Outdoors & Environment

If you have a background in working with trees and arborist’s ardor, the Charlotte Selectboard wants to talk to you.

Even us whacky ice fishermen, who love the cold barren environment on the frozen lake, share a certain affinity for the second Saturday in April.

We can put the ways that forests benefit our lives and our quality of life into three general categories: ecological, economic and cultural.

Bruce Hennessey and Beth Whiting were used to fending off flooding at Maple Wind Farm in Richmond. The couple have been in business for 25 years, and for the past 10 they’ve dealt with floods that have put hayfields underwater and torn up their barn. 

The gardeners among us are looking forward to the blooms and colors of spring and summer. As beautiful as the flowers are, they shine more if a constant background with some neutrality helps set them off.

On Saturday, May 4, the state of Vermont will celebrate its 54th Green Up Day.

Whether you are a “seasoned” (pun intended) gardener with many years of experience and an ample area where you grow lots of vegetables or a food gardener on a modest scale, you recognize the appeal of growing something you can eat.

At the end of April, Burlington and several neighboring towns will host a four-day bioblitz.

The Tree Stewardship Team, a group of volunteers working with Charlotte tree warden Mark Dillenbeck, are seeking additional volunteers to help plant 28 bare-root trees alongside the town trail on State Park Road, as well as 20 trees on the grounds of the new town garage on Route 7.

Birding, or birdwatching, might not draw the flash of skiing or snowboarding, but the quiet hobby has huge implications in the state:

Instead of just celebrating Earth Day, Charlotte is kicking off a celebration of Earth Month on April 1.

It’s no surprise that the Easter lily (Lilium longiflorum) is the most popular floral gift for Easter giving, but did you know that, contrary to its name, it isn’t a spring-blooming flower?

Landowners often ask me: “Is my forest healthy?” While this may seem like a simple question, the more time I spend working with forests, the more difficult it is to answer.

Non-native invasive plant species have long threatened the health of ecosystems, wildlife habitat and populations of native plants in the Lewis Creek watershed.

March is such an in-between kind of month. The last ice of a strange winter is peeling away from the shorelines. Ironically, ice fishing is usually best in March. Except this year.

If you would like a ray of sunshine in these dark days, mark your calendar: March 20, 6:30 p.m. at the Pierson Library in Shelburne.

Now is the time when we anxiously await the first colors announcing spring in the garden.

Landowners often ask me: “Is my forest healthy?” While this may seem like a simple question, the more time…