State Agencies Encourage Partners to Begin Planning Events
The State Departments of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Agriculture and Markets (AGM) have announced that New York State’s eighth annual Invasive Species Awareness Week (ISAW) will be held June 6-12. Organizations are encouraged to connect with their local Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM) to begin planning events.
ISAW is an educational campaign featuring statewide events that promote an understanding of invasive species-how they get here, how to recognize them, what their negative impacts are-and empower New Yorkers to take action to protect the state’s resources from their introduction and spread. New York State is particularly vulnerable to invasive species due to its role as a center for international trade and travel. Managing invasive species is a long-term effort and requires collaboration from State agencies, stakeholder organizations, and the public.
Is the Adirondack Park dying for recreational activities?
The Department of Environmental Conservation – henceforth referred to as DEC – has been developing plans for major community connector snowmobile trails between Adirondack communities for a number of years. Protect the Adirondacks first sued the DEC in 2013, contending the trials cause significant environmental damage and violate the Constitutional clause for the ‘forever wild’.
Peter Bauer, executive director of Protect the Adirondacks, the environmental organization that sued to block the construction said the litigation is about Class 2 snowmobile trails and not hiking trails. He specifically called out the Adirondack Mountain Club and Open Space Institute’s concerns “specious claims.”
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