Posts Tagged ‘Black River’

Thursday, July 13, 2023

Road salt, conservation projects hot topics at Black River Watershed Conference

Rob Williams, St. Lawrence Eastern Lake Ontario Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management reviews eDNA applications for the early detection of invasive species.

CARTHAGE – Road salt and Conservation District projects were hot topics at The Black River Watershed Conference held at Zero Dock Street Restaurant in Carthage on June 14.  Just under 100 people attended the thirteenth annual event to discuss issues that face the Black River, and learn how to become better watershed stewards.

THE WATERSHED
The Black River Watershed includes over sixty communities in Hamilton, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, and Oneida counties. While each community’s character is unique and has its own diverse needs, landowners and visitors share the Black River and the desire to keep it, its tributaries, and its watershed healthy and vibrant.

EVENT HISTORY
The annual Black River Watershed Conference stems from the completion of the Black River Watershed Management Plan in 2010.  Organizers include the New York State Tug Hill Commission, the Lewis County Soil and Water Conservation District and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Region 6.

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Monday, May 24, 2021

Black River Watershed Wednesday Webinar Series

black river watershedThe Tug Hill Commission and its partners at the Lewis, Jefferson, Hamilton, Herkimer and Oneida County Soil and Water Conservation Districts and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Region 6 are pleased to bring you “Watershed Wednesday Webinars,” in May and June, as the in-person Black River Watershed Conference has been postponed again this year. All webinars are free, pre- sented via Zoom and require preregistration. This information is also available on the commission’s website at tughill.org/black-river-watershed-wednesdays-2021/.

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Monday, October 10, 2016

Final Black River Watershed Plan Released

Black River WatershedThe New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), in coordination with Black River watershed stakeholders, recently approved the “Black River 9 Element Watershed Management Plan: Reducing Phosphorus, Nitrogen and Sediment loading in priority Sub Watersheds”.

Stakeholders and municipalities implementing projects within a 9 element (9E) plan are expected to be more successful in leveraging state and federal funding because 9E plans are consistent with the Environmental Protection Agency’s guidance to develop watershed management plans. For example, applications submitted to DEC’s Water Quality Improvement Project (WQIP) statewide grant program that identify projects from a 9E watershed plan receive higher points.

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Monday, July 20, 2015

Black River War Lessons For Preservationists Today

DSCN5968In 1892 the New York State Legislature created the Adirondack Park and in 1894 placed “Forever Wild” forest protection into the State Constitution. Thus began a process of wilderness protection for what today covers thousands of lakes and millions of acres of forests.

During the following sixty years however, there were scores of determined efforts by developers, local governments, and subsequent legislatures to weaken that protection to promote mining, logging, hydroelectric power, roads, commercial recreation and off-road access by jeeps, snowmobiles, floatplanes and motorboats. To repel these threats, America’s first modern grassroots wilderness protection campaigns began. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Black River Watershed Conference June 3rd

Black River WatershedThe Fifth Annual Black River Watershed Conference will be held on June 3rd at the Hayloft at Moonshine Farm in Port Leyden, NY.

In the morning, speakers will cover a range of topics including invasive species programs, stormwater and community resiliency, nutrient management and current and ongoing Black River Watershed projects.  An afternoon bus tour throughout the watershed will include stops at the Black River Canal Museum in Boonville, the Lyonsdale ReEnergy Plant, Port Leyden and the Conway Dairy Farm. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Town of Inlet Beginnings (Part II)

1892 fulton chain club 1_0For many property owners in Inlet, the abstract of title invariably lists James and Jennie Galvin as early, if not the first, owners.  But until I began researching this narrative, I believed, as have other Inlet landowners and early 20th century newspapers, that the Galvins were sole owners of the 6,000 acres surrounding the Head of Fourth Lake.  I learned that Galvin was an agent for the Fulton Chain Club and it was through his efforts that the land was sold for hotels and camps, and ultimately to the first residents of Inlet.

James Galvin, the son of an Irish immigrant, was born in 1835 in Wilna, Jefferson County.  His father Edward was a successful farmer and also managed a prosperous charcoal production trade.  James was listed as a farmhand and a farmer on the 1850 and 1860 censuses, respectively, but from the age of fifteen, he dealt in horses and cattle and became successful in buying stock both in New York and Canada.  He commanded large credit with banks in both regions. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, November 25, 2014

The Origins Of The Town of Inlet

scythe herrershoff manor_2On November 27, 1901, the Hamilton County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed an act that created a new town from northern Morehouse, with the South Branch of the Moose River dividing the two towns.  Afterwards, Inlet held its first town meeting on January 14, 1902.  Presently (2009), the Adirondack Park Agency reports that Inlet consists of 42,446 acres of which just under 4,000 acres is not state land.

But this narrative is about the over 6,000 acres in the northerly Part of Township 3 of the Moose River Tract surrounding the “Head of Fourth Lake”, as Inlet was formerly known, and the connections among the speculators who owned it prior to Inlet’s creation.  This square tract covers the lands from Fourth Lake to Seventh Lakes down to Limekiln Lake at its southwest corner. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, August 31, 2014

Wilderness 50th:
Howard Zahniser And The Black River Wars

Howard Zahniser at Mataskared, Crane Mtn in backgroundHoward Zahniser knew he needed two things when he came to the Adirondacks in 1946. The two things could help him prove himself to his national wilderness mentors—now his new employers—at the Wilderness Society. They could also help him build the practical and functional organization needed to pursue a national wilderness preservation system. First, Zahnie, as he was known, needed honest-to-goodness wilderness in reasonable automobile vacation reach of Washington, D.C. for our family. Even this was a two-day car trip then, and we would camp overnight on the way. Second, he needed to leave his professional comfort zone of public relations and public information and journalism work. He needed to expand into grassroots political organizing and consensus building. That is, he needed to learn to operate in the larger world that would become the environmental movement twenty-five years later.

The Adirondacks and their Edwards Hill setting—soon to be Mateskared—met the first need. Paul Schaefer met the second. Paul was my father’s ticket out of his own comfort zone. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The Fulton Chain Fish Hatchery: A Short History

scan0002According to Frank Graham, Jr., the first conservation agency established by New York was the Fisheries Commission.  It was established in 1868 to examine Adirondack water sources used by downstate cities and to study the impact of forest destruction by timber cutting neighboring these waters and on the fish they contained.

By the 1880s, the agency established hatcheries in various areas of the state to bolster fish populations in those water bodies and their tributaries suffering from nearby industrial operations such as mills on the Black River.  Since fishing pools in the Adirondacks were being rapidly depleted by the growing popularity of the region, the agency determined to establish fisheries in that region.  » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Fulton Chain Steamers 101: Beginnings 1876-1895

Steamer Clearwater Fulton ChainMuch has been written of the steamers that operated on the Fulton Chain from Old Forge to the “head” of Fourth Lake. Regional histories describe the first steamboats introduced as well as those of the Fulton Navigation Company’s service at the beginning of the 20th century.  After examining the newspapers covering early happenings in the region, I learned more about early public passenger and freight steamers.

Having covered the pickle boats and mail boats in other articles, they will not be included here.  This work will be confined to only the steamers catering to passenger and cargo transport on the lower Chain lakes.  I am going to divide this discussion into three parts: Beginnings, the Crosby Transportation Company years and the Fulton Navigation Company years.  This narrative covers the first period. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Roadside Wildlife Survey Volunteers Sought

wildlife.map_The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Adirondack Program announced a call for volunteers to help survey roadsides in the Black River Valley this winter as part of the WildPaths citizen science project.

With the help of local citizen scientists using snow-tracking to gather data, WildPaths is expected to provide important information about where wildlife are crossing roads in several towns in the Black River Valley. The results are hoped to help guide conservation actions to maintain and enhance habitat connectivity between the Adirondacks and Tug Hill region. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Study: Wetlands Key to Revitalizing Acid Streams

New York GLA team of University of Texas at Arlington biologists working with the U.S. Geological Survey in the Black and Oswegatchie river basins has found that watershed wetlands can serve as a natural source for the improvement of streams polluted by acid rain.

The group, led by associate professor of biology Sophia Passy, also contends that recent increases in the level of organic matter in surface waters in regions of North America and Europe – also known as “brownification” – holds benefits for aquatic ecosystems.  The research team’s work appears in the September issue of the journal Global Change Biology. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, August 13, 2013

The Largest NYS Land Purchase in Forest Preserve History

Four-Flight_Lock_in_Black_River_Canal,_New_YorkThe state’s ongoing purchase of some 65,000 acres from the Nature Conservancy brings to mind the largest land purchase for the Forest Preserve in history.  In 1896, the needs of the Erie Canal resulted in the state’s purchase from Dr. William Seward Webb of 74,584 acres.

The story begins with the Black River, which starts primarily at North Lake reservoir and travels in a route that begins southwesterly then turns northwesterly around Forestport to ultimately end at Lake Ontario.  At 115 miles, it is the longest river running completely within New York’s borders. Bodies of water adding to the Black River’s water volume include Otter and Woodhull Creeks, and the Independence, Moose and Beaver Rivers.  In the 19th century, Watertown and other river towns grew from villages to industrial centers with factories and mills relying heavily on water power. » Continue Reading.


Saturday, March 16, 2013

Lost Brook Dispatches:
The Incredible Story of Charles Brodhead, Surveyor

Giant from Amy's Lookout.  Many new Irene slides.On June 2nd, 1797, twenty-five years after Archibald Campbell surveyed part of the northern line of the Totten and Crossfield Purchase, another surveyor named Charles C. Brodhead, tasked with working to the same line but starting from the east and chaining to the west,  made the following entry in his field journal: “3 Miles, 20 Chains: assg. Ye mountain, Top ye mountain – (snow 24 inches deep) Timber Balsom and Spruce.  3 Miles, 23 chains: desending steep rocks, no Timber.

This relatively pedestrian entry has at least the curiosity of recording so much snow in June but it otherwise causes one to long for the florid prose and colorfully descriptive thoroughness of Verplank Colvin.  Colvin’s accounts of his surveying journeys make for real drama, whereas this journal, typical of the time, offers the barest details beyond the numbers, with only occasional comments on the quality of the land or detours that needed to be taken.

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Monday, January 14, 2013

State Purchases Black River Valley Lands In Forestport

ForestportNew York State has purchased 518 acres of land in northern Oneida County which will become the area’s newest state forest, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens announced today. The acquisition in the Town of Forestport will protect almost a mile of Black River shoreline, just outside the Adirondack Park.

According to the press announcement, the state paid $385,400 for the land, which came from the Environmental Protection Fund. The property will be its own named state forest, as it is not adjacent to other state forests and will remain on local property tax rolls. The property is characterized by shady ravines with several springs that run year round, northern hardwood and coniferous forests, bogs with rare plants like pitcher plants and forested wetlands. The area is adjacent to conservation easement lands that protect the Town of Forestport water wells and will provide added protection for the Town’s water supply.
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