Last week the Adirondack Park Agency approved a 20-megawatt solar project on the former Benson Mines’s tailings pile in the Town of Clifton. It is the state’s first “build ready” solar project. There are still a handful of other permits the state needs to acquire before it can hold an auction and turn the project over to a solar developer. But, it looks like the Adirondacks is one step closer to hosting a large renewable energy project.
ALBANY, N.Y. — Adirondack Council today called upon the NYS Dept. Environmental Conservation to drop a previously announced plan to remove the gray wolf from New York’s endangered species list.
Species listed as endangered are granted special protections from hunting and habitat loss. The state had announced a plan to remove the wolf from the endangered list because the state considered the animal extinct in New York (a.k.a. extirpated).
SARANAC LAKE, N.Y. — The Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) and Foodshed Capital have announced the first loan provided through their new revolving loan fund for small-scale food producers.
Julian Mangano of Della Terra will use his SOIL Loan to develop a commercial composting operation that will divert organic waste from landfills, build soil health on his Castorland, N.Y. farm, and provide high-quality compost for local farmers and gardeners.
With a goal of supporting farms and food businesses who have difficulty accessing loans through conventional programs, ANCA, a regional economic development nonprofit serving businesses and communities in northern New York, partnered with Foodshed Capital, a certified Community Development Financial Institution that centers mission-driven lending and customized business support for underserved farmers, to develop the SOIL Loan Fund.
Meet my hiking buddy, Bella (short for Belladonna). Bella is an entledoodle, or the offspring of an Entlebucher Mountain Dog and a mini-poodle. If you had not previously heard of the Entlebucher Mountain Dog, you are not alone! They are in the same family as Bernese Mountain Dogs, but are the smallest of the breeds within that family. When crossed with the hypoallergenic mini-poodle, what are produced are adorable, intelligent, compact, herding/hunting, mountain-scrambling, active, non-shedding, fun-and-cuddle-loving, loyal puppies.
Cast members of the new Ghostbusters film aren’t the only ones getting slimed – trees sometimes get slathered in slime flux as well. Many kinds of trees are subject to sludge assaults, with elms, apples, oaks, maples, and walnuts being among the more vulnerable species. Tree-goo, unlike the Psychomagnotheric Slime in Ghostbusters, is basically harmless. In fact, it can be beneficial. Also known as bacterial wetwood, slime flux is pretty much what it sounds like: wet nastiness that oozes from a bark crack, V-shaped trunk union, or pruning wound like an eternal fountain of fetid foam.
Mountain Lake PBS is proud to present the fourth Beyond the Peaks Student Film Festival — a festival celebrating creativity and amplifying youth voices across our region through film and digital storytelling. The film festival is open to high school students in NY, VT, and QC, and will run through the 2022-2023 school year. Applicants will have the opportunity to win three prizes, first place is $1,000, second place is $500 and third place is $250. Submissions will be due April 30, 2023, and a Red Carpet Showcase event will take place in May 2023.
The Alexander String Quartet performs at the Saranac Methodist Church on Route 3 in Saranac, New York on Sunday, October 2 at 3:00 pm. The program features Mozart’s String Quartet No. 22 in B-flat major, K589; Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s String Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 13; and Debussy’s String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10. They play on a matched set of instruments made in San Francisco by Francis Kuttner, known as the Ellen M. Egger quartet.
Admission at the door is $15 general; $12 seniors; $5 students; free for children under 12.
Another year has passed for me, and only one more for the “Big 80,” but things are looking good on this end. For others on this side of the globe, things aren’t looking so good this morning [Sept. 20]. Hurricane Fiona has clobbered Puerto Rico with over thirty inches of rain and strong winds that have again devastated their power grid five years to the day when they were hit by Hurricane Maria. They had just about recovered from that one and everything got laid flat again. The hurricane heading north hit the Dominican Republic and will end up in the Canada Maritimes. This will also push high tides all along the east coast while going north.
OLD FORGE– The annual Adirondack Mountain Bike (MTB) Festival is ready to kick off Saturday and Sunday, October 1-2, 2022 at the McCauley Mountain Ski & Recreation Center in Old Forge. The temperatures are cooling down and the fall colors are heating up in the Central Adirondacks, as hundreds of mountain bike families flood to the festival. The free festival is sponsored by the Central Adirondack Association (CAA), the Adirondack Foothills Trails Alliance (AFTA), and the Town of Webb, and features guided rides, races and fun contests, clinics, bike and equipment vendors, food and refreshments, and live music.
The newest New York State communities to achieve certification in the Climate Smart Communities Certification (CSC) program were announced earlier this week at a Climate Week event in White Plains.
By taking meaningful actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change, eleven local governments successfully met the criteria to be recognized as leaders and become certified in the 2022 third-quarter round of the CSC Certification program. Congratulations to New York’s newest certified Climate Smart Communities:
Wolf (Canis lupus) – captive. Larry Master photo
WOLF DNA: Our reporter Mike Lynch has been tracking the ongoing controversy around a canid that was killed by a Mohawk Valley hunter. While that particular animal was outside the Blue Line, it’s believed to be an indicator that wolves could be returning to northern New York. And now, groups are calling on the state to do more to foster a safe return of wolves/wolf hybrids. Peter Bauer has this commentary in the Almanack. And this week, a second outside DNA test confirmed the animal was indeed a wolf, and the DEC has agreed with the findings.
My question for you: Should NYS play an active role in facilitating wolves’ population being able to re-establish itself?
Photo: Wolf (Canis lupus) – captive. Larry Master photo
I just skimmed through Eric Stackman’s recent replies to the Adirondack Park Agency. See the APA website, apa.ny.gov, large-scale subdivisions. Mr. Stackman, a Miami, Florida developer, wants to construct a 120-lot resort subdivision in Jay, Essex County, above the East Branch of the Ausable River, apparently within sightlines near Whiteface Mountain, Asgaard Farm and many other viewing locations
The 10th annual Adirondack Kids Day is scheduled for Saturday, October 1 in Inlet, NY. Central Adirondack Kiwanis will once again be the main sponsor for the event which is inspired by the best-selling children’s book series, The Adirondack Kids ® written by Gary and Justin VanRiper of Camden, NY, and celebrates families having fun together in the great outdoors.
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NYSDEC Reverses Course, Now Calls The Cooperstown Wolf A Wolf
On September 21, 2022, after a second independent DNA study confirmed that the wolf killed outside of Cooperstown, New York, was really a wolf, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) reversed course and announced that the wolf was indeed a wolf. DEC had been calling the Cooperstown wolf a coyote since it examined the dead animal in December 2021 and conducted a DNA study in early 2022. DEC publicly called the wolf a coyote in July in many news reports, after the release of an independent DNA study by Trent University in Canada, organized by the Northeast Ecological Recovery Society (NERS). The Trent University DNA analysis found that the Cooperstown wolf had 98% wolf genes.
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