New paper!
I am excited about it, since it has some very cool contributions on:
-Status of Invasive ectomycorrhizal fungi
-Definition of what is a invasive mycorhizal 🍄
-Cool picture of trees being brought from Europe in 1920!
Lead by @nahpo.bsky.social! nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Living in Baxter State Park has its perks. Mountain heath (Phyllodoce caerulea) on Katahdin.
This past winter, my partner and I took a spontaneous trip to northern Minnesota for a chance to see a great grey owl during a mass irruption. We saw several, including this one through the scope.
I read that JD Vance had just joined bluesky and quickly became the most blocked account on the platform, so I very quickly blocked him as well.
#notmyvicepresident
Kalmia polifolia, bog laurel, found on the alpine ridgeline of Mt. Mansfield in Vermont.
Trump administration has crossed a line, there is no law and order anymore. And when you cross that line, you enter what can only be called mob rule.
This bear-berry willow was in a safe place farther off trail than most people wander, but the summit of Katahdin was completely without vegetation, along with many sections adjacent to the tread way.
Having worked as a summit steward on several peaks in New England, I take notice in how land managers manage alpine peaks. In Baxter State Park where Katahdin is, there is little being done to educate hikers on staying on trail. As such, there is much off-trail wandering, killing plants.
Salix uva-ursi, commonly called bear-berry willow. This one is in the tablelands of Mount Katahdin, Maine’s tallest mountain. Close to it is a sign asking to keep their feet off alpine plants.
This plan is utterly insane and would cause catastrophic environmental degradation and loss of outdoor opportunities throughout the west — it would accelerate the decline of forests and wildlife, and seriously restrict hiking, camping, fishing, birding, hunting, etc.
Pink Lady’s Slipper, Orchidaceae
Thornton, New Hampshire 6/5/25
A herring is a fish.
When a herring is preserved by salting and smoking, it turns red and smells.
It's so pungent that it's a great diversion to distract hunting dogs from their trail.
Now, a ‘red herring’ refers to anything that diverts attention from the issue at hand.
Welp I just backed out of a dream National Park Service position because it was supposed to start a month ago and there is still no progress on my paperwork. I hope there are still national parks to apply to next year.
It would also gut environmental regulations and put our public lands at risk. Call your senators!
Maybe quail eggs?
Carrying a large sack of mushrooms in my baby bjorn and showing them off proudly to the curious mall walkers
They were definitely planted in Oakwood Cemetery. Not many dendrology students have the privilege of being tested on baldcypress and dawn redwood during the same quiz.
Congaree National Park! Also planted in Syracuse NY, but it didn’t have any knees.
Leaf-covered path winds through a forest of birch and maple trees.
Buchanan Lodge, a 4-sided shelter built for backpackers on Vermont’s Long Trail.
Yellow violet flowers sit on a patch of moss.
Photo of nearby Mount Mansfield to the north taken from a ledge.
I haven’t backpacked for fun since finishing the Appalachian Trail in 2022. While I still don’t like sleeping in stinky clothes, there’s nothing more mind cleansing than being outside for a while.
Bolton VT, May 13th 2025
Not a pizza with mushrooms, but a mushroom that looks like pizza!! 🍕 Ganoderma sessile ❤️🔥
#pizza #mushroom
A bird with soft olive and gray plumage and a pointed crest is nestled in a mossy, lichen-covered nest, surrounded by twigs and branches in a dense forest setting.
For #mothersday how about this sweet mama Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher keeping her eggs nice and toasty today at Paraiso Quetzal Lodge?
#CostaRica #birds #nature #mama
Trillium undulatum, Painted Trillium. Found growing in a stand of eastern hemlock. Bolton VT
Today was my most successful morel search by far. All of them are black morels (Morchella elata group). In the last photo, you can see some little ones poking up through a gravel road. Very tough!
Morchella elata group. I would rather eat it than try to figure out Morel taxonomy
How does something so small make me so happy?
The large wefts of Hylocomium splendens caught my eye from quite a ways away. It wasn’t until I took out my hand lens that I noticed the smaller Atrichum sp. taking shelter under the larger moss.
Belvidere Vermont, 5/4/2025
While on a run this afternoon, I had to stop to watch 3 beavers attempt to shoo away this black bear from their dam. One of the coolest wildlife moments I have ever experienced!
I’ve seen a few of these lately, one of the first mushrooms to pop up for the year in northern New England. Now called Maublancomyces korfii but familiarly Gyromitra korfii.
The lobes curling inward are neat! Not like other Peltigera out there.
