Story Tag: Helping Maine's Future Forest

By Catherine Schmitt, Science Communication Specialist at Schoodic Institute Great Pond Mountain Wildlands, Orland In the Climate Resiliency Memorial Grove at the base of Great Pond Mountain, leaves are full and vibrant on the young trees: catalpa, bitternut hickory, shagbark hickory, black birch, white oak, black walnut, redbud, black tupelo, sassafrass, and, yes, tulip poplar. […]

By Catherine Schmitt, Science Communication Specialist at Schoodic Institute On a warm, buggy morning in mid-June, Penobscot Nation forester Ben Stevens went into the woods in tribal territory near Brownville Junction to see how the trees were doing. A rough road had been cleared to a stand of mixed hardwoods.  A few large white ash, sugar […]

By Catherine Schmitt, Science Communication Specialist at Schoodic Institute Spring is an exciting time to be a tree. Conifers are increasing photosynthesis, pushing out tufts of new needles, while broadleaf trees are sending out delicate sprays and tiny fists of new foliage. At the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners demonstration forest in Unity, maple leaves emerge […]

By Catherine Schmitt, Science Communication Specialist at Schoodic Institute It’s that time of year. Across Maine, people are checking the marked pages in garden and nursery catalogs and placing their orders. Some may have already started seeds, in greenhouses and cold frames and sunny windowsills warmed by the lengthening days. This annual rite of spring […]

By Catherine Schmitt, Science Communication Specialist at Schoodic Institute In an open section of the Schoodic Forest in Winter Harbor, Maine, surrounded by birch thicket and balsam fir saplings, a tulip tree stands ten feet tall. Its namesake leaves, turning yellow in the waning daylight of fall, hang at jaunty angles, catching the sunlight. The […]