from the Grafton Nature Museum... Patches, Points and Prime Rub by Skip Lisle Habitats often have distinctive characteristics and discernible boundaries. The Rocky Mountains, Great Plains, and Eastern Forest are large swaths of ",macro" habitat. Animals that have evolved in these areas include mountain goats, pronghorn antelope, and white-tailed deer, respectively. By contrast, oak stands, alder swales, or wetlands are relatively small patches of habitat. They are used by specialist like squirrels, woodcock, and black ducks that do not stray far from preferred "neighborhoods", or by generalists like deer and bear that might use all three in the same day. The success and survival of human hunters and animal predators largely depends on knowing what prey is likely to be found in a particular habitat at any given time of day. An even smaller habitat class is microhabitat, which is essentially a point on the landscape. Microhabitats often provide a specific need for a species that uses a much broader area during its life cycle. Examples include caves, dead trees, or beaver lodges. Lodges are unique because, like anthills or termite mounds, living organisms make them. ";Teepees" of soil, sticks, and vegetation, they are chemically and structurally rich. They can almost be thought of as small-scale geological features: monadnocks (high "mountains" surrounded by wetland plains. Not counting the years during and immediately after the fur trade, they have been a defining characteristic of the North American landscape for millennia. Beaver lodges provide a variety of functions for hundreds of species. For instance, muskrats, otters, and mice use them for shelter, waterfowl nest on them, and turtles and snakes use them to bask in t he sun. Because of their prominence they are also favorite places for coyotes and foxes to "lift their legs" as they go about their territorial rounds. Our view of nature is often limited to knowledge of one or more individual species. Arguably, the understanding of ecosystems (habitats plus the life that occupies them) is even more imperative if we are to be successful land stewards. The study of habitats is also an enjoyable activity that, if you are one of the lucky (or skilled) few, might even put venison on your table.

from the Grafton Historical Society... Words to Study by Bill Toomey While I was recently admiring the new display set up by Eli Prouty in the Pettengill Room of the Grafton History Museum, I studied with close attention the antique needle-work samplers which young women were expected to produce in times past. While this most exacting work is as admirable for the patience required as for the skill, it was the sentimental verse, so frequently copied on such things, that really got to me. Certainly for any girl making a sampler, by the time it was completed, the poetic text must have been emblazoned on her heart forever. One of my favorites is as follows: Wrought by Cynthia L. Palmer Aug. 8th, 1825 in the 12th year of her age.    Since beauties bloom to time must bow,     And age deform the fairest brow,    Let brighter charms be yours.    The female mind enbalmed in truth    Shall bloom in everlasting youth    While time itself endures.