The photographs, projected onto a screen in front of the room, were astonishing. A bobcat crouching in thick cover. A cougar staring intently, its head dusted in snow. A black bear on its hind feet, marking a white birch. And the words that went with them—spoken by wildlife biologist, conservationist, photographer, and tracker Sue Morse—were … Read more
The snow is almost gone from our yard already. Here, facing northwest across the Winooski Valley, an April without white stuff on the ground is a rare gift. Soon, crocuses will be in bloom. We’ll be planting peas and salad greens. And the world will be buzzing with life. The spring peepers, returned from the … Read more
When I was a vegetarian, I had no clue why modern people hunted. Now that I hunt, I still puzzle over it. Every hunter has his or her own reasons, of course. I wonder mostly about my own, and even there it’s often hard to lay claim to certainty. Of two things, though, I feel … Read more
The first thing I ever heard about my great-uncle Al was that he never gave up. When I started hunting, my mentor—my mother’s brother, Uncle Mark—wanted to impress upon me the vital importance of persistence. So he told me stories about hunting with his uncles in Pennsylvania’s Moshannon State Forest back in the 1960s and … Read more