You may be aware that Newcomb and other parts of the Adirondacks experienced severe flooding this past week.
The Adirondack Interpretive Center and trails, Goodnow Mountain Trail, and the Rich Lake boating access are closed until further notice.
The ESF Newcomb Campus has suffered major damages to the roads and trail systems, including the total loss of two bridges on the Sucker Brook trail. These bridges were the start and finish lines for the AIC’s annual Rubber Loon Race. For this reason, the Adirondack Interpretive Center is postponing the 2023 Rubber Loon Race indefinitely. The current priority is the safety of staff and the recovery of trails and property; but the show will go on. Organizers are currently drumming up ideas for a virtual event.
Donations made to the Rubber Loon Race are used to support educational programs at the AIC. Click here: https://www.esf.edu/aic/sponsor-a-loon.php
Stay tuned to the AIC Facebook page for more information on the reopening of the AIC and what’s happening on the campus.
Photo from Goodnow firetower by Melissa Hart
The Heart of the Adirondacks
Photo: Charlotte Demers demonstrating use of E-Bird and Merlin during our bird walk
Newcomb is in the heart of the Adirondack Park, and Newcomb’s Adirondack Interpretive Center (AIC) of the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry is the beating heart of Park ecological science. AIC operates one of the longest, if not the longest, uninterrupted study of the interactions of forest and aquatic ecosystems and wildlife in all North America, if not the globe. That forest is the Huntington Wildlife Forest, and the published research findings there span more than 90 years.
Huntington and the AIC are not only important for the Adirondacks but for the nation. It is one of the few data collection centers for the National Atmospheric Deposition program which monitors acid deposition and other atmospheric inputs into these forests, wetlands, streams, and lakes. Given the value of all of that research, Huntington Wildlife forests, lakes and streams on these 20,000-acres rank very highly in the Adirondack Park’s ecosystem, as do its scientists, students, and all who support them, from Syracuse to Newcomb.
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