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

“The survival of its species depends on how well it can protect and keep warm a ridiculous, round, rolly, fragile thing, containing its future offspring.” Joan Dunning, Secrets of the Nest: The Family Life of North American Birds In my office I have a photograph…

Earth Day was April 22, and I had the opportunity to celebrate in style with a very enjoyable hike at West Thompson Lake — one of the six U.S. Army Corps of Engineer (USACOE) recreation areas within The Last green Valley National Heritage Corridor. It…

“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he [or she] needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.” — Rachel Carson Are you and…

“Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.” Mole from “The Wind in the Willows,” by Kenneth Grahame One of the most…

It is no surprise to those of us who have lived all or large portions of our lives here in southern New England that spring likes to tease and entice us. We have marked the start of spring with cold snowy days, and days like…

I have hiked around Breakneck Pond at Bigelow Hollow State Park in Union many times and in all seasons. This past month I was there on two occasions, and I want to share my experience about the hike in hopes that readers might venture to…

Last week I traveled to New Hampshire to walk the forest lands my grandparents purchased in the early 1930s. In the woods are beaver ponds, each in a different stage of use or abandonment. March is a perfect time to get a close look at…

“In our latitude the first day of spring is only occasionally a spring day. The calendar spring, the astronomical spring of the vernal equinox, may arrive under sullen skies with cold rain or with a blizzard hurling its snow from the north.” — Edwin Way…

Rachel Carson published “Silent Spring” in 1962. In honor of Women’s History month and the 60th Anniversary of Carson’s seminal work, I wanted to look back at this remarkable woman and her life’s work. “Silent Spring” represented a watershed moment for what became our modern…

There are sounds of nature that make me stop what I am doing and listen intently, as if drawn into a deep wildness that is both awesome and yet unnerving. No sound does this more for me than the call or hoot of an owl,…

History is not static. Our understanding of it grows and the picture of the past can shift as we do more research and dig deeper. “It’s like peeling back the layers of an onion, one thin strip of membrane after the other, the deeper layers…

Last weekend showed us all how fickle southern New England weather can be. Saturday we had visions of spring as temperatures soared into the 50s. Sunday we woke to a dusting of snow and some of us saw as much as six inches. On that…