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Field Work


Field Work: At Work Generating Power With Betsy Lesnikoski

Betsy Lesnikoski loved being outdoors as a child in Connecticut in the 1970s, but given her suburban surroundings, she wasn’t sure how to turn that passion into a career. When she…

Field Work: Crunching Data with Biometrician Ken Laustsen

A big-city reporter called one day wanting to know how many sugar maple trees there are in Maine – and how Maine compared to Vermont, a state virtually synonymous with syrup production.…

Field Work: At Work Logging with the Taylor Family

For Laurence and Brenda Taylor, the logging business is truly a family affair. Their company, L.E. Taylor & Sons, based in Porter, Maine, employs twelve family members from three…

Field Work: At Work Overcoming a Fire with Bob Moses

Building a second career to follow a very successful first career is a challenge. When those two careers are as different as, say, being an accountant and operating a lumber company, well,…

Field Work: At Work Sawing Timber at Strong Farm and Sawmill

East Hampton, Connecticut — To the left of the driveway is a circular steel sawblade hung in an oak-post frame, bearing the name of the family business painted in red: “STRONG FARM…

Field Work: At Work Making Things Run Right with Eric Robinson

In logging, they say it takes iron to move wood. Eric Robinson’s job is to keep the iron moving. He’s part of the mobile service unit at CJ Logging Equipment, a Booneville, New…

Field Work: At Work in a Big Rig with Ray Mainguay

The alarm went off at 1 a.m. I got up, dressed, and sleepily attempted to eat some breakfast. My stomach protested, as this was not a normal time to be eating. Hitting the road, I noticed…

Field Work: At Work Buying Veneer Logs With Phil Stannard

You’d think, in our high-tech world, there’d be some sort of sensor or detector or app that could electronically evaluate and instantly confirm that a log is truly veneer-worthy.…

Field Work: At Work Battling Invasives with Jeff Taylor

The first time that invasive plant specialist Jeff Taylor laid eyes on the Mink Brook Nature Preserve in Hanover, New Hampshire, he didn’t want the job. “I couldn’t even see…

Garland Mill: Harnessing the Power of Water

When Garland Mill began operations in 1856 – five years before the start of the Civil War – there were more than 600 water-powered sawmills in New Hampshire. One hundred-sixty…

Field Work: Vermont Biochar

Michael Low knows intimately every footstep of his 67-acre Green Fire Farm. He has worked this land for a dozen years, and his wife and business partner, Hart Brent, has been here a decade…

Field Work: At Work Developing Carbon Offsets with Finite Carbon

Carbon has gotten a bum rap lately. Once called the fundamental building block of life, it’s now better known as the thing that’s going to destroy the planet. As if this…

Field Work: At Work (Exporting Wood) with Ally Global Logistics

Wood has been moved by water for hundreds of years. But these days the quest isn’t to move logs downriver to the mill as much as it is to float them to Pakistan, Vietnam, China, or…

Field Work: At Work Logging (and Training) with John Adler

John Adler happens to be a logger, but more inherently he’s a thinker. Spend a little time with him and you quickly realize that whether he had chosen to be a banker, a builder,…

Field Work: At Work Mining Timber with Tom Shafer

Tom Shafer’s business is mining trees. It’s not really harvesting; maybe re-harvesting. “Recovering a forgotten forest” is his company motto. He likes to think of it as…

Field Work: At Work Searching for Sweet-Sounding Spruce

If John Griffin had a theme song to describe his life, it might very well be Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again.” Griffin’s business, Old Standard Wood, is…

The Gospel of Red Spruce

We were inspired to learn more about red spruce from an instrument-making perspective, so we visited luthier Don Wilson in Arlington, Vermont, and asked him a few questions. Why use spruce in…

Field Work: At Work Chipping Trees with the Hardwick Family

Donnie Hardwick Jr. is a spitting image of his father. In the picture hanging in the lobby of the family business, Donnie Sr. sports a scraggly beard, wide-rimmed glasses, and a blue crocheted…

Field Work: At Work Starting (and Putting Out) Fires with Fire Management Services

Last year, May first was about as nice a spring day as you could ask for. Dawn broke cool, maybe a touch of frost in the cold spots, but the sky was high – just blue jay blue – and…