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The word tamarack is the Algonquian name for the species and means “wood used for snowshoes.” The Ojibwa word is muckigwatig, meaning swamp tree. Other names include hackmatack, eastern larch, black larch, red larch–the list goes on. How ever you choose to refer to it, Larix laricina is a fascinating tree. Used as an edible (boiled tender spring roots are eaten, the inner bark can be ground for flour, teas can be brewed from the needles and roots) to medicinal (wound treatment, expectorant and fever reducer, to name a few) and as a building material, Native Americans have used tamarack for numerous applications.
Referred to as a ‘deciduous’ conifer, tamarack drop their leaves each fall as day length shortens and temperatures fall. Abundant in bogs and other wet areas, it can tolerate drier soils as well. Individuals can live up to 180 years.
Photo by Melissa Hart, taken at the Paul Smith’s College VIC
On Oct. 9, Region 5 Wildlife staff requested help from ECOs with the removal of a young bull moose trapped in a 200-acre cow pen in Clinton County.
Editor’s note: The following content was provided by 
Halloween came early this year at the CATS Ancient Oak Trail when CATS Development Director, Derek Rogers, noticed a bat flying around the meadow area adjacent to the forest. It was actively feeding on insects and made a few close passes, allowing for some fun flight photographs.
Rainbows require two things: sunlight, and water. Rainbows can be seen not just in the rain but also in the mist, spray, fog, and dew. 
During the fall, a change occurs with maple trees that is prominent and apparent. As the daylight hours decrease green leaves turn to colors of vibrant yellow, burnt orange and an array of shades of red. 
We’ve had a lot of history stories this week from contributors, which has been great! But I realized we were short on nature/wildlife content so I pulled a few from the Almanack archive:
It’s starting to feel very much like fall around here. Days are getting shorter, leaves are changing color, temperatures are cooler (some of us have already seen a frost or two; even a freeze), air conditioners are silent, pumpkin-spiced food and beverages are available at several coffee shops and fast food establishments, schools have reopened (sort of), and fall webworms are here en masse in places all across the North County.
Monarch butterflies are an iconic species, easily recognized by their vibrant orange and black wings speckled with white dots and can be seen feeding in fields and open areas here in the Adirondacks. 
The Eurasian Lynx entered North America across the Bering Land Bridge about 2.5 million years ago, in the first of two waves. Glaciers waxed and waned, alternately blocking and opening Beringia, as well as migration paths down to what would become the U.S. border and Canadian province areas, a classic example of how one species gets separated by changing land and sea features, the two groups then evolving in different directions, until representatives of one group can no longer mate, thus resulting in two species. The second wave, coming with melting of northern glaciers evolved into the Canadian Lynx.
Most people have seen the small, flying murals called butterflies. Nature’s living pieces of art that remain an endless show of life and beauty drawn upon wings of flight. The carrier of this splendor, a delicate butterfly. 
Get to Know New York’s Natives: Cow Parsnip
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