By David Spector
A couple of decades ago, my camera and I went to a corn field near my home on Jan. 1. The field served as a setting for a gem of a maple tree that had been allowed to grow in the middle of the corn. On or near the first of each month for the rest of that year, I went to the same tree and took photographs documenting the changes in the tree and its surroundings. In October I also went mid-month, in an attempt to get an image of the tree at its most colorful.
By Ted Watt
As the cold temperatures and snows of winter approach I treasure those of our plants that stay green into December and through the winter: trailing arbutus, maidenhair spleenwort, checkerberry, wolf’s claw clubmoss, marginal wood fern, partridge berry, downy rattlesnake plantain, climbing fern and others. There are quite a number when you go out searching.
By Elizabeth Farnsworth
“Ack, there’s another one!” I exclaim, as I reach for the rather homely and lethargic brown bug clinging to my bathroom mirror. You probably know of what bug I speak: the reddish-brown, ¾-inch-long insect with long, flanged legs, antennae to match, and a boxy, somewhat flattened body. The one that, when you squish it or attempt to usher it politely outdoors, emits a strong odor of new-mown grass soaked in Pine-Sol. This species is one of many insects trying to carve out a cozy niche for itself so it can survive the winter. You may be encountering this and a few other unwanted roommates as you batten down the hatches for the cold months. Let’s learn about a few of our new tiny tenants.
By Katie Koerten
Human beings innately organize and categorize the world around them. Toddlers and adults alike want to know the names of the people and creatures they encounter. When you spot an unfamiliar bird, the immediate question is “What kind of bird is that?” The desire to assign names to things is arguably part of what makes us human.
By David Spector
A few years ago, as I sat grading papers near midnight, I heard a thump. The sound did not seem quite to match that of the house settling or of a flying squirrel landing on the outside wall. I didn’t know what to make of it. The next morning, as I sat in the same room and looked out the window, I saw a ghostly image on the glass, which gave me a clue.
By Joshua Rose
I am a cat lover. I have lived with cats for 34 of my 43 years. I try not to think about how many hair balls and litter box clumps I have cleaned up. We moved one of our current cats halfway across the continent, twice, even though she requires daily medication and has repeatedly urinated on furniture. Our cats sleep with us and with our kids. But we never let them go outside.
By John Foster
What makes a particular spot a great place to hike and explore? Diversity, ecology and topography are what grab me, and Putney Mountain in Putney, Vt., with its long ridgeline and forested slopes, has them all. The entire reserve comprises some 1,800 acres and 14 miles of trails, so I can only give you a glimpse here of the pleasures in store for the visitor.
By Lawrence Winship
One of my favorite Pioneer Valley bumper stickers proclaims: “No Farms, No Food!” Perhaps we should modify this slogan by adding: “And No Soil, No Farms!” Of course, farms can’t function without soil. But I’ll go much further. Nothing else can function without soil, either. Soil is much more than a place for our crops to grow: It is the foundation for human civilization. Productive, healthy soils, support food production, but also the life of all the terrestrial and wetland systems that provide essential ecosystem services — for nature itself! And those services make possible all life, including our own. For the most part, though, we’re unaware of the part that soil plays in our daily existence.
By Elizabeth Farnsworth Gazette Contributing Writer
When we lived in Holyoke, we looked forward to the annual fall migration of winged things: birds, monarch butterflies and… ants. On a warm, autumn evening every year, we would sit on our deck and watch platoons of ant queens lining up for take-off, like jets at Logan Airport. These insects weren’t launching off to exotic locales in the tropics like birds and butterflies. Instead, each hopeful queen, replete with fertilized eggs, was setting out on a wing and a prayer to find a perfect spot to found a new colony, perhaps only a few hundred feet from the nest where she was born. Of all the queens taking flight, perhaps only one in a million would make a new nest; the rest would serve to fatten up birds.
By Katie Koerten Gazette Contributing Writer
When I was a kid, my father guided my earliest forays into the woods, meadows and streams of the Blackstone Valley in central Massachusetts where I grew up. He was the one who first taught me the names of the plants and animals around me.
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Hitchcock Center for the Environment
at Hampshire College
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