Story Time: “Seeking the Wolf Tree”

Seeking the Wolf Tree is a story for upper elementary students about an adventure two students take through the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. Join Aurora and Orion as they search for a “wolf tree” in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, looking for such clues as a large trunk, low branches, wildlife activity, and nearby smaller trees.

Old-time New England foresters coined the term “wolf tree” for trees they saw as having the ability to “eat” the sun and nutrients and prevent the growth of other trees. Today we understand that wolf trees are the elders of Northeastern forests—rare survivors of an era when most of their fellow trees were cleared to make way for fields and pastures. They are the oldest, largest trees in a regenerating forest and provide important habitat for wildlife.

Wolf trees have:

• Low branches
• A large trunk
• Signs of age
• Signs of wildlife use
• Smaller trees growing nearby

Seeking the Wolf Tree communicates core ideas related to the nature of science as well as energy flow and cycling of matter in ecosystems. It can serve as an intriguing introduction to a unit on ecology, or be read at the beginning of the year and used as a platform for ecological concepts from which to refer back to throughout the school year. Seeking the Wolf Tree is part of the LTER Schoolyard Series of books.

Order Seeking the Wolf Tree from your local bookstore or Amazon, or visit the publisher’s site for the ebook. All New Hampshire public school libraries have copies.

Find Supplemental Teaching Materials at the following links:

• Teaching packet
• Gallery of student-drawn wolf trees
• Wolf tree illustration exercise with checklist
• Water In, Water Out activity with rainfall and stream water data
• Hunt and Peck bird lessons
• Project Learning Tree Lessons
• Alignment with standards: CCSS and NGSS