Seacoast Online reports that recent storms washed away sand at the northeast end of Jenness Beach on the N.H. seacoast, revealing stumps of trees that are several thousand years old.
The instance of extremely low ebb tide and periods of increased storm activity have revealed the stumps of the cedar and pine trees, dating back more [...]

The above map was taken from this blog post, which sources it to U. Vermont and Sea Grant researchers. The caption says it all: There are 48 invasive species identified in lake Champlain, and at least another 136 - 136 of them!!! - in waterways that connect to the lake, the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Seaway and Hudson River.

I don’t know what else to say except holy cow.

If you ever wonder why stuff needs to be pasteurized, the above picture is a demonstration. (It looked much better in person than in the picture.) The swollen jug on the right holds apple cider that we made with friends, which was left in the fridge for a month or so. The jug on the left is a normal jug, for comparison.

Unpasteurized cider only seems to last a week in the refrigerator before enough microbes grow to alter the taste.Then they start emitting various gaseous byproducts of digestion, which swells up the jug. I don’t know whether it ever would have burst - probably not, that plastic is pretty tough.

University of New Hampshire microbiologist Louis Tisa has received two grants totaling $498,115 to advance understanding of the actinorhizal plants, widespread woody plants with potential to enrich nutrient-poor and contaminated soils.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded Tisa, a professor of molecular, cellular and biomedical sciences, $399,000 to explore the symbiotic relationship between the [...]

Two University of New Hampshire assistant professors — microbiologist Vaughn Cooper and mechanical engineer Christopher White — have received prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER grants. The grants aim to jump-start the careers of promising junior faculty, and the dollars, one million to Cooper and $400,000 to White, have certainly given their research efforts a [...]

We all know that piles of stuff gets smaller as it decays, but don’t usually get to see the difference. I have a graphic example every fall, however, in my leaf pile. I’ve estimated that over the course of one year the leaf pile reduces in volume by 90%-95%, and over the following year, they reduce in volume by another 50%.

A new effort is being launched in Maine, says the Portland Press-Herald in this article: Kelp farming. Some folks are developing what appears to be the firm commercial kelp farm in the country, called Ocean Approved. - basically, they’re starting to grow the oceanic weed on underwater cages, for food and perhaps eventually for environmental benefits (kelp is great at removing excess nutrients that enter the ocean from runoff).

My wife got a hive of bees this year (as I’ve noted before). We didn’t expect to get any honey, because you usually don’t the first year, but they were so staggeringly productive that we ended up taking the honey from one of the “supers” - the name for what are basically each floor of [...]

The Portland Press-Herald has the story about the upcoming demise of New England’s largest elm tree, written as a profile of the man who has helped keep “Herbie” the tree alive for a half century. The tree is 110 feet tall, with a trunk that’s 20 feet around - not bad! It has finally succumbed to Dutch elm disease despite spraying and pruning, and will be taken down before it falls on something.

Many years ago my wife and I planted several disease-resistant hybrid elms from the Elm Research Institute in Keene. Most are chugging along, but one of the big trees succumbed to Dutch elm after about 15 years - I wrote about it, including a video complete with some chainsaw action, last year.

When I was in the Navy on the guided missile test ship, the USS Norton Sound, we spent a lot of time in the Pacific slowly cruising at night, just barely making steerage way. The ship was a converted seaplane tender and still had the tall crane on the port side formerly used for servicing [...]

I don’t know what things are like where you live, but where I live, purple loosestrife seems to be retreating.

The seasonal creek/wetland that runs through my property used to be choked with with this pretty invasive, but over the last three years they have virtually disappeared. They’re also gone from my little pond, where they were doing the astonishing task of out-competing cattails. They’re gone from the bigger pond across the street, and wet areas that I drive past daily seem far less lavender-colored than they used to be.

This link discusses the way humans and animals see the world. It got me to thinking about my own sense of color and how it differs from ‘normal’ people. My wife has much better sight for detail in the midst of chaos than I do. When we are out in the woods, she can see [...]

My wife opened up our hive this weekend, to add another level to the beehive (”super” in apiary terminology) and check on the progress of her children. I saw the queen for the first time: she looks just like a regular bee with a grossly extended abdomen. Apparently she can lay *more than her weight* of eggs in a single day. Wow.

From the Portland Press-Herald, a story of happy spill-over effect from conservation efforts:
A team of University of New England researchers that is studying the reappearance of Atlantic sturgeon in the Saco River came up with an even more surprising find this week: a shortnose sturgeon.While the Atlantic sturgeon had seemingly disappeared for about 100 years, [...]

Not surprisingly, given the number of horrible, vicious, destructive bugs that can be carried on firewood, state and federal campgrounds in New Hampshire have banned out-of-state firewood from being carried here.
Other than local firewood, only kiln-dried firewood with its original packaging and label will be allowed. Campers can still bring in firewood purchased locally or [...]