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Thursday, April 20, 2017

New Analysis: Freshwater Lakes Getting Saltier

by Editorial Staff

4 Comments

North America’s freshwater lakes are getting saltier due to development and exposure to road salt. A study of 371 lakes published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that many Midwestern and Northeastern lakes are experiencing increasing chloride trends, with some 44% of lakes sampled in these regions undergoing long-term salinization.

The study is the first large-scale analysis of chloride trends in freshwater lakes. It was conducted by a team of fifteen researchers as part of the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) Fellowship Program, an initiative that seeks to train the next generation of freshwater scientists and practitioners. » Continue Reading.

Monday, April 17, 2017

Grant Funding For Mohawk River Watershed Projects

by Editorial Staff

The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced that approximately $200,000 in grant funding is available to municipalities and not-for-profit organizations to implement the Mohawk River Basin Action Agenda. The funding is provided by the state’s Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) and administered under DEC’s Mohawk River Watershed Grants Program.

To be eligible for this funding opportunity, proposed projects must be located within the Mohawk River watershed (which includes portions of the Adirondack Park in the towns of Russia, Norway, Salisbury, Stratford, Caroga, Bleecker, Arietta, Morehouse and Ohio), as well as further the objectives of the Mohawk River Basin Action Agenda.

» Continue Reading.

Monday, April 17, 2017

Changes Underway For Caroga, Piseco Lake Campgrounds

by Editorial Staff

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has released for public review and comment draft Unit Management Plans (UMPs) for two DEC campgrounds in the Adirondacks.

The UMPs for Caroga Lake and Piseco Lake campgrounds identify proposed upgrades and replacements for facilities and infrastructure during the next five years. » Continue Reading.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Public Input Sought on Mohawk Vista Unit Management Plan

by Editorial Staff

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is requesting public input on a draft Unit Management Plan (UMP) for the Mohawk Vista. The area is made up of five state forests: A. J. Woodford Memorial State Forest, Steuben Hill State Forest, Mt. Hunger State Forest, Ohissa State Forest, and Otsquago State Forest, as well as five detached parcels of forest preserve in southern Oneida and Herkimer counties just outside the Adirondack Park.

The UMP is expected to guide management of these state lands. The proposed plan calls for major road improvements to provide for increased access to Mt. Hunger State Forest and mapping of 13 miles of mountain bike trails, as well as refurbishing two shallow ponds that serve as fishing spots on A. J. Woodford State Forest. » Continue Reading.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Siena Poll: NY Voters Favor Wilderness for Boreas Ponds

by Willie Janeway

75 Comments

An overwhelming majority of New York voters want Gov. Andrew Cuomo to protect the newly purchased Boreas Ponds tract in the Adirondack Park by classifying it as a Wilderness Area where motorized vehicles and bicycles are prohibited, according to a poll by the Siena College Research Institute.

Those who favor a wilderness classification for Boreas Ponds outnumbered opponents of wilderness by 4.5-to-1 (67 percent to 15 percent), the poll found. Support came from all geographic areas and from across the entire political spectrum.

These are extremely positive results for wilderness advocates. They look even better when you consider that the state didn’t hold a single public hearing south of the Catskills on the classification of Boreas Ponds. Everyone in New York City, the lower Hudson Valley and Long Island had to make a special effort to learn about this issue. » Continue Reading.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

DEC Changing Wildlife Habitat Management Documents

by Editorial Staff

1 Comment

DEC has released a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS), which will update the current “Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) on Habitat Management Activities of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Division of Fish and Wildlife.”

The draft SEIS describes and evaluates habitat management methods used on nearly 234,000 acres of state land – mostly Wildlife Management Areas managed for wildlife production and for recreation. The PEIS has not been updated since it was adopted in 1979, according to DEC’s press announcement. » Continue Reading.

Monday, April 10, 2017

Remote Healthcare Monitoring in the Adirondacks

by Editorial Staff

Adirondack Health and Health Recovery Solutions (HRS) have partnered to provide remote monitoring and videoconferencing services throughout the North Country region of New York State. Adirondack Health plans to have HRS integrated with Hixny’s health information exchange to serve patients in their homes. The exchange provides electronic access to patients’ records.

HRS uses a 4G-enabled tablet equipped with their software and integrated with Bluetooth devices to capture vital signs and provide high risk-alerts. It also provides educational videos, two-way videoconferencing for family members and clinicians, and assistance with medication management. » Continue Reading.

Monday, April 10, 2017

Residential Brush Burning Prohibited Through May 14

by Editorial Staff

Residential brush burning is prohibited through May 14 across New York State.

Due to the lack of snow cover over much of the state and with rising temperatures forecast for the coming weeks, conditions for wildfires could be heightened. » Continue Reading.

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Younger Adirondackers Find A Place To Call Home

by Mike Lynch

3 Comments

In 2015, Old Forge native Tyler Socash decided to take the money he had been saving for a car and spend it on something more experiential: three long-distance hiking trips.

Starting in August, he ended up hiking seven thousand miles as he finished the Pacific Crest Trail, Te-araroa (Long Pathway) in New Zealand, and the Appalachian Trail. After the yearlong trip, the thirty-year-old came home to the Adirondacks, where he returned to a former employer, the Adirondack Mountain Club, as a wilderness trip leader. » Continue Reading.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Dan Plumley: EPA Cuts, Deregulation Imperil the Adirondack Park

by Dan Plumley

108 Comments

The current crisis of anti-environmental leadership at the federal level under the Trump Administration has potentially far reaching implications here at home for New York’s Adirondack Park. Taken as a whole, these threats to New York State and the Adirondack Park could degrade or imperil natural resource integrity and environmental sustainability over the long-term.

Threats include:

o proposed draconian cuts to the budget and professional staffing of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and elimination of climate research under various agencies;

o proposed weakening or elimination of regulations facing coal burning, “tall stack” polluting industries and degraded water quality protections. » Continue Reading.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

DEC Seeks Volunteers to Monitor Streams and Rivers

by Editorial Staff

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is recruiting volunteers for the 2017 summer sampling season to conduct water quality assessments in nearby streams and rivers as part of the Water Assessments by Volunteer Evaluators (WAVE) project.

WAVE data are used to augment the work of DEC’s Stream Biomonitoring Unit, which samples streams and rivers across the state to create an inventory of stream water quality. Volunteer monitors provide valuable information to assist in identifying healthy streams and flagging streams with potential water quality concerns. These data are included in federal and state water quality reports and help to target professional assessments and local restoration or conservation efforts where they are most needed. » Continue Reading.

Monday, April 3, 2017

Steven Engelhart: Making of a Preservationist

by Steven Engelhart

5 Comments

I grew up in Plattsburgh, which I think makes me a local. My father was a professor at SUNY Plattsburgh and taught the literature of Emerson and Thoreau and other late 19th century American writers.

When a PBS documentary was made in the 1990s about the creation of the Adirondack Park, he was interviewed about Emerson and his outing to the Philosopher’s Camp in 1858. Like Emerson, he had a deep appreciation for nature, which we all inherited, but I can’t say that this translated into wilderness adventuring as a family. This I would discover later on my own. » Continue Reading.

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Judith Enck On EPA, Trump, and #MarchforScience

by Judith Enck

19 Comments

I miss Richard Nixon. I really do. Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) forty-six years ago. Since then, the EPA has been at the forefront of issues that have improved the environment and public health. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Adirondack Park.

Remember acid rain? In the early 1970s, air pollution from fossil-fuel plants had made rain and snow so acidic it killed wildlife in hundreds of Adirondack lakes and streams. Ironically, the water looked crystal clear, but the pH balance could not sustain healthy fish and plant populations.

EPA came to the rescue. » Continue Reading.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

LGLC Protects Wing Pond, Land in Fort Ann

by Editorial Staff

The Lake George Land Conservancy (LGLC) recently purchased a 159-acre property in Bolton that includes Wing Pond, and received a donation of 15 acres in the Town of Fort Ann.

The Wing Pond property includes 750 feet of a tributary that flows into Northwest Bay, and about 15 acres of wooded and open wetlands, including Wing Pond itself. The land also offers nice views of Lake George and the potential to create recreational trails connecting to the adjoining Pole Hill Pond parcel of NYS Forest Preserve. The LGLC expects to transfer the property to New York State. » Continue Reading.

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

David Gibson: Embracing Swamps

by David Gibson

8 Comments

Long before antimalarial drugs, draining the swamp was a literal human life saver. Sometime after Earth Day 1970, when over 90 percent of the country’s swamps had already been drained, people began to appreciate by their very rarity what swamps looked like, what lived there and how they functioned and benefited society. By 2017, “draining the swamp” has been trivialized into a meaningless electoral slogan. The usage of this phrase infuriates me, but someone inside my head is reminding me to “get over it.”

The actual swamps in New York are highly diverse and on a landscape or local scale contribute vitally to natural infrastructure benefiting our human communities and the more than human world we should aspire to live with. » Continue Reading.