This last trip pushed us and our students physically. Low water meant lots of walking boats and portaging around obstacles we’d usually be able to float right over. Frustrations during trips like this one can get pretty high, but there always seems to be something to balance it out. Our first day leaving the headwaters [...]

This episode features our first returning guest. Mike Clough from the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum is back to talk about the newest edition to the museum’s educational animals. There are now live Virginia Opposum’s at the museum, and they’re part of a pilot program for the state of Vermont, exploring the possibilities of museums [...]

In this episode, we chat with Jenna Rozelle. Jenna is a  homesteader, professional forager, and member of Back Country Hunters and Anglers. Through all of her work she aims to bring people to a place of greater understanding about the ecosystems they inhabit, and as we discuss in the podcast, brings a sense of art [...]

For the last few weeks the dog and I have been following the deer tracks around our place on our morning walks. We’ve spooked a good sized buck twice. This morning we saw some blood along with the tracks and I started to worry about the big fellah. We came around a corner to an [...]

This time of year is supposed to be spent with friends and family, but with the current state of the global pandemic that isn’t necessarily a reality. In the last few days I’ve talked with quite a few friends about participating in the same traditions they usually do, but the rituals feel hollow without people [...]

If you’re taking part in our online community at bushcraftschool.com, you likely saw our first youth track course about backyard botany. It’s the first in a series of programs that will guide young people (and adults too if they’re interested) through the basics of real-world, hands-on nature studies. Another set of those courses is going [...]

We’ve been back in camp for a little over a week now for the fall semester. Since I’ve been here, and gotten settled in I’ve watched the wildlife on the property settle right in with us. Living with the land isn’t just about what we take and use from it, it’s also about getting to [...]

Peter Frost was a 2004 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester student at the Jack Mountain Bushcraft School. This amazing story really happened and illustrates the usefulness of getting out every day, if only for a little while. Tracking A Fisher This morning we were very fortunate. The conditions were ideal for tracking. Early last night, an inch [...]

I’m not sure whether I believe in magic, but I believe in magical moments. For me they are those moments on the trail where everything is good and seems as it should be and all is right with the world. It’s why I go back over and over, and have made a 20-year career out [...]

I get great, deep sleeps at the field school. It’s one of the things that I love about life here. Last night, though, I popped awake at about 3:40. I felt wide awake and decided to walk outside and into the field. As I stood there, I heard the distant mating call of a female [...]

Late summer of 2017 has been marked by extremely dry weather and low water in the Aroostook river. We have a USGS monitor station here in Masardis just upriver from the field school, and today (September 3rd, 2017) it showed the river flowing at 74 cubic feet per second. That’s the lowest I’ve seen it [...]

At dusk tonight I stood for half an hour watching and listening to four ruffed grouse feeding, talking and jumping around at the top of an aspen tree. Being silent and observing not only aids my knowledge and understanding of the natural world, but also my enjoyment of it. Empathy. Kinship. Belong to it.

Lucky Dog and I had a great afternoon in the woods tracking yesterday. I shot a bunch of pictures, but only a few turned out well. We found tracks of deer, turkey (foot and wing), grey squirrel, snowshoe hare and fisher. The snow conditions were perfect for tracking; a layer of crusty snow covered with [...]

My friend Dick butchered a road kill moose, saving the good meat and giving it to the person who totalled their car as a result of the impact. I took a chunk of the “spoiled” meat. I had been seeing this weasel around for a few days and I wanted to see him up close. [...]

My son and I set aside time every week to get outside and explore the natural world.  We’ve been looking at plants, tracks, rocks, and other things that he can see, smell and touch.  Then we go to the Austin Science And Nature Center, where he can get points for the things he discovers.  The [...]

This morning after dropping my son off at preschool I was walking down the stairs to the house and I heard a bunch of crows making a ruckus.  After looking towards the lake for a few moments, I spotted a shape in one of the white pines, about 20 feet from our deck.  It was [...]

This morning I saw five bald eagles over Rust Pond.  They come through each year as the ice starts to go out.  It’s a big deal because for the rest of the year I never see them around here.  I think they move further north.  There is a certain way they fly that is unique, [...]

Building on the nature study post from yesterday, I wanted to add one of my favorite links; Observations Of A Naturalist by Boyd Shaffer. It features illustrated articles (illustrated by Boyd) about nature by a man who knows it well. I studied the field botany of southcentral Alaska in Boyd’s class at Kenai Peninsula College [...]

A friend emailed me about Naturalist Jim Conrad’s site Backyard Nature, part of his push to improve environmental education by offering free nature study courses online. There’s also a public phenology database where you can record nature information you observe. It’s a great resource for learning about the world around you, as well as sharing [...]

I recently typed-up an old handout about the 27 laws of ecology (collated by Pierre Dansereau) and posted it on the web. It’s a .pdf file located here, and is also linked through our Online Articles page under the Recommended Resources heading. Below is a list of the laws. For their definitions and explanations, read [...]

Knowledge of identification, harvesting, processing and use of edible, medicinal and otherwise useful plants makes up a vast amount of practical and intellectual knowledge that was highly valued by cultures living off the bounty of the land. In our modern culture, where many people can’t identify the trees in their yard or the ones they [...]