On a brisk Saturday morning at Bradbury Mountain State Park in Pownal, Maine, Park Ranger Jeff Pengel leads a nature walk he’s titled ‘EnLichenment’. And, puns aside, there’s a lot to see here, once ...

While the remaining snow and cold nights belie the inevitable arrival of spring, I have seen and heard flocks of geese heading north along the coast. Hordes of robins swept through town the other day.

I know many of us want winter to come to an end, but I would like just one more good snowstorm. I love all seasons, but I need a little more of that winter bleakness in the woods, primarily to help me ...

Lichens are typically placed in three main groups based on their body forms and features: crustose (crust-like), foliose (leaf-like), and fruticose (tube or beard-like strands). The growth you are ...

'British soldier' lichen growing on rock. (Clay Wollney) For the most part, lichens growing on trees is a good thing, not harmful to the trees. However, weak or dying trees may have a lot of lichens, ...

You are able to gift 5 more articles this month. Anyone can access the link you share with no account required. Learn more. Lichens can be divided into three types. Crustose lichens lie flat on the ...

Some folks think lichen is bad for their trees. Those people can be spotted standing out in the hot sun picking little gray-green tufts off their tree trunks like a woodpecker hunting for bugs. But it ...

Fungi, such as mushrooms and molds, cannot manufacture their own food by photosynthesis. Most of them get their carbohydrates by breaking down dead organic matter or by externally parasitizing living ...

65 million years ago, a meteor catastrophically changed our planet’s biodiversity. All non-avian dinosaurs went extinct. By some estimates, 15,000 teragrams (that’s equal to the mass of 10 million ...