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

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…

“Silently, like thoughts that come and go, the snowflakes fall, each one a gem.” – William Hamilton Gibson January reminded us of what winter can really be like here in Southern New England when it dumped one to two feet of snow on The Last…

I first noticed the large gathering of mourning doves under our bird feeder earlier this winter. We frequently see a pair year-round, but this winter we were visited by a flock of more than 15 for the first time I can remember. It was fun…

“The way a crow Shook down on me The Dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I rued.” –“Dust of Snow,” by Robert Frost When the hills and valleys are…

On Jan. 7 we woke to almost a foot of snow and the first good dump of the white stuff of the new year. My week kept me busy with no time to walk around our property in the snow until Jan. 14. By then…

Monday evening brings the Wolf Moon, the first full moon of the new year with peak illumination at 6:51 p.m. Look for it to rise from the northeastern horizon around sunset. In New England, and all the way west to Lake Superior, we use the…

In my column last week, I shared my 2022 bucket list of places to explore our region’s amazing natural resources. Some of the hiking and outdoor locations I want to explore this year are new to me and others are locations I have not visited…