The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is asking the public for input on the development of the draft Tug Hill East Unit Management Plan (UMP) and the East Branch Fish Creek Easement Recreation Management Plan (RMP). DEC has encouraged the public to share comments on the plans at a session on Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. » Continue Reading.
Input Sought On Tug Hill East, East Branch Fish Creek Plans
Comments Sought On Adirondack Park Energy Plans
The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) is accepting public comment on its draft policy for Renewable Energy Production and Energy Supply.
The purpose of the policy is to provide guidance for the review and approval of renewable energy projects inside the Adirondack Park with regards to the Adirondack Park Agency Act, the Freshwater Wetlands Act and the Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers Act. » Continue Reading.
Nursery Hit For Transporting Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced a final Order on Consent, including a $2,500 penalty, with Tennessee Wholesale Nursery, LLC, Dennis Sons, and Tammy Sons for violating New York’s invasive species regulations.
The Tennessee nursery transported eastern hemlock seedlings infested with hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA), a prohibited invasive species, to Oswego and Schenectady counties. Under the terms of the order, the nursery is required to provide DEC with monthly nursery stock orders for New York State through 2020 in order to continue doing business in New York State. » Continue Reading.
Opinion: Wildlife Need More Adirondack Clear-Cuts
In the September-October edition of the Adirondack Explorer, ecologist Charles Canham says there are legitimate concerns about over-harvesting trees in the Adirondack Park, and that there is no good ecological or silvicultural rationale for clear-cuts.
I must disagree with these suppositions by Mr. Canham. With millions of acres of state land preserved within the Adirondack Park and never to be managed (harvested), Adirondack Park Agency oversight of larger clear-cuts on non-state-owned lands, and best management practices in place for forest harvests, there should not be great concern for over-harvesting. This is not the days of old, when massive cuts were done on steep slopes with no effort to stabilize the soil. Methods are much more environmentally friendly these days. » Continue Reading.
Run, Dorothy – Emerald City is Falling
Watertown is poised to become an Emerald City, but that’s not good news. Jefferson and Lewis will soon be Emerald Counties, and St. Lawrence County began the process of change two years ago. Unfortunately, this kind of transformation does not involve happy endings.
When the emerald ash borer (EAB) kills an ash, something happens never before seen — the tree becomes brittle and hazardous very quickly, beyond anything in our experience in North America prior to this. Municipal leaders, DOT officials, woodlot owners, loggers, farmers and other land managers need to be well-informed in order to stay safe and avoid liability. » Continue Reading.
‘Bernie’ Rivers Appointed Director of DEC Law Enforcement
Captain Bernard “Bernie” Rivers to the position of Director of the Division of Law Enforcement (DLE) in the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
A Hudson Valley native with 27 years of experience with DEC, Rivers has served as Acting Director since March following the retirement of former Director Joseph Schneider. As DLE Director, Rivers will lead 289 Environmental Conservation Police Officers (ECOs) across the state as the enforcement arm of DEC, tasked with safeguarding the state’s natural resources and enforcing the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) that protects fish and wildlife, environmental quality and the citizens of New York State. » Continue Reading.
Opinion: The Adirondacks Does Not Need More Clear-Cuts
New Yorkers think of the Adirondacks first and foremost as a preserve, but working forests on private lands have always been an important part of the Park. There has been a sea-change in ownership in recent years, with timber investment firms now controlling the bulk of working forests. And harvest rates throughout the Northeast have been steadily increasing.
So much so that logging rates are at unsustainably high levels in many places. This is most readily apparent to the public in the growing acreage of clear-cuts in the Adirondacks and Maine. But it doesn’t take clear-cutting to overharvest a region’s forests. Forest biomass is declining in Connecticut due to high-grading—the highly selective logging of just the largest and most valuable trees. To most foresters, that is a far worse sin than clear-cutting. » Continue Reading.
2018 Elections: An Adirondack Council Perspective
The polls are now closed, most of the votes have been counted, and there were winners and losers. In Washington, power is once again split between the Republicans and Democrats, while in New York, Democrats will take over control of the Senate, putting the state under one-party rule. As the largest non-partisan organization dedicated to ensuring the ecological integrity and wild character of our Adirondack Park, the Adirondack Council keeps a full-time presence in Albany advocating for policies and resources that will benefit the Park’s waters, wildlife and communities. We are willing to work with any and all elected officials to make the Adirondacks a better place, regardless of party affiliation. What follows is a comprehensive review of federal and state election results from this year. Winning candidates begin their terms in January. » Continue Reading.
New Communications, Engagement Director at Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy has announced David Conlan has been named the new Director of Communications and Community Engagement of the organization’s Adirondack Chapter in Keene Valley.
Conlan most recently served as the Director of Client Services at Adworkshop, a digital marketing agency based in Lake Placid. » Continue Reading.
Paul Hetzler Wants To Know – You Got Gas?
Even if its precise definition isn’t at the tip of your tongue, most everyone gets the general drift of what is meant by the term biogas — there’s biology involved, and the result is gas. One might guess it’s the funk in the air aboard the bus carrying the sauerkraut-eating team home after a weekend competition. Others would say biogas is cow belches, or the rotten-egg stink-bubbles that swarm to the surface when your foot sinks into swamp ooze.
Those are all examples of biogas, which is composed primarily of methane, CH4, at concentrations ranging from 50% to 60 %. Methane is highly combustible, and can be used in place of natural gas for heat or to run internal-combustion engines for the generation of electricity and other applications. Formed by microbes under anaerobic conditions, it is a greenhouse gas twenty-eight times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere. The fact that it can be useful if harnessed but dangerous if released is why we need to trap biogas given off by landfills, manure pits, and someday, maybe even cow burps. » Continue Reading.
DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos Stepping Down
Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Basil Seggos is stepping down. A replacement has not been announced, but the next DEC Commissioner with be the third named by Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was just elected to a third term.
During his tenure as DEC Commissioner Seggos completed the state’s purchase of the 69,000-acre Finch, Pruyn & Company lands. His tenure also coincided with several important Adirondack Park Agency (APA) classification decisions, including the High Peaks Wilderness and Boreas Ponds and Essex Chain Tracts. DEC writes Adirondack Forest Preserve Unit Management Plans. The APA is tasked with ensuring those plans meet the requirement of the New York State Land Master Plan.
Gibson: Large Scale Subdivision An Important Test of APA
Currently on the Adirondack Park Agency website (apa.ny.gov) are links to “large scale subdivisions currently under review,” an entirely new feature. What is that new feature all about?
Earlier this year, APA adopted a new application for large-scale residential subdivisions, as the agency defines them. In the green land use color, Resource Management, large scale subdivisions are defined as 5 or more lots or parcels in a given project. In the yellow land use color, Rural Use, they are defined as 10 or more lots or parcels. In the orange, or Low Intensity use, they are defined as 25 or more lots or parcels. All subdivisions in those colors meeting those size thresholds, says the APA, must meet new application guidelines. » Continue Reading.
Chris Navitsky: Work To Limit Road Salt
Scientists in the 1970s began to notice and be alarmed by the abnormally acidic lakes and streams they were discovering throughout the Adirondacks. In some cases, fish populations were disappearing. Their groundbreaking work coined the term acid rain, caused by fossil-fuel emissions that drifted on high-altitude winds and were flushed down in cloud bursts.
Today, just as science-driven rules limiting industrial and vehicular emissions have helped our local waterways begin to recover, evidence we are seeing supports new approaches to safely managing snow and ice on roadways, driveways, and sidewalks while protecting our freshwater resources. » Continue Reading.
Opinion: Keep Brown Tract Pond Rustic
New York State public campgrounds are managed under what is called “Intensive Use” rules. These lands are the most developed (least restrictive of development) public lands in the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan. “Wilderness” is the most restrictive. Interestingly, when it came to establishing management plans for Moose River Plains Camping Area, special guidelines were agreed upon to preserve its unique version of primitive/public campground. The Department of Environmental Conservation may not “upgrade” the area with features found in regular campgrounds. “Keep it simple” is what the people wanted. » Continue Reading.
Bauer: Long Pond Easement Changes A Bad Deal
The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) recently wrapped up a public hearing on proposed changes to the 18,950-acre Long Pond Conservation Easement located in the Town of Colton, St. Lawrence County. The state purchased this easement for $1.667 million in 1999 and the taxpayers of New York State have paid the state’s share of all local taxes on the property since then. The DEC held this public hearing because it wants to rewrite this conservation easement to allow 15 leased residential camps to remain on the property in perpetuity.
At the time that the state purchased the Long Pond Conservation Easement in 1999 there were six camps that were allowed to remain on the tract in perpetuity due to special deeded rights. At that time there were nearly three dozen other smaller hunting and fishing camps on the property that were grandfathered and given exclusive hunting and fishing rights for 15 years. The 1999 easement purchase included blanket public recreational rights, but they were deferred until 2014 to keep the peace among the club members and local politicians. » Continue Reading.
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