Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve says it will ask members of the New York State Legislature to impose a deadline for future mineral sampling and mining at Lot 8 in Lewis, a 200-acre portion of the NYS Forest Preserve’s Jay Mountain Wilderness.
The constitutional amendment allowing the mining company NYCO Minerals to collect mineral samples in advance of mining a portion of the Jay Mountain Wilderness, in exchange for land elsewhere, passed the NYS Legislature and was narrowly approved (53%-47%) by voters in 2013. » Continue Reading.
Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve is set to present Julia Goren, coordinator of the Adirondack High Peaks Summit Stewardship program, with its 2018 Wild Stewardship Award, and Phil Brown, former editor of the Adirondack Explorer magazine, with its 2018 Paul Schaefer Wilderness Award.
They will be recognized at Adirondack Wild’s Annual Meeting of Members and Friends on Saturday November 3, 2018 in the Saranac Lake Free Library, 101 Main Street, Saranac Lake. » Continue Reading.
Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve has submitted comments (Comment Letter) to the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) opposing what it describes as DEC’s attempt to issue itself a permit to build an illegal snowmobile bridge over the protected Cedar River in the Adirondack Park.
The Cedar River was designated by the Legislature in 1972 as a “Scenic” river under the New York Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers Act. The Act prohibits construction of new, motorized bridges over Scenic rivers and also prohibits snowmobiles and other motorized recreational uses within one-quarter mile of Scenic rivers. » Continue Reading.
Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve is calling on the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and NYS Adirondack Park Agency (APA) to institute wilderness permit systems for the Eastern High Peaks and the new Boreas Ponds gateway to the Wilderness “in order to reduce and prevent human recreational overuse of a highly vulnerable and limited Wilderness resource.”
What follows is a press release issued by Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve:
At public meetings held in Albany and Newcomb this week, the non-profit advocate Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve told the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and NYS Adirondack Park Agency (APA) that the agencies are rushing to approve complex amendments to management plans for the High Peaks Wilderness and nearby Forest Preserve units. Such haste risks exposing these wilderness landscapes to more overuse and degradation of their natural resources and wild character.
The agencies are on course to approve the amendments in just over 45 days, or half the time that the agencies previously agreed should be taken to consider complex unit management plans for “forever wild” state lands. » Continue Reading.
Late last year, our NYS DEC removed a cabin atop Thomas Mountain in the Lake George Wild Forest. The cabin, dating to the mountain’s former private ownership, had been vandalized and had become a public hazard. Its presence was also a violation of Article XIV, Section 1 of our NYS Constitution. DEC did the right thing to remove it.
Restoration of the former cabin site was a logical next step, and Arbor Day the right occasion. Adirondack Wild was very pleased to be invited by DEC to collaborate. We reached out once again for volunteers to the Youth EdVenture and Nature Network (YENN). » Continue Reading.
What follows is a press release issued by Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve:
In a letter submitted today to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, the nonprofit advocate Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve recommends that the Boreas Ponds tract be managed in ways that avoid damage to natural resources and enhance opportunities to experience solitude.
The highly controversial decision by the NYS Adirondack Park Agency in February, approved by Governor Cuomo, not to consider an all-Wilderness alternative, but to split the 20,000-acre Boreas Pond tract between Wilderness and Wild Forest classifications was opposed by Adirondack Wild, which offered many reasons why the entire tract should be managed as an addition to the High Peaks Wilderness area. » Continue Reading.
Adirondack Wilderness Advocates will receive Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve’s highest honor – the Paul Schaefer Wilderness Award. The wilderness award will be conveyed on Saturday afternoon, September 30th at Adirondack Wild’s annual meeting at the Tannery Pond Community Center in North Creek. The meeting includes a Community Forum about Practical Steps to Better Land Use Decisions in the Adirondack Park beginning at 1 pm. » Continue Reading.
Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve will hold a public forum focused on the ten strategies outlined in its recently published guidebook Pathways to a Connected Adirondack Park – Practical Steps to Better Land Use Decisions.
The community forum takes place at 7 pm, September 5, 2017 at the Keene Valley Congregational Church in the church’s Van Santvoord Room off Rt. 73 in Keene Valley. Public participation is encouraged. » Continue Reading.
There has been detailed documentation in the Adirondack Almanack about ongoing recreational pressures and resulting damage to parts of the High Peaks Wilderness Area, the largest Wilderness unit in the NYS Forest Preserve (and in most of the country).
Severe impacts have resulted to some adjacent trailheads, highways, roads, and parking areas, and certain areas of the interior. NYS DEC personnel, Summit Stewards, and town governments, indeed all of us, feel the pressure from large numbers of us enjoying the Eastern High Peaks, and in some cases requiring search and rescue. What to do about it all has been debated in this space by various stakeholders, including DEC Forest Rangers, with much good information exchanged and good comments and suggestions.
However, current comments and conditions feel like déjà vu all over again. I refer to the 17 year-old document that very specifically guides our public land manager, the NYS DEC, in addressing recreational user pressure on the High Peaks and how to keep the High Peaks as wilderness.
The 1999 High Peaks Wilderness Complex Unit Management Plan (UMP) is that guiding document. I propose that we spend more time addressing this plan, its management recommendations and actions to date, and how the UMP might be updated to reflect the era, conditions and user pressures we are now encountering. » Continue Reading.
As this year’s legislative session winds down, more public attention is focused on November’s vote whether or not convene a state constitutional convention in Albany.
As Article XIV – the “forever wild” clause – is of particular relevance to both the Adirondack and Catskill Park regions, I offer the following resolution approved by Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve this spring. » Continue Reading.
Adirondack Wild has announced the publication of an illustrated guide for how conservation science can be applied to land use planning inside and outside of the Adirondack Park. Titled Pathways to a Connected Adirondack Park – Practical Steps to Better Land Use Decisions, the 30-page booklet recommends ten tested, non-regulatory strategies to serve as a “pathway” to ecological, science-based site planning. Local governments in the Park can apply these to enhance their community’s development while protecting their most vulnerable natural resources.
A report about the Adirondack Park by Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve will be the subject of a presentation at the Saratoga Springs Public Library on Thursday, April 27. The presentation will be held at noon in the Library’s H. Dutcher Community Room is free and open to the public. » Continue Reading.
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.
Adirondack Wild has left the BeWildNY coalition, saying it disagrees with the coalition’s proposal to allow the public to drive to within a mile or so of Boreas Ponds.
Adirondack Wild announced its decision as the Adirondack Park Agency prepares for public hearings on the classification of the 20,758-acre Boreas Ponds Tract, which the state bought from the Adirondack chapter of the Nature Conservancy in April.
The classification decision could influence how much motorized access is allowed on the tract.
Much of the debate over Boreas Ponds has focused on the future of Gulf Brook Road, a dirt road built for logging trucks when Finch, Pruyn & Company owned the land. » Continue Reading.
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