Attention hunters: Apply for ADP before July 16
The deadline for applying for an Antlerless Deer Permit is July 16. Learn how to apply.
Archery classes and range access
MassWildlife opened 8 public archery ranges this summer and is offering free classes. Sign up for a class, or get a free range pass to visit the ranges and practice on your own.
Wildlife dealing with the heat
What do wild animals do when temperatures start to climb? Like any good New Englander, our local wildlife is built to survive all 4 seasons. From bizarre bodily functions to wardrobe changes, here’s how they’ll stay cool this summer.
Thermal panting and gular fluttering
You’ve likely seen a dog pant after laying in the sun. Wild animals do this too. Thermal panting increases the evaporation of liquid off their tongue and inside of their mouth, lowering their body temperature. Members of the canid (dog) and cervid (deer and moose) families are especially known for panting to thermoregulate. Certain birds, like owls and cormorants, use a similar strategy called gular fluttering—rapidly vibrating their throat to increase evaporation and cool themselves down.
Watch a video of a Massachusetts moose thermal panting on a warm day.
“Hot yoga” for birds
When it gets hot, great blue herons will spread their wings in a dramatic, statue-like pose. Although it may look like yoga, they are actually striking this pose to release heat from their body and allow a cool breeze to reach areas of skin with fewer feathers. Interestingly, they also do this in the morning sun to warm up their bodies after a cool night.
A messy solution
Turkey vultures and northern gannets use a unique, albeit gross, cooling strategy called urohidrosis (pronounced yoo-roh-hi-DROH-sis). These birds purposely defecate on their featherless legs to keep cool. The evaporation of the waste along the blood vessels results in a cooling effect. They’re not the only animals that do this. Harbor seals urinate on their hind flippers while sunbathing to regulate their body temperature too.
Shifting scenery and wardrobe
Sometimes survival just requires a change in routine. Some wildlife, like moose and deer, exhibit more nocturnal or crepuscular (dawn and dusk) activity so they can rest through the hottest part of the day. When it gets too warm, reptiles and amphibians move to cooler microclimates, underneath leaf litter and rotting logs, or submerge themselves in water. Black bears and moose will seek shelter in forested wetlands and use mud and shallow water to cool down. Occasionally, they come to artificial water sources, like swimming pools or water troughs. If you find wildlife cooling off, always keep your distance and wait for the animal to move on.
Many mammals, like coyote, deer, and fisher, also have thinner summer fur compared to their winter coats. Taking it a step further, bobcats not only have a thinner coat, they also tend to have less spots and more tawny, reddish fur to better camouflage with their summer habitats.
Want to help wildlife stay cool this summer?
Wild animals can care for themselves year-round and almost never need our help, even when it’s hot. However, you can make your yard a natural, cooling oasis for wildlife with these tips:
Note: If there are West Nile Virus or Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) detections in your area, remove all standing water to avoid attracting mosquitoes.
- Grow native plants: For all wildlife, grow native plants, shrubs, and trees that offer natural sources of food and shelter from the sun.
- Bird bath 101: For songbirds, provide a shallow, clean bird bath with 1–2 inches of water. They are especially attracted to moving or dripping water. Be sure to replace the water weekly and regularly scrub the bird bath to remove build up. Learn more about creating a bird-friendly area.
- Be a rest stop for bugs: During droughts, or in areas far from natural water sources, create a water station in your garden for bees, butterflies, and other insects. Fill a shallow saucer with water and place items for bugs to perch on, like small rocks and twigs, in the saucer. Don’t add sugar, but a small pinch of salt can provide minerals that bees and butterflies need. Change the water at least weekly.
- Avoid causing harm when trying to help: Never intentionally feed wildlife. This can cause individuals to gather at the site, creating a place for disease to spread and for wildlife to become less cautious around people. This could further harm the animals you were trying to help.
Fishing—the ultimate analog adventure
Remember summers in the 80s and 90s—riding bikes until dark, running through the sprinkler, and spending long afternoons outside with friends and family without a screen in sight? This summer, families can bring back that old-school summer magic by planning some outdoor analog adventures without needing expensive gear or a far-off destination. Some of the best outdoor experiences happen close to home—at a local pond or neighborhood park.
Fishing is the ultimate analog adventure for kids, families, or for those who want to reconnect with their inner child! Whether casting from a dock, shoreline, or canoe, freshwater fishing offers a unique combination of outdoor exploration, patience, and anticipation that makes every outing memorable. New anglers don't need fancy equipment to get started. A simple rod and reel, a bobber, a little curiosity, and some bait are often all it takes.
Grab your sunscreen, pick a spot on the map, and start making your own summer fishing memories using the resources on this page. Don't forget your freshwater fishing license, required for anglers 15 or older.
Fishing with kids
A "90s summer" isn't about going backward. It's about making space for the kinds of experiences that help kids build confidence, curiosity, and a connection to nature. The key to fishing with kids is to keep it simple and focus on fun. Skip rocks, look for frogs, or identify birds. Sometimes the best part of a fishing trip isn't catching a fish—it's spending time outdoors together and discovering something new.
These 10 expert tips will help you plan a smooth, successful family fishing trip they’ll remember for years to come.
Add a fishing challenge to your summer bucket list
A little competition can make summer even more memorable. MassWildilfe’s Freshwater Sportfishing Awards Program turns every fishing trip into a chance to earn bragging rights. Anglers who catch qualifying fish can earn a collectible bronze pin, while top catches earn gold pins and special recognition. There are separate categories for youth and adults. Whether you're chasing your first pin or trying to catch a variety of species, it's a great way to turn a summer of fishing into an ongoing quest. See how many species you can catch before summer ends!
Build your fishing skills
Ready to level up your freshwater game? For intermediate or experienced anglers, summer offers unique challenges—and big rewards. Whether you're chasing trout in the cool depths or hunting for largemouth bass lurking in the weeds, a smart strategy can make all the difference.
Bring on the bass: To catch more bass, it helps to learn about the habitats and behavior of largemouth and smallmouth. Get bass fishing tips for when and where to fish, how to select a spot on the water, and what equipment to use.
Catch, clean, and cook panfish: Knowing where and how to target bluegill, perch, crappie, or pumpkinseed can lead to a successful day on the water. Discover tips for finding panfish, selecting tackle and bait, and turning your catch into a fresh, flavorful meal.
Targeting trout in summer: As water temperatures rise in the summer, coldwater fish like trout become harder to find. Find out how to use depth maps to target trout in cool layers of lakes.
More fishing resources to help you reel in summer memories
- Go Fish MA! digital fishing map
Browse hundreds of fishable lakes and ponds, get waterbody information, find a place to launch your boat or kayak, or find a bait shop. - Accessible fishing
Find fishing piers and platforms designed to be usable by anglers of all abilities. - Learn to fish classes
Find a class near you; all experience levels welcome. - Campsites for fishing
Pick a place to camp near a great place to fish. - Top waterbodies to explore from a canoe or kayak
Bog plants
Bogs are among Massachusetts’ most mysterious and misunderstood ecosystems. Historically dismissed as “wasteland”—land too wet for farming or timber harvest—or feared as treacherous quagmires, these waterlogged worlds are actually vibrant communities supporting some of the most extraordinary plants in the Commonwealth: colorful mosses, carnivorous sundews that trap insects with glistening tentacles, delicate orchids that deceive their pollinators, and evergreen shrubs that thrive where other plants would starve. Explore some of Massachusetts's bog flora.
Seeing the forest for the trees: Recognizing the impacts of overabundant white-tailed deer
When we walk through the woods, spotting a white-tailed deer can be a highlight of the day. They are native to Massachusetts and an iconic part of our landscape. However, an ecosystem is all about balance. When deer populations grow beyond what the land can support, the impacts ripple through the entire forest. These issues become particularly pronounced in areas that don’t allow hunting.
But how can you tell if a forest is healthy or if it is buckling under the pressure of overabundant deer? You just need to know where to look.
What a healthy forest looks like
forest with trees and vegetation growing at different heights
A truly robust, functioning forest often appears messy and is difficult to walk through. Instead of a completely open view with sightlines that go on for acres, a balanced forest features a complex, multi-layered structure.
You should be able to see distinct vertical layers: the high canopy of maturing trees, a mid-story of smaller or shade-tolerant trees, a dense and bushy understory of native shrubs, and a forest floor carpeted with a diverse mix of wildflowers, ferns, and young tree seedlings. This structural diversity is the engine of the ecosystem, providing abundant food, nesting sites, and shelter for a wide variety of wildlife while ensuring the next generation of trees is actively growing.
The tell-tale browse line
White-tailed deer are browsers, meaning they eat the leaves, twigs, and buds of woody plants. When deer are overabundant, they consume almost all palatable vegetation within their reach; typically below five or six feet. This creates a stark, unnatural browse line. Below this point, the woods look hollowed out and park-like. While it might make for an easy hike, this open understory is an ecological red flag indicating a forest that is being eaten from the ground up.
Halting of forest regeneration
Forests are dynamic. When an old tree falls, it creates a gap in the canopy, allowing sunlight to hit the forest floor. In a balanced ecosystem, this triggers a race as young saplings shoot up to fill the void.
In areas with too many deer, those seedlings and saplings are eaten before they ever have a chance to mature. Without these young trees to replace the old ones, the forest loses its ability to regenerate. Over time, the ground becomes bare, the canopy thins, and the forest begins to slowly transition into a thicket of invasive species.
Not all green is good
Often, an over browsed forest still looks lush, but a closer look reveals that things are out of balance. A forest lacking in biodiversity will have very few dominant tree species and trees that are roughly the same size.
When overabundant deer eat all of their preferred native foods, they leave behind species they dislike or find toxic. This allows unpalatable plants, including many invasive species and ferns, to take over. These species crowd out the native plants, creating a "green desert" that offers very little nutritional value for the broader ecosystem.
The loss of that dense, messy understory doesn't just affect plants. The shrub layer is critical real estate. Numerous species of migratory songbirds rely on low-lying, dense vegetation to build their nests and hide from predators. Small mammals, insects, and amphibians depend on the leaf litter and cover that a diverse understory provides. When deer strip away this habitat layer, the wildlife that relies on it disappears with it.
Restoring ecological balance
In absence of historic predator regimes, hunting is a critical tool to managing deer populations in Massachusetts. Promoting hunting access and opportunity is the most efficient way to manage deer populations and maintain or restore local forests to ecological balance leading ultimately to increased local biodiversity.
Nature journaling: The art of observing
In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins could have been talking about nature journaling when he said, “You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
Mindfulness techniques like meditation often get a lot of attention, but nature journaling offers another powerful way to cultivate presence and awareness. Nature journaling is the practice of observing the natural world and recording what you notice. It can include documenting plants, animals, weather, landscapes, and seasonal changes, focusing on careful observation rather than artistic perfection. Nature journaling allows you to slow down and notice patterns, colors, sounds, smells, and textures you might otherwise miss.
One of my first nature journaling sessions was inspired by a blooming patch of wild geraniums I noticed while hiking Satan’s Kingdom Wildlife Management Area in spring. As a beginner, I knew that starting with a stationary subject, like a plant, was a good move. With notepad and pencil in hand, I began to carefully observe the geraniums and sketch. What unfolded was the discovery of a world that amazed me. I noticed that the pattern of the leaf veins was unusual, a departure from the bilateral symmetry found in many other plants. The stem was covered with fine hairs, and the leaf lobes were sharp and pointed. I also noted that it was growing in the shade near a stream.
Prior to that moment, I had been completely unaware of the intricate beauty of a plant I had walked past hundreds of times. But the journaling didn't end with the geranium. While sketching, I noticed a fascinating beetle with inkblot-like markings on its yellow back. According to my iNaturalist App, it was an American carrion beetle, another incredible species that contributes to our region's biodiversity that I had remained unaware of for all 51 years of my life until embarking on this brief ten-minute journey.
Nature journaling has no rules. Personally, I like to make notes and drawings about whatever captures my interest. If I hear bird calls, I write them down. Sometimes I sketch a landscape simply because I'm drawn to it—like this sketch of two hickories with old barbed-wire fence running through them.
What is especially wonderful about nature journaling is that it is for everyone, regardless of age or ability. Young people may prefer to scribble, doodle, and let their curiosity lead the way. Even those who can't yet hold a pencil can explore nature through their senses by being asked to talk about what they see, smell, hear, or feel. I am always amazed by how children experience the natural world without the self-imposed rules and filters that many adults accumulate over time. Those who have visual or hearing limitations can explore using other senses. Feel the bark of a tree or the surface of a leaf. Is it smooth, shaggy, or rough? What do you smell? Is the air musty in the fall or fragrant in the spring?
Nature journaling isn't really about the finished page. It doesn't matter if your sketches are difficult to recognize or if your handwriting is nearly impossible to read—as is often the case with mine. What matters is the transformative process that occurs when we open ourselves to the living world around us. By noticing smells, textures and other sensory details, we give our brains more ways to remember an experience. That’s why a single scent can pull us back in time—to Grandma’s apple pie or the roses outside a childhood home. Nature journaling strengthens those connections, deepening our relationship with the natural world. Instead of seeing an “oak tree,” we notice a red oak with rough bark and waxy leaves, standing in a forest scented with crisp autumn leaves.
Each of us possesses our own unique power of observation. When we allow ourselves to explore through nature journaling, we create stronger and more meaningful connections with the outdoors. Try it just once, and you may never “see” the world in quite the same way again.
About the author
Tom Wansleben is a Habitat Biologist with MassWildlife who plans and implements habitat management projects across Massachusetts. While careful observation is central to his work, nature journaling has helped him slow down and experience the outdoors in a new way.
Blanding turtle press release
Concord — Zoo New England (ZNE), the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) celebrated a historic milestone in wildlife conservation on the evening of June 25, 2026 at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Concord, Massachusetts. The organizations gathered with donors, conservation partners, and supporters to release two Blanding's turtle hatchlings into the wild, marking a generational turning point in the decades-long effort to recover this globally-endangered species in Massachusetts. The event also honored Dr. Bryan Windmiller, founder of ZNE's Blanding's turtle conservation program at Great Meadows NWR, whose more than two decades of leadership made this moment possible.
The two released hatchlings are the offspring of Blanding's turtle #144, nicknamed "Ivy,” making them the first confirmed second-generation offspring of the Great Meadows NWR Blanding's turtle conservation program, which began in 2003. Their hatching and release represent a critical milestone toward establishing a self-sustaining, recovered population of this globally endangered species.
ZNE's HATCH (Hatchling and Turtle Conservation through Headstarting) program lies at the heart of this work. Headstarting is a conservation technique in which turtles are raised in captivity to give them an advantage to surviving into adulthood. Through headstarting, ZNE has given more than 1,400 Blanding's turtles a fighting chance at adulthood. The process begins when turtle hatchlings are removed from the wild in early fall and given to partnering schools to raise in a warm aquarium environment with unlimited food before they’re released back into the wild the next spring. This method greatly accelerates the growth of the turtles and reduces the likelihood of death from predators during a turtle’s first year of life when they are most vulnerable. This gives each turtle a "head start" at life. Headstarted turtles have a 40 times greater chance of surviving to adulthood than their wild counterparts. Since 2009, more than 22,000 students from Massachusetts K–12 schools have headstarted rare turtles in their classrooms. Ivy's other hatchlings are currently being raised in local classrooms and will be released by those students this spring.
Ivy's own story began in 2010, when her mother traveled over 1.2 miles from the wetlands of Great Meadows to nest at a nearby office park. That nest produced 11 hatchlings, including a single female weighing just seven grams. That female, Ivy, spent 10 months in the care of Stone Zoo's animal care staff before being released into the wild in 2011, where she remained unseen for over a decade.
In 2023, Ivy was rediscovered during a routine monitoring survey, having grown to full adult size. On June 25, 2025, ZNE Senior Field Conservationist Jimmy Welch stood watch through the night as Ivy dug a nest in a protected wildflower meadow and laid eight eggs beginning at 2:30 a.m. Seven of those eggs hatched successfully that fall and have since been raised in local classrooms through ZNE's HATCH program, and will now be released back to the wild exactly one year after their mother laid them.
"Every year, we protect nests and release headstarted turtles to help restore these threatened turtle populations. But the goal is to have the population become self-sustaining, and that can only happen when the next generation start laying eggs of their own," said Welch. "This release represents the fulfillment of that goal — living proof that our work is having a lasting impact."
“This is an important landmark for Blanding’s turtle conservation in Massachusetts,” said Mike Jones, State Herpetologist for MassWildlife. “These turtles face complex challenges in our modern landscape, and their recovery depends on creative, persistent partnerships. The release of these second-generation turtles is proof that long-term collaboration among Zoo New England, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MassWildlife, schools, and the local community is making a lasting difference for this threatened species.”
Habitat feedback
MassWildlife is responsible for the conservation of freshwater fish and wildlife across Massachusetts. This is achieved through the conservation, restoration, and management of habitat. MassWildlife is seeking public feedback on proposed upland goals that aim to support declining open habitats and mature forests, along with the wide range of wildlife that rely on these healthy habitats to thrive. Visit the Habitat Goals webpage to learn about different habitats and discover why they're important for wildlife, explore the proposed goals, watch a recorded presentation, and submit comments through the online form. Feedback will be accepted until 5 p.m. on July 31, 2026.