To walk through the woods on a bright winter day in Vermont, one needs snowshoes, warm clothes, and an endless ability to look up. The ground cover is hidden beneath a winter’s worth of ice and snow but the canopy is open to the sky, affording views to the branches against a blue and cloudless backdrop. In LR Jones State Forest in Plainfield, Vermont, a small group of foresters look up for damage to native ash trees, injury caused not by wind or ice but by woodpeckers in search of an exotic meal: emerald ash borers.  

Read the entire article published in the Vermont League of Cities and Towns May 2022 newsletter.