Outdoors & Environment

Bright bracelets hang on the wire door to Jason Struthers’ duck coop. They’re relics of a time before neighborly relationships on a small cul-de-sac close to Essex High School turned sour. 

As the calendar flips to November, I ask myself, “How many hunters still cherish the old paper calendars, like the classic Remington Arms ones of yesteryear?”

When a volunteer pulled a suspicious clam from the lakebed in Whitehall, N.Y., as part of a routine monitoring program last month, they immediately reported the find to lake scientists.

Vermont scientists aren’t sure what could happen in the future as far as flooding goes, but as colder temperatures arrive, they’re continuing to monitor water quality in Lake Champlain and research ways to protect it in anticipation for winter and summer floods like those in the past two years.

When the weather starts to turn cold, four common insect invaders may show up uninvited in your home.

From August to November, the members of Putney Mountain Hawkwatch stand on the summit of their namesake spotting and surveying migrating raptors.

In late October, trails committee members and other volunteers repaired damage to the Town Link Trail caused by the July storms.

Lewis Creek Association has nearly completed the conversion of a playing field behind the United Church of Hinesburg back to a wetland.

Fall foliage color has peaked, and leaves are falling. Temperatures are dropping, and it’s time to put the garden to bed. It is also a perfect opportunity to prepare for spring. What you do this fall can provide big benefits when the garden wakes up next year.

We’ve probably all run out to the garden on a fall evening as the temperature drops and a frost warning is issued.

The north wind is whistling through the tiny crack in the window frame in my bedroom. My eyes are still open. I am trying to fall asleep.

In Hinesburg, a major development proposal that failed to win an Act 250 permit last spring due to its anticipated impact on the local floodplain could soon move forward after modifications. Critics of the project say that the handful of Charlotte families who live on the banks of the LaPlatte River may have cause for apprehension.

Research shows that spending time in nature enhances our physical and mental well-being, so it’s no surprise that gardening offers similar benefits, including reducing stress, anxiety and negative thoughts.

Each fall, Mt. Philo attracts many migrating hawks and eagles, as they fly south for the winter.

Autumn colors have started to paint the landscape. As beautiful as those reds, oranges and yellows are, many gardeners tend to focus too much on the formerly green perennials that are now a crispy brown.