Red squirrels do well in an abundant year for spruce and balsam cones, eating as many as fifty a day. Introduced to Newfoundland for the first time in the 1960s, squirrels eat as much as two ...

For those who suffer from seasonal allergies, spring means red eyes, mucus and fits of sneezing. This year, the Lynn Canal has seen a remarkable tree pollen bloom.

Nov. 20, 2022. MOAB, Utah — Blake Votilla stared up at the 120-foot spruce tree. He strapped braces with four-inch spurs to his shins and clipped two large red plastic sacks on his climbing harness.

There seems to be an unbelievable bumper crop of spruce cones both in trees and on lawns this spring. Their abundance has been quite a topic of conversation, at least in my circles. It is coneucopia!

Red spruce trees have reddish-brown cones that grow to one and a half inches long and hang decoratively from green-needled twigs. They soon fall to the ground after reaching maturity, however.

A red squirrel pauses on a tree on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. (Photo by Ned Rozell) Stan Boutin has climbed more than 5,000 spruce trees in the last 30 years.