Landscape Interpretation

One of the great joys of natural history is to go to a new landscape, make a few simple observations, and begin to tease out the story of the land. Our Vermont’s Natural History course focuses on developing this skill, but you can get started right here. And it’s much easier than it might seem to go into the woods and begin telling a story spanning 500 million years! If you’re wondering where to start, then you’re in the right place.

The other sections on geology, trees, wildlife, and land-use history provide lots of details helpful in reconstructing this story, so definitely peruse those sections. But much of the information there is specific to Vermont.