Follow the Trail with Bill Reid,
The Last Green Valley's Chief Ranger

“Before the work of the day, taste the poetry of the day! Our poor, battered minds and sprits need the dawn. There is the calm of nature, the sanity of the earth, in each breath of scented air on a sunrise in June.” — Edwin…

June is here, and like the old Rodgers and Hammerstein’s song from the musical “Carousel,” it is busting out all over with blooms and the warming sun announcing the coming Summer Solstice. I did a bit of research and was not surprised to discover June…

Tomorrow is Memorial Day, a day we take time to celebrate those who gave their life for our country while serving in the armed forces. To honor the fallen we hold parades, set out graveside decorations, listen to speeches and remembrances by local dignitaries and…

A few weeks back, during one of the warmer days of April, I was sitting on our back porch enjoying the spring air. What looked like a plump bumblebee was circling and darting about and then zoomed up close and hovered in front of me.…

Garlic and mustard are staples in my house. We love the intense bold flavors. But garlic mustard, now that is a whole other beast. It’s a plant, Alliaria petiolate, and it’s a highly invasive and destructive plant that is blooming right now. I seem to…

Here we are 7 weeks after the Vernal Equinox, and it finally seems like spring has arrived. The daffodils that bloom in our front yard didn’t appreciate 2 inches of snow that arrived in April but thankfully they sprang right back up as soon as…

“Nature is shy and noncommittal in a crowd. To learn her secrets visit her alone or with a single friend, at most. Everything evades you, everything hides, even your thoughts escape you when you walk in a crowd.” —  Edwin Way Teale, from “Circle of…

This week I begin my spring and summer volunteer work for the CT DEEP Wildlife Division to help monitor bats. This will be the fourth year I’m doing this work, and I have written about this important volunteer activity in past columns. Twice a month,…

“If the oak is the king of trees, as tradition has it, then the Eastern White Oak, throughout its range, is the king of kings.” — Donald Culross Peattie from “A Natural History of North American Trees” The last several years have been hard on…

“History, I like to think, is a larger way of looking at life. It is a source of strength, of inspiration. It is about who we are and what we stand for and is essential to our understanding of what our own role should be…

“All of nature is a going concern. The business of spring is a prospering. I stand for a long time beside the swamp stream in a fairyland setting of low-lying mist glowing and tinted with the pink of the sunrise. Here is beauty, here is…

“Hiking is not escapism; it’s realism. The people who choose to spend time outdoors are not running away from anything; we are returning to where we belong.” — Jennifer Pharr Davis, Explorer, Author, Speaker The first day of spring 2021 dawned as a glorious cloudless day…