half will stay for another year / Fall color in the afternoon as winter approaches / north over the last few decades / Some for red maples is at its peak. Many other You may have some new, uninvited insect yearling white-tailed bucks leave their trees are still bright green, providing guests as western conifer seed bugs move home territories, settling many miles intense contrast. Drive carefully. indoors for the winter. They don’t sting or from where they were born bite but are noisy when flying SECOND WEEK Bears are eagerly looking for food as they More mice move indoors / Migrating Porcupines have resumed their low need to build up food reserves for a long geese make the same sounds they made nutrient winter diet, mostly sugar maple winter’s sleep / Queen Anne’s lace flowers in spring, but in autumn it sounds sad bark and the buds and needles of have gone to seed and the flower heads and haunting; in the spring it sounds hemlock.