Posts Tagged ‘Adirondack Council’

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Profile: New Adirondack Council Leader Willie Janeway

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOn his first day on the new job, Willie Janeway said he has no big changes in mind at the Adirondack Council—at least, not right away.

Janeway, who is forty-nine, resigned this year as a regional director for the state Department of Environmental Conservation to become executive director of the council.

“I get to be an ambassador for the Adirondack Park. What a great thing to sell—the Adirondacks,” Janeway said Wednesday in an interview with the Adirondack Explorer and Adirondack Daily Enterprise. » Continue Reading.


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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Willie Janeway to head Adirondack Council

wjanewayThe Adirondack Council has hired William “Willie” Janeway as its new executive director, starting in May. He is now the head of the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Region 3, which encompasses the lower Hudson Valley and the southern Catskill Park.

Janeway will succeed Brian Houseal, who resigned in October. Diane Fish has been serving as the acting executive director since Houseal left. She will return to her post as deputy director.

Janeway graduated from St. Lawrence University in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in economics and environmental studies. Before hired by DEC, he worked for the Adirondack Mountain Club, the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission, the Hudson River Greenway, and the Nature Conservancy. He co-founded the Friends of New York’s Environment, a coalition of more than two hundred environmental, farming, and other community organizations.


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Monday, February 4, 2013

State Loses $2.5M Follensby Grant Amid Calls For Funding

follensby pondThe Adirondack Council urged state lawmakers to increase funding for environmental priorities in the FY2013-14 NYS Budget in testimony today at the legislature’s budget hearing. The Council cited the recent loss of a $2.5 million grant secured to aid the purchase of the Follensby Tract as a sign that New York’s Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) needs an expedited increase in funding.

Adirondack Council Legislative Director Scott Lorey called for an additional $11 million to be added in the EPF and also urged Governor Andrew Cuomo to rebuild the staffing at key regulatory agencies whose budgets have been cut in recent years, including the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Adirondack Park Agency. » Continue Reading.


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Thursday, December 6, 2012

Council Proposes A Larger High Peaks Wilderness

Adirondack Council proposal for Boreas PondsThe Adirondack Council is proposing a huge expansion of the High Peaks Wilderness Area once the state acquires lands formerly owned by Finch, Pruyn & Company.

Under the council’s plan, the state would combine the High Peaks and Dix Mountain Wilderness Areas as well as twenty-three thousand acres of former Finch lands. If this were done, the High Peaks Wilderness—already the largest Wilderness Area in the Adirondack Park—would grow to 272,000 acres from 204,000 acres.

Council spokesman John Sheehan said enlarging the High Peaks Wilderness would simplify the state’s management and planning for the popular region.

The proposal also would require the state to close a long dirt road that leads to Boreas Ponds, which are among the former Finch holdings that the state intends purchase over the next five years. » Continue Reading.


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Monday, November 26, 2012

Competing Wilderness Proposals

Adirondack Council proposal for Wild Rivers WildernessThe state has yet to purchase the Essex Chain of Lakes, but two environmental organizations already have proposals to establish Wilderness Areas in the region.

This month, Protect the Adirondacks urged the state to create an Upper Hudson Wilderness Area, combining twenty thousand acres of existing Forest Preserve and nineteen thousand acres once owned by Finch, Pruyn & Company—a total of thirty-nine thousand acres.

The Adirondack Council beat Protect to the punch by two decades. In 1990, the council recommended establishing a 72,480-acre Wild Rivers Wilderness if the land became available. Spokesman John Sheehan says the council still stands behind that proposal.
» Continue Reading.


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Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Report: 2012 State of the Adirondack Park

The Adirondack Council, an independent advocate for the Adirondack Park founded in 1975, has issued it’s 2012 State of the Park report.  “The Adirondack Park was subjected to a barrage of extreme outside influences over the past 12 months, some of which devastated small communities and public natural resources, while others brought unprecedented good news to park residents and visitors,” a Council issued press release said.

The annual State of the Park Report reviews of the actions of local, state and federal government officials that the Council believes have helped or harmed the Adirondack Park over the past year. The illustrated, 18-page review is the Council’s 27th annual State of the Park report. A copy of the report is available online. » Continue Reading.


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Thursday, June 28, 2012

Brian Houseal Leaving Adirondack Council Leadership

Brian L. Houseal will be leaving his post as Executive Director of the Adirondack Council, after a decade leading the largest Adirondack-centered environmental conservation advocacy organization. Houseal is expected to be replaced at the end of October by Deputy Director Diane Fish of Lake Placid who will serve as Acting Executive Director while a new Executive Director is sought.

Reflecting on his tenure in a statement prepared for the press Houseal said, “I have had the honor of moving forward with a legacy endowed to us by some of the greatest conservationists in our country. Louis and Bob Marshall, Clarence Petty, the Council’s founders, and many other directors, staff and members over the years have all fought to uphold Article XIV – the Forever Wild Clause – of New York State’s Constitution, unique in the world as a people’s commitment to wilderness preservation. That vision and constellation of stars provides the compass bearing that guides our team every day.” » Continue Reading.


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Friday, April 13, 2012

Lewis County Ignores Critics of SNIRT ATV Rally

The Annual SNIRT (Snow/Dirt) ATV Rally will be held as planned on Saturday in Lewis County, despite efforts by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Adirondack Council to rein in the event’s widely publicized excesses.

In a letter to Lewis County Board of Legislators, the Adirondack Council protested their refusal to conduct an environmental review before the event and the opening of roads leading into the the Southwest part of the Adirondack Park in Lewis County (the Eastern side of the Tug Hill Plateau) to ATVs.

“The Adirondack Council reiterates that it does not wish for the SNIRT Run to come to an end,” the Council’s letter also says. “However, unless Lewis County officials make a serious effort to mitigate the event’s extreme environmental impacts, and to crack down on the illegal activity, we will be forced to consider legal action. You may recall that the Council recently won a lawsuit against Lewis County for its failure to complete a formal environmental review for ATV trails on county-owned land.” » Continue Reading.


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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Commentary: APA Lacked Will, Not Authority

Will New York build upon its historic leadership as a steward of our protected Adirondack Park, home to people and wild nature, exhibiting the highest standards for ecosystem management? Or will that promise be lost to the lowest common denominator, where the most specious claims to the economic bottom line win the argument, a “go along-to-get along” mindset? Following the issuance of a permit by the Adirondack Park Agency for the sprawling Adirondack Club and Resort, citizens around the state are wondering.

Remember what APA permitted in January: 706 residential units, 332 buildings, 39 large “great camps,” 15 miles of new roads, sewer, water and electric lines, fences and posted signs spread across 6,200 mostly undeveloped forest acres – 75 % of which is in the most protected private land classification in the park, Resource Management. Remember what this permit jettisons: a variety of traditional backcountry recreational uses, including hunting leases as well as forestry operations. The permit sanctioned real estate estimates shown to be highly exaggerated and completely unreliable. The applicant’s payments in lieu of taxes scheme is probably illegal. This is speculative development at its worst. » Continue Reading.


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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Adirondack Council: Revise Development Rules

The Adirondack Council is calling on Governor Andrew Cuomo and the NYS Legislature to make sweeping changes to the rules for private land use and development in the Adirondack Park.

“The current rules for development are too weak and outdated to protect the park’s pure waters, wildlife and unbroken forests,” said the Adirondack Council Executive Director Brian L. Houseal said in a statement issued last week. “Conservation science and smart growth principles have advanced a great deal since 1971. Unfortunately, the Adirondack Park Agency’s regulations have not.”

The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) was created by Governor Nelson Rockefeller in 1971, after resort development and the construction of an interstate highway (I-87) through the Adirondacks prompted a public call to protect the park. None of those rules has been amended since 1978, when several were weakened, the Council asserts, adding that “a recent resort review illustrated why the rules need attention.” » Continue Reading.


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