Here are some photos of the helicopter placing lift towers for the new Lookout Mountain Triple Chairlift at Whiteface last Thursday. The lift will service three new trails on Lookout Mountain, Whiteface’s third peak. The area reclaimed a portion of the Cloudsplitter Trail that was a part of Whiteface in the 1950s. Lookout Mountain will open this season with two expert runs, one 2.5-mile long intermediate trail, as well as more glade skiing.
US Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced yesterday that Great Camp Uncas on Mohegan Lake has been selected as a National Historic Landmark.
Camp Uncas is located a few miles south of the hamlet of Raquette Lake, in the Town of Long Lake, Hamilton County. It is close to the geographic center of the 9,300-square mile Adirondack Park. The camp was built by William West Durant, pre-eminent architect and builder of the Park's most famous and well-preserve great camps (including the adjacent Great Camp Sagamore, also an Historic Landmark and open to the public for day trips and overnight stays).
The designation of Great Camp Uncas marks the third building in the tiny hamlet of Raquette Lake to be awarded National Landmark status. The other two are Great Camp Sagamore and Great Camp Pine Knot, all built by Durant.
Great Camps are compounds of buildings meant as a self-contained (often self-sustaining) seasonal retreat for a wealthy family, mimicking a tiny rural village. Great camp architecture reached its peak around the dawn of 20th Century, as the industrial magnates of the Gilded Age were spending their fortunes on ways to escape the crowded and polluted cites of the Northeast. Each building served a separate purpose, with dining halls, libraries, game rooms, blacksmith shops, boathouses, carriage houses, barns, farms, guest quarters, servants quarters and lounges.
Many great camps fell into disrepair as the wealthy owners passed away or lost their fortunes in the Great Depression. Some were later purchased by scout groups and other institutions that had the means to keep them in order.
Perhaps the two most important features of Durant's great camps are his use of the landscape to conceal the buildings from view until you are right next to them, and his use of whole logs, rock and bark to create a rustic look that matched the landscape but also provided great comfort within. It was a combination of the American log cabin and the opulent European ski chalet. The style has been widely emulated, serving as the prototype for nearly every major lodge and administrative structure built by the National Park Service, including Yellowstone Lodge in Montana.
While Durant built Great Camp Uncas for himself, he was forced to sell it to pay his debts. New owner J. P. Morgan used it as a wilderness retreat for many years.
For the past 30 years, visitors to Great Camp Sagamore have been given tours of Uncas as well. More than 20 group tours came through just this past summer. Uncas and Sagamore have each hosted the Adirondack Council's Annual Forever Wild Dinner and Conservationist of the Year Award celebration. This year, Uncas hosted the Adirondack Architectural Heritage organization's annual meeting as well.
The Sagamore and Uncas roads are designated bike trails, surrounded by Adirondack Forest Preserve lands.
Here is an excerpt from today's Department of the Interior news release announcing the new designation for Great Camp Uncas:
* Camp Uncas was developed 1893 to 1895 on Mohegan Lake in what is now the Adirondack Forest Preserve.
* Camp Uncas is one of the best examples of Adirondack camp architecture, which was designed for leisure. It is of exceptional historical and architectural significance as the first Adirondack camp to be planned as a single unit by William West Durant, widely recognized as one of the most important innovators of the property type.
* At Camp Uncas, Durant developed the camp as a single cohesive unit: a “compound plan” for camps that provided for an array of separate buildings, all subordinate to the natural setting. Camp Uncas was built as an ensemble from start to finish.
* The Adirondack camp had a strong and lasting influence on the design of rustic buildings developed for national and state park systems in the 20th century.
The arrival of the shiny, emerald green beetle, about 1/2 inch long and 1/8 inch wide, in the U.S. may be as serious a threat to white, green, and black ash trees as Dutch elm disease was to the American elm.
Ash trees are a common species; green and black ash grow in wet swampy areas and along streams and rivers; white ash is common in drier, upland soils. Many species of wildlife, including some waterfowl and game birds, feed on ash seeds. Ash is used as a source for hardwood timber, firewood, and for the manufacturing of baseball bats and hockey sticks. The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets estimates the total economic value of New York’s white ash to be $1.9 billion dollars.
Although the emerald ash borer has not yet been found in the forests of New York, infestations in Pennsylvania, Ontario and Quebec have the potential of slowly spreading to our area through natural range expansion. Emerald ash borer could arrive here more quickly on transported firewood or lumber.
Emerald ash borer larva hatch and burrow deep into the sapwood of healthy ash trees where they aggressively feed until autumn, destroying essential conductive tissue. The larva overwinter in the tree, emerging as adults from May through July of the next year, leaving distinct, D-shaped emergence holes about 3 mm in diameter. Adults mate soon after emergence, and lay eggs under the bark of nearby ash trees. Eggs hatch within seven to nine days in the late spring or early summer, starting the destructive cycle once more.
The emerald ash borer was most likely introduced into North America via wood and packing materials imported from its native range in China and eastern Asia. Since its initial discovery, infestations have been found in Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Missouri and Pennsylvania, as well as Ontario and Quebec. To date, the invasive pest is thought to be responsible for the deaths of millions of ash trees according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Area foresters, landowners and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) officials consider the threat from emerald ash borer to be real. Extensive surveying is taking place in high-risk areas, including the St. Lawrence River corridor. NYSDEC recently enacted regulations prohibiting the movement of firewood more than 50 miles from its source to prevent or slow the spread of destructive forest insects and pathogens. Campers are encouraged to “burn it (firewood) where you buy it.”
Universities and state and federal agencies, including the USDA Animal and Plant Health Information Service and the USDA Forest Service, are undertaking research to halt the spread or minimize the effects of emerald ash borer. Biologists are testing chemical control agents and searching the beetle’s native range for biological controls such as parasites that prey on the beetles’ larva.
If You See Emerald Ash Borer
Be on the lookout for metallic green beetles. They may or not be emerald ash borers. Other insects similar in appearance to emerald ash borer may be found locally. These insects along with pathogens, and environmental stresses may adversely affect the health of ash trees.
If you suspect an insect is emerald ash borer, try confirming your suspicions using photos and information online the websites of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation at www.dec.ny.gov, or at www.EmeraldAshBorer.info. If you believe the insect you have seen may indeed by emerald ash borer, report your sighting to Christopher Lajewski, The Nature Conservancy, 315-387-3600 x 22.”
The Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) is bringing a little bit of wilderness to the Capital Region of New York when it hosts "A Wilderness Affair 2008: Get Wild for Wilderness!" from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., on Saturday, Nov. 1, at the Albany Marriott Hotel. This will be ADK's 12th annual silent and live auction gala. The event is open to the public and guests will enjoy dinner, music by a jazz trio and an ale sampling hosted by the Cooperstown Brewing Co. There will also be a cash bar.
Auction items will include original art, rustic Adirondack-style furnishings, sports gear, jewelry, adventure trips, getaway packages, concert and theater tickets, and unique gift baskets donated by ADK chapters. Items can be previewed at www.adk.org. There will also be a drawing for a canoe, a camping package and a handmade quilt. Proceeds will help support the club's conservation, environmental advocacy, education and recreation programs. This is a great opportunity to find unique gift ideas for the holidays while supporting a good cause.
Fred LeBrun, columnist for the Albany Times Union, is honorary chair of the event, and Gregory McKnight will be the master of ceremonies. The auction will be conducted by Jim and Danielle Carter of Acorn Estates & Appraisals. Corporate sponsors include Velocity Print Solutions, JBI Helicopter Services, Ringer Leasing Corp., TD Banknorth and Cooperstown Brewing Co.
Tickets are $55 per person. Reservations are required and can be made online or by calling (800) 395-8080 Ext. 25. To donate an auction item or become a corporate sponsor, call (800) 395-8080 Ext. 14.
The Adirondack Mountain Club, founded in 1922, is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to protecting the New York State Forest Preserve and other wild lands and waters through conservation and advocacy, environmental education and responsible recreation.
The Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) has vowed to vigorously oppose the Bush administration's efforts to reinstate a federal regulation that would expose the environment to mercury contamination.
In February, a federal appeals court ruled that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR) conflicted with the clear language of the federal Clean Air Act, which requires power plants to install the best technology available to reduce mercury emissions. Now, the administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse that decision.
CAMR, a cap-and-trade program, allowed polluters to buy pollution credits and emit mercury without pollution controls, which in turn resulted in regional mercury "hot spots." Two recent studies have linked coal-fired power plants to mercury hot spots in the Adirondacks and Catskills.
ADK has joined with more than a dozen states, leading medical, health care and public health groups, and several prominent national environmental advocacy groups to challenge CAMR. In January 2007, ADK filed a brief with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia asserting that CAMR was an illegal attempt to weaken the strict mercury emission controls in the Clean Air Act.
Last Friday, acting Solicitor General Greg Garre filed a petition asking the high court to restore the EPA mercury rule. The power industry is also seeking a Supreme Court review of the case.
In enacting the Clean Air Act, Congress provided for strict limits on mercury emissions through the installation of maximum achievable control technology, which Congress made applicable to all coal-burning power plants. By contrast, the EPA administrative rule would have delayed for two decades the elimination of airborne mercury emissions as a source of mercury toxins in the Northeast.
Furthermore, the contested rule would have allowed many of the worst polluters to buy "pollution rights," continue to release mercury up their smokestacks and perpetuate mercury hot spots in New York and the Northeast.
The Adirondacks and Catskills are downwind of numerous coal-burning power plants, whose mercury emissions contribute significantly to mercury pollution in these regions. A 2007 independent study by Charles Driscoll and the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation estimated that mercury emissions from U.S. coal-fired power plants are responsible for 40 percent to 65 percent of mercury deposition in the Northeast.
Current levels of mercury deposition in the Northeast are four to six times higher than the levels recorded in 1900. Ninety-six percent of the lakes in the Adirondack region and 40 percent of the lakes in New Hampshire and Vermont exceed the recommended EPA action level for methyl mercury in fish. Because of high mercury levels in fish from six reservoirs in the Catskills, state health officials have warned that infants, children under 15 and women of childbearing age should not eat any fish from these reservoirs.
A long-term study by the Wildlife Conservation Society, released earlier this year, confirmed that human-generated mercury emissions are degrading the health and reproductive success of loons in the Northeast. High mercury levels have also been recorded in eagles, songbirds, otters and other animals in the Northeast.
The Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) and Centerplate, in conjunction with OneWorkSource Workforce New York, will host a Job Fair at the Whiteface Base Lodge on Wednesday, November 5 from 9 am – 2:30 pm. Full and part-time positions for 2008-09 winter season employment at the ORDA Olympic facilities are available.
The Olympic facilities include Whiteface Ski Center in Wilmington, the Olympic Center, the Olympic Sports Complex, the Olympic Jumping Complex, and the ORDA Store, all located in Lake Placid. Positions available for the upcoming winter season include events staff, photographers, nursery staff, guest services staff, ticket sales staff, lift operators, snowmakers, grooming staff, Snow Sports School Instructors, equipment operators, food and beverage staff, bar staff, catering staff, rental technicians, skate monitors, sports development coaches, maintenance assistants, laborers, and more.
The employment opportunities include limited benefit packages, resort restaurant and merchandise discounts, and employee access to ORDA sites – including complimentary skiing and riding at Whiteface and ice skating at the Olympic Center and speed skating oval.
All hiring departments will have a representative at the job fair. Applicants should bring a resume if possible, or be prepared to fill out a job application. Interviews and employment agreements may take place on the spot. ORDA is an equal opportunity employer.
For more information on ORDA venues and events and for web cams from five locations, please log on to www.whitefacelakeplacid.com.
On Saturday, October 25 at 4:00pm the Adirondack History Center Museum will host a Supernatural Tour. The tour begins at the museum with cider and donuts. The audience will be introduced to haunted stories surrounding murderer Henry Debosnys, the last man to be hung in Essex County (that is not him at left - I could not find any images of the hanging, that one is from about the same time).
The tour will continue to Riverside Cemetery greeted by revelations of prominent citizens. It will then proceed through the woods and into the drawing room of the Hand House where the audience will be treated to theatrical portraits of ghostly characters.
Admission for the tour is $10 for adults and $5 for children. Wear warm clothing, walking shoes and bring umbrellas in case of rain. A Victorian dinner to benefit the museum will follow the tour at 6:00pm at an additional cost. The Adirondack History Center Museum is located at 7590 Court Street, Elizabethtown, NY 12932. For more information contact 518-873-6466.
The Australian Architect and Designer Alexander Michael is conducting tours of his restored Atlas Missile Silo (video) in Lewis, Essex County, NY this Sunday October 26th from 11:00AM to 2:00 PM. This is the first (and perhaps the only) time the silo will be open to the public. The Lewis site is the only known restored missile silo in the United States (and perhaps the world). After over 11 years of restoration the restored command control center is an amazing sight.
The silo is Boquett 556-5, an Atlas-F ICBM silo designated by the US Air Force in 1960 (local report) and also known as Lewis Missile Base.
The Plattsburgh Press Republican is reporting today that this weekend meeting of top military brass included chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, Sir Graham Stirrup of Britain’s Royal Air Force, German Army Gen. Wolfgang Schneiderhan, French Army General Jean-Louis Georgelin and Italian Air Force General Vincenzo Camporini. According to the paper:Defense Department officials wouldn’t comment this weekend, but the day after the planes had left, Capt. John Kirby, a special assistant to Mullen, confirmed that the top military leaders from five countries met in Lake Placid to discuss mutual security issues, including Afghanistan.
There you have it, apparently no hunting, just a meeting, held in a "relatively close to Washington" luxury resort and spa - sounds like a junket to me.
“I’m not at liberty to go into the details that was discussed, but they went through a wide range of security issues that are common to all five nations,” Kirby said.
“They discussed, in broad terms, progress in Afghanistan and where we’re heading with regard to Afghanistan, particularly the NATO mission there. And they discussed other mutual issues of security concerns.”
Security was tight at the Whiteface Lodge and Resort [and Spa] — the site where the military leaders were rumored to have stayed, though the resort would not confirm that.
He said the meeting is an annual event that is rotated amongst the countries.
The U.S. military picked Lake Placid because while it’s relatively close to Washington, D.C., it’s still fairly tranquil, Kirby said.
“They try to choose sites that are relatively quiet that allow these leaders to focus on the issues and not be distracted by other things.”
The 2008-09 season of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Project FeederWatch gets underway November 8 and runs through April 3. For more then 20 years participants have been counting the numbers and kinds of birds at their feeders each week and sending the information to the Ornithology Lab. Participants submitted more than 115,000 checklists during the 2007-08 FeederWatch season, documenting unusual bird sightings, winter movements, and shifting ranges-a treasure-trove of information that scientists use to monitor the health of the birds and of the environment.
“Being a FeederWatcher is easy and fun, and at the same time helps generate the world’s largest database on feeder-bird populations,” says project leader David Bonter. “We are grateful for the contributions our participants have made for the birds and are proud of the joy they say it brings to their busy lives. Since we started in 1987, more than 40,000 people have submitted observations, engaging with the wildlife beyond their windows.”
Scientists learn something new from the data each year, too, whether it’s about the movements of common backyard birds or unusual sightings of rarely-seen species. Highlights of the most recent season include the largest southward movement of Red-breasted Nuthatches in the history of the project-part of an expected influx of northern birds that fly farther south when their food supplies run short.
Other northern species showing up in record numbers included Common Repolls and Pine Siskins. Among the rare birds reported was a Streak-backed Oriole in Loveland, Colorado-the state’s first report of this bird, native to Mexico. A December nor’easter deposited a Dovekie in Newton, Massachusetts, the first time this North Atlantic seabird has ever been reported to Project FeederWatch.
Long-term data show some species increasing in number, such as the Lesser Goldfinch in the Southwest. Other populations continue a downward trend, such as the Evening Grosbeak throughout their range. Once one of the most common species seen at feeders in the northern half of the continent, the grosbeaks are declining for unknown reasons.
Beyond the benefits to birds and science, however, is the benefit to participants. “Nature is not merely an amenity; it is critical to healthy human development and functioning,” says Nancy Wells, Cornell University assistant professor of design and environmental analysis. Her studies find that a view of nature through the window or access to the environment in any way improves a child’s cognitive functioning and reduces the negative effects of stress on the child’s psychological well-being. Wells also notes that when children spent time with nature early in life it carries over to their adult attitudes and behavior toward the environment.
Project FeederWatch welcomes participants of all ages and skill levels, from scout troops and retirees to classrooms and nature center visitors. To learn more and to sign up, visit www.feederwatch.org or call the Lab toll-free at (800) 843-2473. In return for the $15 fee ($12 for Lab members) participants receive the FeederWatcher’s Handbook, an identification poster of the most common feeder birds in their area, a calendar, complete instructions, and the FeederWatch annual report, Winter Bird Highlights.
You can visit the “Explore Data” section of the www.feederwatch.org to find the top 25 birds reported in your region, rare bird sightings, and bird summaries by state or province.
According to the online edition of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, high-level military leaders have converged suddenly at Adirondack Regional Airport in Lake Clear. They arrived Friday and their planes have been guarded around the clock by the military:
Among the passengers of a large Boeing 757 airplane with "United States of America" printed on its fuselage were top members of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and their counterparts from France, Germany and another country, possibly Great Britain, according to Barry DeFuria, a town of Harrietstown councilman and Airport Committee member who was there when the plane landed. A top military delegation from Italy flew in on a separate Falcon airplane, DeFuria said.One commenter on the story had this to say:
I had a wild crazy daydream, that Bush will finally play his trump card and pull Bin Laden off that plane parked here in Lake Clear. Maybe a week before the election to save the McCain campaign, once all the Iraq and Afghan coalition brass are assembled for the photo op.Why are they here in the Adirondacks? An all expenses paid - by our tax dollars - hunting junket? An October surprise?
The DEC is requesting information from individuals who may have been hiking in the Indian Lake, Hamilton County, region of the Adirondacks earlier last week. A 71-year-old man named Frederick Gillingham from Camarillo, California, has been missing since approximately Sunday, October 12. He is 5'9" and 165 pounds with thinning white hair, a white beard, glasses and is possibly wearing a pair of old, brown hiking boots in size 9. That's a picture provided by the family at left.
Since first being notified of the missing man's disappearance on Wednesday, October 15, DEC Forest Rangers have been conducting search efforts with the assistance of New York State Police helicopters, search and rescue volunteers and search dogs. An incident command post has been created at the Indian Lake DEC facility and an 8,600-acre primary search area has been established.
Mr. Gillingham's car was found at the Rock River trailhead on Route 30 in Indian Lake at DEC's Blue Mountain Wild Forest on Wednesday. Evidence found at the man's seasonal camp located nearby, as well as discussions with family members, indicates he may have been missing since last Sunday. Other than Mr. Gillingham's car at the trailhead, no other evidence of Mr. Gillingham has been discovered to date.
DEC asks that any hiker, hunter or other visitor to the Indian Lake region in the past week who may have encountered Mr. Gillingham or have information on his whereabouts to please contact the DEC command post at 518-648-0108 or the DEC Ray Brook dispatch at 518-897-1300.
The Board of Regents and the New York State Archives have selected the Essex County Historical Society | Adirondack History Center Museum in Elizabethtown to receive the 2008 Annual Archives Award for Program Excellence in a Historical Records Repository. The award will be presented to Essex County Historical Society Director Margaret Gibbs, Assistant Director Jenifer Kuba, and Museum Educator Lindsay Pontius at a luncheon ceremony at the State Education Building in Albany on October 20, 2008.
The award commends Essex County Historical Society for its outstanding archival program that contributes significantly to understanding the region’s history. The award recognizes the historical society for its well organized and managed archives and for its efforts to provide access to the county’s documentary heritage through interesting exhibitions and excellent educational programs for school children.
Previous award winners include Schenectady County Historical Society (2007), Huguenot Historical Society in New Paltz (2006), M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives at the University at Albany (2005), Onondaga Historical Association (2004), Canajoharie Library and Art Gallery (2003), and Hofstra University (2002)
The Adirondack Museum set aside tomorrow (Saturday, October 18, 2008) for a day dedicated to the Town of Indian Lake, celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. The Adirondack Museum offers free admission to year-round residents of the Adirondack Park in the month of October, and is open from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
The special day will begin with a presentation by Curator Hallie Bond at 11:00 a.m. entitled "The Armchair Canoeist's Guide to Blue Mountain Lake." Enjoy the warmth and comfort of dry land as Bond leads a "virtual" canoe trip to some of the historic sites on the shores of the lake.
Known as the "Koh-i-noor of the smaller wilderness gems" in the 1880s, Blue Mountain Lake was the most fashionable highland resort in the northeast. The presentation will include "then" and "now" photographs of landmarks such as the Prospect House, Holland's Blue Mountain House, the town library, the Episcopal Church, and the mighty steamboat Tuscarora.
Bond will ask the audience to reflect on the meaning of "progress" and the ups and downs of a tourist economy. She will also ask Blue Mountain Lake old-timers to help in the identification of mystery photos in the museum collection, and reminisce about days gone by.
At 1:00 p.m., Dr. Marge Bruchac will offer a program called "The Indians of Indian Lake." The presentation will include historic anecdotes, photographs, and family histories of some of the Indians who have made their homes in the village.
Native peoples such as Sabael Benedict, Emma Meade, and the Tahamont family were involved in growing the Adirondack tourism industry, promoting and preserving herbal medicine, and even in developing the image of the Hollywood Indian. According to Bruchac, these highly visible families were not the "last of the Indians" in Indian Lake.
Dr. Marge Bruchac is a preeminent Abenaki historian. She is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Coordinator of Native American Studies at the University of Connecticut at Avery Point. A scholar, performer, and historical consultant on the Abenaki and other Northeastern Native peoples, Bruchac lectures and performs widely for schools, museums, and historical societies. Her 2006 book for children about the French and Indian War, Malian's Song, was selected as an Editor's Choice by The New York Times and was the winner of the American Folklore Society's Aesop Award.
At 2:30 p.m. a reception will be held for all in the museum's Visitor Center. Caroline M. Welsh, Director of the Adirondack Museum, and Barry Hutchins, Supervisor of the Town of Indian Lake, N.Y., will offer remarks. Cake, tea, and coffee will be served.
Artwork created by students at Indian Lake Central School will be displayed in the Visitor Center throughout the day.
The Adirondack Museum tells the story of the Adirondacks through exhibits, special events, classes for schools, and hands-on activities for visitors of all ages. The museum closes for the season on Sunday (October 19).
On Saturday, Oct. 18, the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) Trails Program will hold its 16th annual Fall Trails Day in the High Peaks Wilderness of the Adirondack Park.
Volunteers, working with trained leaders, will use hand tools to clean drainage, trim overgrown sections of trail and remove downed trees. This maintenance work will help prepare the trails and their existing erosion-control structures for spring. Once debris is cleared from drainage ditches, the trails will be better suited to withstand rainwater and spring snowmelt runoff. All maintenance work is in cooperation with the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
"Numerous projects are scheduled for participants of all abilities, including half- and full-day trips," said Wes Lampman, ADK's director of field programs. "Cleaning all of the existing drainage may be one of the most important things we can do to help the trails. It's a great way for hikers to give back to the trails they enjoyed all year."
The day will commence with a simple breakfast at the High Peaks Information Center near the Adirondak Loj. Participants will receive a Volunteer Trail Program T-shirt upon completion of the project. Most volunteers pre-register, but walk-in participants will be welcomed. Participants can stay at ADK's Wilderness Campground for free on both Friday and Saturday nights.
For more information on volunteering and registering for Adirondack Fall Trails Day, contact the ADK Trails Program, P.O. Box 867, Lake Placid, NY 12946, (518) 523-3441 or visit our Web site at www.adk.org .
ADK is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to the protection and responsible recreational use of New York state's Forest Preserve, parks and other wild lands and waters. The Club has over 30,000 members and 26 chapters across the state and region. ADK operates two wilderness lodges and conducts conservation, education and natural history programs.
The Adirondack Council reserved its highest praise for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the Department of Environmental Conservation, while offering criticism to the federal government and State Senate in its 23rd Annual “State of the Park” report. The publication tracks the actions of local, state and federal officials who helped or hurt the ecological health or wild beauty of the Adirondack Park over the past 12 months.
A non-partisan environmental research, education and advocacy organization based in the Adirondack Park, the Adirondack Council is funded solely through private donations. It doesn’t accept government grants or taxpayer-funded contributions of any kind. The Council does not endorse candidates for public office.
The report is released each year before Election Day, to provide objective, non-partisan information on current public policy decisions to Adirondack Council members in all 50 United States, and to voters in New York State. The illustrated, 24-page, color magazine-style report is available for free from the Council by calling 1-877-873-2240 or can be viewed and printed for free online at www.adirondackcouncil.org.
“Attorney General Andrew Cuomo continued the tradition of his predecessors in fighting for cleaner air and for emissions reductions from smokestacks that cause acid rain and climate change,” said Adirondack Council Executive Director Brian L. Houseal. “He has worked to clean up New York utilities like Rochester Gas and Electric in addition to taking on Midwestern polluters such as American Electric Power. He has also lead multi-state efforts to sue the federal government when it has not acted to protect clean air.
“DEC Commissioner Grannis and his agency won the most praise, including accolades for the purchase of additional Forest Preserve lands in the Adirondacks, for tackling the issue of invasive species and for proposing to eliminate the practice of open burning of garbage,” Houseal explained. “The federal government was tied for the lowest rating,” he said. “We were disappointed with EPA’s inaction on limits for greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, with the US Senate’s vote on a climate change bill and with the Executive budget proposal to, yet again, slash funding for vital acid rain monitoring programs."
“The New York State Senate improved upon its rating from last year, but still has a long way to go,” noted Houseal. “It is still not supporting critical programs such as expanding the bottle bill and strictly limiting the state’s carbon emissions, while it continues to encourage destructive activities such as all-terrain vehicle (ATV) use.”
The Adirondack Council also praised a host of local Adirondack environmental initiatives in the report’s “Tip of the Hat” section, offering encouragement to the Lake George Waterkeeper, Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (Keene Valley), Wild Center (Tupper Lake), International Paper (Ticonderoga), Brandreth Park Association (Long Lake), Adirondack Watershed Institute (Paul Smiths), Adirondack Nature Conservancy (Keene Valley), Adirondack North Country Association (Saranac Lake), Lake George Land Conservancy (Bolton Landing) and Audubon New York (Albany).
The 9,300-square-mile Adirondack Park is the largest American park outside of Alaska. Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon and Glacier National Parks would all fit inside its borders, with room left for Rhode Island. The Park is a patchwork of public and private lands, divided almost equally across the landscape, allowing more than 100 small communities to thrive alongside the state’s best-protected wild lands and waters. Its public lands have been protected from logging, sale and development by the NYS Constitution since 1894. Its private lands are managed under the Adirondack Park Agency’s land-use plan, established in 1973.
Founded in 1975, the Adirondack Council is headquartered in Elizabethtown, Essex County, and operates a media and government relations office one block from the Empire State Plaza government complex in Albany.
The Adirondack Park Agency has rejected a proposal by the state Department of Environmental Conservation that would have allowed commercial floatplanes to continue to use Lows Lake for up to 10 years under a permit system. Agency commissioners rejected the plan 6-5.
Neil Woodworth, executive director of the Adirondack Mountain Club, said the decision is not just a win for canoeists and kayakers who use Lows Lake, which straddles the Hamilton-St. Lawrence county border in the western Adirondacks. It is also a victory for anyone who cares about the future management of the Adirondack Forest Preserve, he said.
"There is much more at stake here than whether commercial floatplanes should be allowed on a particular Adirondack lake," Woodworth said. "The real issue is whether DEC is bound by the provisions of the Adirondack Master Plan. APA said today that they are."
In rejecting DEC's proposal, APA commissioners followed the recommendations of APA counsel and staff, who concluded that the proposal was "inconsistent with the guidelines and criteria of the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan." According to the Master Plan, which is part of state Executive Law, the "preservation of the wild character of this canoe route without motorboat or airplane usage … is the primary management goal for this primitive area."
At 3,100 acres, Lows Lake is one of the larger lakes in the Adirondack Park. The lake stretches about 10 miles east to west and is the centerpiece of two wilderness canoe routes. Floatplanes were rare on Lows Lake until the mid-1990s. Sometime before 1990, non-native bass were illegally introduced into the lake, and as public awareness of the bass fishery grew, floatplanes and motorboat use increased.
In January 2003, when it signed the Bog River Unit Management Plan, DEC agreed to phase out commercial floatplane use of Lows Lake within five years, but the agency never developed the regulation to implement the ban. In May, ADK, the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, the Sierra Club and the Residents' Committee to Protect the Adirondacks sued DEC. The lawsuit was adjourned while APA considered DEC's proposed amendment to the Bog River UMP, which would have established a permit system for floatplane operators and limited flights into the lake.
APA's decision to reject the amendment was supported by state law and regulation, including DEC's 2005 regulation to ban motorboats on Lows Lake. DEC rejected a proposal to zone the lake to provide designated areas for motorboat use, noting that "it would not satisfy the legislative intent to manage the waterway 'without motorboat or airplane use' as set forth in the Master Plan." DEC's Regulatory Impact Statement for the regulation also refers to the Master Plan as a "legal mandate."
APA also considered the 1994 UMP for the Five Ponds Wilderness Area that designated the lake as part of a wilderness canoe route. An Oct. 1 APA staff memo noted that that the canoe route was designated "for use by those primarily seeking a wilderness experience."
DEC has argued that banning floatplanes from Lows Lake would cause financial hardship for the two floatplane businesses in the Adirondacks, but APA staff pointed out that economic considerations were irrelevant to compliance with the Master Plan. Steve Erman, APA's economic adviser, said in a memo that DEC had provided "little information to indicate that either of these floatplane operations is truly at risk if flight operations to Lows Lake were halted."
On the other hand, Erman noted that DEC failed to look at the potential economic benefits of paddling on outfitters, lodging, restautants and other businesses in the Adirondacks. "The economy of the Boundary Waters Area of northern Minnesota has been heavily promoted for paddling for years and it has become a significant economic generator," he said.
Removing commercial floatplanes from Lows Lake will go a long way in bringing to fruition DEC's goal of expanding "quiet waters" opportunities in the Adirondacks. Roughly 90 percent of the lake and pond surface in the Adirondack Park is open to motorized vessels.
"In light of the law and the recommendations of APA staff, the agency really had no choice but to reject DEC's proposed amendment," Woodworth said. "Now it is incumbent upon DEC to move forward on a regulation that will enhance the wilderness character of this important canoe route and prohibit floatplanes on Lows Lake before the 2009 season."
In court papers, DEC agreed to promulgate regulations to ban floatplanes if its proposal were rejected by the APA. "If the agency (APA) determines that the proposed amendment does not conform to the Master Plan, this proceeding will likely become moot because DEC will then begin to promulgate regulations eliminating public floatplane access to Lows Lake," according to a motion by Lawrence Rappoport of the state Attorney General's Office.
Mining in the Adirondacks was labor-intensive, dangerous work. More than 250 mines and ore processing sites have operated over time in the region, extracting eleven different minerals. Ores from the Adirondacks fed a national hunger for iron as the country expanded in the late 1800s. Mining is a major Adirondack story, which has been covered in part here at the Adirondack Almanack (and then picked up by NCPR).
This week the Adirondack Museum (which closes for the year Sunday FYI) announced that it will re-install its exhibit on Mining in the Adirondacks (expected to open in 2011). According to the Museum, "the extensive new interactive exhibition will tell powerful stories of people and the communities that grew around mines and forges." As plans for the exhibit progress, the museum has formed a regional advisory committee to serve as a sounding board for curators and museum educators - unfortunately the advisory committee contains no experts on immigration or labor history and it should.
Various immigrant groups, African Americans, and Native Americans have a long history of laboring in Adirondack mines and related industries, and they should be represented in the Adirondack Museum's planning. Often their stories have been left untold, just as they often went unnamed in local news reports.
In 1907, five unnamed miners – “Polanders, and it was impossible to learn their names” – where injured when the roof of a mine at Lyon Mountain caved in. Two men broke their legs and the other three were less seriously wounded.
“An Italian who was blown up at Tongue Mountain died Thursday,” one report noted. “He accidentally struck a stick of dynamite with a crowbar. The man’s left arm was blown off at the shoulder, there is a compound fracture of his right arm just above the hand, both eyes were blown out of his head, a stone was jammed against his heart and his head was bruised.” It was a remarkable that he wasn’t killed instantly.
The Adirondack Museum has a perfect opportunity to tell the stories of immigrant labor and others who labored in the mines, but they cannot do that properly without including historian of labor and immigration in the process. The museum claims it will convey the "the ebb and flow of a transient population of immigrant workers, work shifts, and company-sponsored social activities set the rhythm of life in mining towns." The museum's advisory committee includes a retired GE engineer, a retired mining executive, a retired mining engineer, a mining reclamation specialist, and lots of other bigwigs - but not a single miner; and that's wrong.
Members of the Mining Advisory Committee include: Dick Merrill, retired General Electric engineer, historian and author from Queensbury, N.Y.; Scott Bombard, Graymont, Plattsburgh, N.Y.; Conrad Sharrow, retired college administrator and Dorothy Sharrow, retired elementary school teacher, Clifton Park, N.Y.; Vincent McLean, retired mining executive, Lake Placid, N.Y.; Gordon Pollard, professor SUNY Plattsburgh, and industrial archeologist; Carol Burke, professor, CAL-Irvine, oral historian, folklorist, and former Tahawus resident, Irvine, Ca.; Bob Meldrum, Slate
Valley Museum, Granville, N.Y.; Don Grout, retired mining engineer, Lake
Placid, N.Y.; Betsy Lowe, Director, DEC Region 5 and mining reclamation
specialist, Lake Placid, N.Y.; and Adirondack Museum Board of Trustee
members Rhonda Brunner, AuSable Forks, N.Y.; Gilda Wray, Keene Valley, N.Y.;
and Glenn Pearsall, Johnsburgh, N.Y.
For the seventh time in his last eight competitions in Lake Placid, Anders Johnson [video] of Park City, Utah, ski jumped to the head of the field Sunday in completing a sweep of the Flaming Leaves Festival. After taking Saturday’s national championship on the 90 meter hill, Johnson returned to the same Olympic Jumping Complex 24 hours later, under similar sunshine and 65 degree weather, and captured the NYSEF 90 Meter Super Tour event.
Not to be outdone, Lindsey Van [video], also of Park City, took both ends of the Lake Placid doubleheader by winning Sunday’s women’s 90 meter on the artificial surfaces. "I’ve jumped here many times and have always jumped well,” said the past Winter Olympian. “I feel every time I’m here, I can do well.”
For a struggling ski jumper, the six-foot-three-inch athlete appreciated the friendly confine of the 1980 Winter Olympic site. “The start of summer training wasn’t so good for me,” continued Johnson. “But I’ve jumped better since August.”
Then came a month in Europe where he performed better in summer Continental Cups and World Cups. “That got my confidence back. The jumps here this weekend were some of my best of the season. Now I feel confident for this winter.”
While vendors offered their goods and live bands performed under the tent, Johnson had the two best jumps of the day at 100.5 and 102 meters. His distance and style points totaled 263.5 for an easy victory. Eric Camerota of Park City was second with 249.5 points on jumps of 99.5 and 93 meters. Third place went to Nick Alexander of Lebanon, N.H. after jumping 99 and 92.5 meters for 246 points. Lake Placid’s Andrew Bliss was fourth on the strength of his opening jump of 97 meters. A second attempt of 89.5 gave Bliss 240 points.
Bill Demong of Vermontville, N.Y., sponsored by the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA), was eighth after placing third in the national championship ski jump and second in the Nordic combined nationals, both on Saturday. Demong is preparing to be inducted into the Saranac Lake High School Hall of Fame this week as part of the 1995 state high school championship cross country team.
The diminutive Van, trying to overcome a knee injury incurred last winter, posted jumps of 98.5 and 92 meters, picking up 249 points in the process. “I took myself totally out of the situation and told myself to worry about it (the injury) later,” said Van, who will now go west and seek the care of orthopedic specialist Dr. Richard Steadman. “This weekend was a lot better for me. I concentrated on my in-run position because the in-run here is a bit bumpy. Otherwise, I had stable conditions. It was a great weekend and I had lots of fun. Now I feel good about the winter and will try to stay healthy in the process.”
Jessica Jerome of Park City was next with 97 and 89.5 meter jumps for 237.5 points. Avery Ardovino, Park City, secured third by jumping 89 and 92.5 meters for 226.5 points. Sisters Nina and Danielle Lussi of Lake Placid finished 10th and 11th, respectively. Canadian jumpers came to the surface in the junior division as Calgary, Alberta’s Yukon De Leeuw grabbed the title ahead of teammate Matthew Rowley, also of Calgary. Brian Wallace of Woodbury, Minn. placed third, just a point from second place.
With the close of the Flaming Leaves Festival comes the start of a fall training camp in Lake Placid for many of these competitors. The winter version of this sport gets underway, on snow, next month.
For complete results, including event photos, please log on to www.orda.org.
Mark Frauenfelder over at BoingBoing has a review of James Howard Kunstler's new, World Made by Hand. A futuristic novel set in an an upstate New York town (somewhere in the Washington or Saratoga counties?), Kunstler's book looks at what the world could be like in a future laid low by energy shortages and global warming. According to Frauenfelder's review:The story is told by Robert Earle, who used to be a software executive. Now he's a hand-tool using carpenter living in a town in upstate New York without Internet, TV, or newspapers. The electricity comes on every couple of weeks for a few minutes at a time. When that happens, nothing's on the radio but hysterical religious talk. Rumors of goings-on in the rest of the world are vague...
Kunstler has been a frequently discussed here at the Almanack; at Amazon you can buy World Made by Hand
The story kicks off when Earle (who lost his wife and daughter in the plague and hasn't seen his 19-year-old son since the boy took off a couple of years earlier to find out what's happened in the rest of the country) is elected mayor and joins a search party to look for a freight boat and its crew, which disappeared on its way to Albany. Their horse-mounted odyssey takes them on a tour through a post-apocalyptic world of insanity, greed, kindness, corruption, and ingenuity.
While life in Kunstler's world is lawless and harsh and populated with opportunistic characters that make Boss Tweed look like Glinda the Good, it's not without charms. Local communities are active and productive. Neighbors all know each other and look after one another. People grow and trade their own produce and livestock, and meals are tasty -- lots of buttery corn bread, eggs, chicken, vegetables, streaks, fish. They get together and play music a lot, and because people aren't stuck in their living rooms watching TV, they actually attend live performances.
Two years ago I was lamenting that no local public leaders were stepping up to the plate on trying to understand what global climate change would mean for the Adirondacks (and it's ski-tourism industry) - thankfully, that has changed. The Wild Center in Tupper Lake has taken on the lead role of informing their neighbors about the potential impacts of global warming (such as the impact on amphibians), showing local builders what they can do to mitigate those affects, and organizing scientific meetings to discuss and asses the progress of climate change in the Adirondacks.
Next month, The Wild Center will be taking another important step with a another significant conference - American Response to Climate Change Conference: The Adirondack Model. This latest event follows-up on the national leadership meeting held this past June that addressed greenhouse gas abatement policies for the United States. This conference, however, will have a regional approach, with a focus on the Adirondacks. The work of the Adirondack Conference will, in part, be shaped by the research, findings and recommendations from the national conference. According to the website:The primary conference objective will be to develop a Climate Action Plan for the Adirondacks. This will include specific action recommendations for individuals, communities, and enterprises; detailing climate change driven economic opportunities and benefits for region; concrete time-bound goals for efficiency improvements in buildings and transportation; alternative fuels and small scale power generation options; the role of Adirondack forests and natural systems mitigating greenhouse gas emissions; adaptation measures for local government and economics in changing climate; the role of local governments; policy recommendations for region and state; identification of priority messages and strategies for broad communication efforts; and the creation of an ongoing structure to forward action after the conference.
The conference will take place on November 18th and 19th, 2008; Conservationist of the Year Bill McKibben will be a featured speaker.
More than 150 leaders from businesses, local and state government, academia, Adirondack non-profits, and experts in climate mitigation in the areas of building efficiency, alternative fuel sources, small scale power generation technologies, transportation, natural systems and resources, rural areas and local economies.
BTW, on October 22nd, The Wild Center will announce, with its research partner the Wildlife Conservation Society and Jerry Jenkins, author of The Adirondack Atlas, a major research effort concerning impacts of climate change in the Adirondacks.
Congratulations Wild Center, for showing the way in making our region a leader in the discussions over local impacts to global warming.
I asked John Hammond, Executive Director of the Northern New York Library Network (NNYLN), five questions about the library consortium's efforts to digitize northern New York newspapers. The NNYLN added its millionth page earlier this year.
AA: What is the North New York Library Network?
JH: The Northern New York Library Network is a consortium of public, academic, school, and specialized libraries chartered in 1965 to improve library and research service to the people of the North Country. Our service area consists of Clinton, Essex, Franklin, St. Lawrence, Lewis, Jefferson, and Oswego counties. In addition to the Northern New York Historical Newspapers project, we support several other initiatives such as an online catalog of all the materials held in all the libraries in the region (ICEPAC) and a regional digital history project (North Country Digital History). All of our projects can be accessed from our main site: www.nnyln.org
AA: How many newspapers / pages do you currently have online?
JH: We currently have thirty-four newspaper titles online, totaling 1.2 million pages. The site has proven to be quite popular - for instance, there were 24,356,486 individual searches conducted on the site in the last twelve months. From the feedback we receive, it appears that researchers from all over the country find the site to be very useful.
AA: What's the process you use to get the newspapers online?
JH: We use a Mekel automated scanner to scan previously microfilmed newspapers, and then run those results through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. When you enter a search term, you are actually searching the results of the OCRing, but then get to read the digital image of the actual newspaper article you're interested in....with your search term highlighted on that page. We load both the images of the actual newspapers and the OCR results on servers here in the NNYLN office in Potsdam, NY.
AA: Who pays for the NNYLN Newspaper Project?
JH: Paying for a project of this magnitude is an ongoing challenge. The NNYLN paid the start-up costs from special projects funds, and we have been very fortunate to receive support from many sources, including the Lake Placid Education Fund, the New York State Library, the Friends of the Potsdam Public Museum, the St. Regis Falls Historians Association, the St. Lawrence County Genealogical Society, and many individual researchers who contribute using our online form.
AA: You must see a lot of newspapers - is there a favorite? Which one?
JH: Each newspaper has its own story to tell....they all did a wonderful job reporting local news over the years. Of course, since we are processing so many materials - some in better shape than others- we like those that are the most legible so that our efforts result in a product of greatest research value.
On Friday, the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court, 4th Department, ruled in the Dillenburg Case that the state may continue to make tax payments on state-owned land. The ruling will ultimately protect the Forest Preserve, local schools and governments, and the local economy.
In December of last year New York State Supreme Court Judge Timothy Walker issued an order throwing out payments in lieu of taxes for state lands. The move threatened to have a huge impact on towns, schools, and taxpayers in the region. Town of Inlet Supervisor J.R. Risley, said his town has about 400 year-round residents, 10,000 summer residents, and that 93 percent of the land is state-owned. The ruling was expected to double the town’s tax rate. Twenty-two percent of the Saranac Lake Central School District tax levy comes from taxes on state land - the number is fourteen percent in Tupper Lake. The ruling had been stayed while awaiting appeal - it was #2 on Adirondack Almanack's Top Stories of 2007.
"This is a major victory for those who live, work and recreate in the Adirondacks and Catskills," said Neil Woodworth, executive director of the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK). "The state Forest Preserve, which protects more than 3 million acres of wild lands in the Catskills and Adirondacks, is an important asset to all New Yorkers, and the fiscal burden of maintaining these lands should be shared by all New Yorkers and not fall on the shoulders of a few."
Under the common law principle of sovereign immunity, codified in the state's Real Property Tax Law, no municipality has the right to tax the state unless the state gives its consent. In 1886, the year after the Legislature created the Forest Preserve, lawmakers agreed to allow Forest Preserve communities to collect taxes on these properties, the first such tax payments in state history. In 2006, New York paid an estimated $80 million on its land in the Adirondack and Catskill parks.
Over the years, the Legislature expanded that taxing authority to certain communities with substantial state property within their boundaries. Outside of the Forest Preserve, taxes are paid on most state forest lands, but not all. John C. Dillenburg III, who was then supervisor of the town of Arkwright in Chautauqua County, sued the state, alleging that his community was being unfairly denied tax payments on state-owned property within its borders.
Judge Walker, decrying the system of taxing state land as a "hodgepodge" of state laws "devoid of any consistent rationale," ordered the state to stop paying taxes on all of its lands. Judge Walker immediately stayed his own order pending appeals, and the state has continued making the tax payments, but the ruling caused uncertainty and apprehension for local governments and property owners in the Adirondacks and Catskills Parks.
The decision prompted calls for a moratorium on additional state land purchases in the Adirondacks until the case was resolved, a move that would have tied the state's hands at a time when it has a rare opportunity to protect tens of thousands of Adirondack acres and open those lands to public recreation.
The Appellate Division in Rochester ruled that the Legislature has the discretion to waive sovereign immunity in certain cases without being subject to an "equal protection" challenge.
ADK, the Adirondack Council, the Open Space Conservancy, the Adirondack Landowners Association, the Residents' Committee to Protect the Adirondacks, the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development and Audubon New York filed a court brief in support of continued tax payments on Forest Preserve land. The coalition was represented by Marc S. Gerstman of Albany, former chief counsel for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
A copy of the decision is available at http://www.courts.state.ny.us/ad4/.
This marathon political season is coming to a close, so I thought I would survey the local Adirondack political scene online. By the way, Friday is the last day to register to vote.
Thanks to outrageous gerrymandering, the Adirondacks is split into a number of districts:
20th House - Kirsten Gillibrand (Blue Dog Dem) vs. Sandy Treadwell (Right Wing Repub)
23th House - John McHugh (Moderate Republican) vs. Mike Oot (Moderate Democrat)
24th House - Michael Arcuri (Conservative Dem) vs. Richard Hanna (Conservative Repub)
NYS Legislature
45th Senate - Betty Little (Conservative Republican) UNOPPOSED
47th Senate - Joseph Griffo (Cons. R) vs. Michael Boncella (Working Fam)
48th Senate - Darrel Aubertine (Mod. D) vs. David Renzi (Cons. R)
51st Senate - James Seward (Cons. R) vs. Don Barber (Mod. Dem)
112th Assembly - Ian McGaughey (D) vs. Tony Jordan (R)
113th Assembly - Teresa Sayward (Cons. R) UNOPPOSED
114th Assembly - Janet Duprey (R) UNOPPOSED
115th Assembly - David Townsend (Mod. R) vs. Daniel LeClair (Cons. R)
117th Assembly - Marc Butler (R) vs. Daniel Carter (D)
118th Assembly - Addie Jenne Russell (D) vs. Robert W. Cantwell III (R)
122nd Assembly - DeeDee Scozzafava (R) UNOPPOSED
Adirondack Almanack has several ways to follow the local political scene. You can read all the political blog posts here. You can also get our complete elections RSS feed here. Last year's election round-up is here.
Here are the districts I tend to cover (I will endeavor to improve this list by the next election):
20th CD Kirstin Gillibrand (All Stories, RSS)
23rd CD John McHugh (All Stories, RSS)
45th NYS-SD Betty Little (All Stories, RSS)
48th NYS-SD Darrel Aubertine (All Stories, RSS)
113th NYS-AD Theresa Sayward (All Stories, RSS)
118th NYS-AD Russell / Cantwell (All Stories, RSS).
There is a nice overview of national, US House and NYS Legislature races at North Country Public Radio.
A few of the best (active) local political blogs, my view of where they stand, and what they focus on:
Adirondack Musing (Progressive Democrat-leaning) covers mostly national issues, 23rd CD.
Danger Democrat (Moderate Democrat) focuses on Jefferson County, 48th NYS-SD.
Foil Hats Unite (Progressive Liberal Democrat) covers national issues.
Herkimer County Progressive (Progressive Democrat) Herkimer County, 51st NYS SD.
Musing of A (fairly) Young Contrarian (Progressive Green) national issues, Warren County.
Political IV (Conservative Republican) national issues, 48th NYS-SD, and 23rd CD.
Watson in the Adirondacks (Right-Wing Republican) national issues (laying off politics lately).
Don't miss the Adirondack Museum's annual Harvest Festival at Blue Mountain Lake, New York on October 4 and 5, 2008.
Each day will feature activities for the whole family from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. The Adirondack Museum offers free admission to year-round residents of the Adirondack Park in the month of October - making Harvest Festival the
perfect fall outing for Adirondackers!
Dean, Dick, and Mary Merrill will return to the museum once again to demonstrate apple pressing with an authentic steam powered cider press from the 1800s. Visitors can grind apples and press cider themselves using a hand-cranked fruit press. Everyone is invited to taste freshly made cider!
The Circle B Ranch of Chestertown, N.Y. will offer leisurely rides through the museum's beautiful grounds in a rustic wagon. Youngsters can enjoy pony rides as well, providing a wonderful photo opportunity for parents!
John Scarlett of Little Tree Forge, Rossie, N.Y. will demonstrate traditional blacksmithing techniques throughout the day. Scarlett is known for both decorative and useful iron pieces, created using a coal-fired forge and time-honored tools.
Inspired by the glorious foliage and fruits of fall, the museum will offer pumpkin painting, apple printmaking, and the creation of one-of-kind works of art from natural materials. Join Adirondack Museum staff for creativity
and fun!
On Saturday, October 4 only, the Siver Family Bluegrass Band from Crown Point, N.Y., will play two sets of hand-clapping, toe-tapping music from 1:00 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. The Siver Family band features eleven-year-old Dorothy Jane Siver, the 2007 Lake Champlain Young Fiddler of the Year.
Randomly organized links to ideas for making life in the Adirondacks just a little bit easier - technology tools and tips, do-it-yourself projects, and anything else that offers a more interesting, more convenient, or healthier way of life in our region.
How to Build a Cider Press
Top 10 YouTube Hacks
Make A Simple Cardboard Pie Box
Retro Recycled Teacup Lights
A Skunk Odor Cure
Adirondack Hacks is an occasional feature of Adirondack Almanack. Take a look at our Adirondack Hacks archive here.
Three years ago this week the Adirondack Almanack was mourning the death of one of the regions great historians and cultural and environmental advocates, Barbara McMartin; we were also reporting on one of the region's deadliest disasters - the sinking of the 40-foot Lake George cruise boat Ethan Allen.
Read More......
