Old-Growth Forest Ecology Outing — New Event Scheduled!

I’m really excited to announce that I’ll be leading an Old-Growth Forest Ecology Outing in a few weeks, and I’d love for you to join me.

This outing offers a unique in-person opportunity to learn the rich ecology and distinctive features of older forests.

We’ll begin the day by walking through a mature upland hardwood forest and discussing forest ecology. In the afternoon, we will explore a magnificent old-growth conifer forest and discuss old-growth forest dynamics.

In addition to learning key characteristics of mature and old-growth forests, participants will learn tree identification techniques; mushroom ecology and identification; the influence of geology on forest development; ways to interpret forest history; the role of fire as an ecological agent; old-growth forest misconceptions; and much more.

This event will take place in Cook Forest State Park. Located in northwestern Pennsylvania, Cook Forest is home to one of the last remaining old-growth forests in the entire region, currently hosting 11 old-growth areas totaling over 2,300 acres. One of the areas within the park, the Forest Cathedral, contains arguably the finest concentration of old-growth trees in the northeastern United States. This remarkable area is home to dozens of old-growth eastern white pine and hemlock trees, many over 300 years old and towering above 140 feet in height.

This outing is the perfect opportunity to learn, explore, and connect with nature in a truly spectacular setting.

Interested? Here are the details:

When: Saturday May 31, 2025 or Sunday June 1, 2025 (Choose one date; both programs will cover the same material.)
Where: Cook Forest State Park, Pennsylvania
Time: 10:00 am — 4:00 pm

To maximize your learning experience, space is limited and registration with payment in advance is required to secure your spot.

To learn more and to register, click here and choose the appropriate session.

I’d love to see you there!

—Adam Haritan

If This Isn’t Good Medicine, I Don’t Know What Is

To find good medicine, look in a forest. In a forest, you’ll encounter plants that have the ability to heal human ailments.

Many years ago, I learned about the medicinal properties of a particular woody plant. This woody plant, when applied to my face as an extract, improved my poor complexion.

Over the years, I’ve been able to maintain a decent complexion thanks to this plant (and thanks to significant lifestyle changes). While I no longer rely on this plant to heal my physical ailment, I do rely on it to address an existential problem.

Plaguing the human species, this problem can be solved if we know where to look.

To learn more about this plant and its ability to offer good medicine, check out the brand-new video.

I’d also like to mention that I’ll be part of the Wild Ones Western PA Chapter’s annual symposium on March 26, where I’ll be joining a panel discussion focused on strengthening communities and native habitats.

You can learn more about the event here.

Thanks for reading and watching, and thanks for your continued support!

— Adam Haritan

A Massive Maple Lives In These Woods

Rough, weathered, worn, and warped.

Humans try to avoid these four conditions. Old trees embrace them.

This is why I advocate taking long walks in the woods. In wooded ecosystems, we sometimes discover the ragged splendor of old trees.

On a recent walk in a hardwood forest, I rediscovered a tree I had first encountered many months ago. Rough, weathered, worn, and warped, it’s one of the most remarkable trees I have ever seen.

To learn more about this aged beauty, check out the brand-new video.

Thanks for reading and watching! Have you seen any remarkable trees lately?

— Adam Haritan

An Easy Way to Identify Certain trees in Winter

Want to improve your winter tree identification skills? Here’s a good tip: Look for marcescent leaves.

Marcescence describes leaves that have turned brown and are still attached to trees. These withered leaves often persist on the trees until spring.

As you might expect, marcescence isn’t a feature displayed by too many woody plants. When you see a marcescent tree or shrub, you can narrow down your ID choices to a relatively small number of species.

In the temperate woodlands of eastern North America, marcescence is often displayed by hornbeam (Carpinus), beech (Fagus), witch-hazel (Hamamelis), hophornbeam (Ostrya), and oak (Quercus).

No one is exactly sure why marcescence exists. Here are a few hypotheses:

It allows plants to photosynthesize longer into the autumn season.
It deters herbivores from browsing twigs and buds.
Marcescent trees provide shelter to animals that in turn provide nutrients to trees.
Marcescent leaves, when they finally fall off, provide pulses of nutrients to their host trees.
Marcescent leaves, when they finally fall off, smother new growth of competing woody plants in the spring.

All of these statements can be true to some degree, but it is uncertain whether any one of them is the true reason for marcescence.

Still, you and I can use marcescence to our advantage when attempting to identify woody plants. A good first step is to learn which woody plants are marcescent in our region. We can then seek out these plants, spend some time with them, and fall in love with the process.

To learn even more tips for identifying trees, consider enrolling in Trees In All Seasons. Today is the final day of the winter sale.

You can learn more and register here.

Also, if you’re interested in learning how to forage mushrooms this winter, consider enrolling in Foraging Wild Mushrooms. This 4-season online course is on sale until the end of today, December 23.

Thanks for supporting nature education!

— Adam Haritan

Questions To Ask A Tree

“The wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more.”

It’s no surprise that Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote these words. The famous American writer was intimately connected to trees: He planted trees, gathered their fruits, and taught his children the value of learning their names.

Emerson spoke the language of trees, yet was still humble enough to acknowledge that every encounter with trees presented a fresh opportunity to engage in wonder.

Who are you? How old are you? Why are you here? Can you say anything about the underlying rocks? What can you tell us about the broader ecosystem?

In the spirit of Ralph Waldo Emerson, you and I can ask these kinds of questions every time we encounter a tree. When we ask questions, we engage in wonder.

A basic step we can then take to answer those questions is first to learn the names of trees. Fortunately, there are many ways to learn. We can:

Study tree ID field guides
Learn how to use dichotomous keys
Learn all major physical features of trees (buds, bark, leaves, flowers, etc.)
Learn habitat characteristics of trees
Attend tree ID walks
Visit arboretums (where trees are often labeled)
Cultivate friendships with local tree enthusiasts
Teach others what we have learned

If you’re looking for a carefully curated opportunity to improve your tree identification skills, consider enrolling in Trees In All Seasons. This online course teaches you how to identify 100 trees in every season. It’s currently on sale through Monday, December 23.

You can register and learn more about the course here.

Regardless of how you decide to learn, I strongly encourage you to hone your tree identification skills over time. With learning comes wonder, appreciation, love, and the unraveling of at least some of nature’s mysteries.

—Adam Haritan

The tree that built America

“Why do you like trees so much?”

People routinely ask me this question.

It isn’t an easy question to answer, but I try my best to explain what it is about trees that makes me feel good.

I love the food trees offer. I enjoy the medicine trees provide. I like the shade trees cast. And I admire their beauty.

But there’s something else about trees I really appreciate: their ability to tell stories.

As it turns out, trees tell remarkable stories of peace, tragedy, death, and — believe it or not — democracy.

One notable tale that trees tell quite well is the story of America’s birth as a nation. While many people associate this story with icons like the Liberty Bell and the Declaration of Independence, the founding of the United States is also strongly connected — both physically and symbolically — to one particular tree.

Tall, majestic, and extremely useful, this tree has been famously labeled “the tree that built America.”

To learn more about this celebrated tree, check out the brand-new video.

Speaking of trees, I was recently interviewed on Harvesting Nature’s Wild Fish and Game Podcast. In the interview, we discussed how trees can help you become a better hunter and observer of wildlife.

You can listen to the interview here.

Thanks for reading and watching! Do you have any unique reasons for loving trees?

— Adam Haritan

Exploring Wild Ecosystems Is Now Open For Enrollment

Greetings,

I am excited to announce that my newest online course, Exploring Wild Ecosystems, is now open for enrollment!

You can register here.

This course is designed to improve your ecological knowledge by introducing you to fascinating ecosystems — including alvars, barrens, bogs, dunes, fens, glades, savannas, vernal pools, and others!

Learning to recognize ecosystems is an essential step toward understanding how nature works. When we pay attention to the bigger picture, we see beyond individual components. We see connections, we see relationships, and we see where humans fit into the story.

If you want to develop ecological literacy; if you want to be able to read landscapes more effectively; if you want to see how all the components within nature are connected, consider enrolling in Exploring Wild Ecosystems today.

Please note that Exploring Wild Ecosystems is open for one week only — from today until Monday, September 30. After that, registration will be closed. Upon registration, you can immediately access all course content and view the lessons at your own pace.

To learn more about the course, check out this video which gives you an overview of what you can expect.

Thanks for supporting nature education! I hope to see you in there!

—Adam Haritan

Finding Dozens of American Chestnut Trees

I like finding all kinds of trees, but there’s one tree in particular whose presence excites me more than most.

American chestnut.

I’ll drive out of my way to find a decent-sized American chestnut. I might even interrupt a conversation to point out American chestnut.

This behavior may seem strange to some people. I consider it proper etiquette for anyone with a burning passion for North American trees.

I recently explored a remote forest in search of American chestnut trees. By the end of the day, I had found dozens of American chestnuts — one of which was the largest I had ever seen.

Fortunately, I brought my camera along to document the experience. If you’re interested in seeing several beautiful American chestnuts, check out the brand-new video!

Thanks for reading and watching. Have you seen any American chestnuts lately?

— Adam Haritan

How The Passenger Pigeon Changed North American Forests

In 1857, the Ohio State Legislature famously wrote:

The passenger pigeon needs no protection. Wonderfully prolific, having the vast forests of the North as its breeding grounds, traveling hundreds of miles in search of food, it is here today and elsewhere tomorrow…

Forty-five years later, the last wild passenger pigeon was shot and killed in Indiana. In 1914, the last member of the species died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.

The passenger pigeon — a species once numbering in the billions — became extinct in a few short decades.

Barring a miracle in the field of de-extinction, no human alive today will ever see a living passenger pigeon that isn’t a biological novelty. No human alive today will stand in awe as massive flocks of passenger pigeons eclipse the sun and darken the skies.

But whether or not scientists actually figure out how to resurrect the dead, there is something many humans can experience today: the legacy left behind by the passenger pigeon on the North American landscape.

In a brand-new video, I discuss how the passenger pigeon profoundly altered North American forests.

You can watch the video here.

Thanks for reading and watching, and thanks for your continued support!

— Adam Haritan

The Great Hemlock Decline

I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of Shakespeare, but a particular line from Hamlet has always stuck with me.

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

These words come to mind particularly when I think about the current state of our forests.

Understandably, people are worried about the “unprecedented changes” occurring in woodland ecosystems. Invasive species are taking over, diseases are killing trees, and desirable organisms are failing to regenerate.

At any given moment, the state of our forests can seem rather bleak.

But when we recall the words of William Shakespeare, our perception of this matter shifts — especially when we consider something fascinating about eastern hemlock.

Many people know that an insect is currently threatening the health of eastern hemlock. Nothing about this situation seems good until we understand a critical piece of information: eastern hemlock is no stranger to threats.

In a brand new video, I discuss an important event of the past that may help us better understand modern-day forests.

You can watch the video here.