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DEC manages 4.6 million acres of public lands, including three million acres in the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserves, more than 5,000 miles of formal trails, campgrounds, day use areas, and hundreds of trailheads, boat launches, and fishing piers. » Continue Reading.
Posts Tagged ‘conservation’
State Land Stewardship Award Nominations Sought
Warren Co Soil & Water Gets Urban Ag Grant
The Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District (Soil & Water) has announced it has been awarded an urban agriculture conservation grant through a partnership with the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to boost technical capacity nationwide. » Continue Reading.
DEC Releases Draft New York State Forest Action Plan
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced the release of the draft New York State Forest Action Plan for public review and comment. The State Forest Action Plan is a 10-year strategic plan for DEC and New York’s forestry community that provides long‐term, comprehensive, and coordinated strategies for addressing the challenges facing New York’s forests today. » Continue Reading.
New Adirondack Land Trust Board Members
The Adirondack Land Trust has announced the addition of three new board members who bring expertise in private land conservation, farmland access for young farmers, and communications.
The mission of the Adirondack Land Trust is to forever conserve the forests, farmlands, waters and wild places that advance the quality of life of our communities and the ecological integrity of the Adirondacks. The land trust has protected 26,628 acres since its founding in 1984. » Continue Reading.
Conservancy Protects Twin Pines Property in Bolton
The Lake George Land Conservancy (LGLC) closed on the purchase of 212 acres in the Town of Bolton on December 20, 2019. The property was part the Twin Pines Resort owned by the McGurl family. The resort is expected to be unaffected by the sale. The LGLC will hold the property until the Town of Bolton is able to purchase it from LGLC encumbered with a conservation easement. This transfer is expected to take place in early 2020.
The property includes about 20 acres of wetlands and 3,000 feet of stream corridor, and is adjacent to the popular Cat and Thomas Mountains Preserve owned by the New York State Department of Conservation (NYSDEC). » Continue Reading.
St. Lawrence River Watershed Online Survey
The St. Lawrence Watershed lies at the border of New York State and Canada. The St. Lawrence River serves as the gateway between the North Atlantic and the Great Lakes. At its most downstream point in the United States, the Saint Lawrence drains an area of nearly 300,000 square miles.
The area within New York State covered by the watershed revitalization plan includes a 5,600-square-mile region that spans the Northern and Western Adirondacks and the lake plains of the St. Lawrence Valley, including the villages and cities of Clayton, Alexandria Bay, Theresa, Potsdam, Canton, Tupper Lake, Paul Smith’s, Ogdensburg, Malone, and Massena. » Continue Reading.
State Legislature EnCon Committee Chairs Talk Priorities
The following essay was authored by Assemblyman Steven Englebright and State Senator Todd Kaminsky.
The 2019 legislative session was a great one for New York’s environment. As the chairs of the Environmental Conservation Committees in both houses, we were pleased to talk with Adirondack residents and visitors about the session in late September when we came to the park to discuss next year’s agenda.
The Adirondacks aren’t just New York’s largest park, they are a national treasure and a shining example of long-term conservation that serves as a model for the world. » Continue Reading.
2020 Marks DEC’s 50th Anniversary
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) was established in 1970 on the first-ever Earth Day.
In the 50 years since, Adirondackers have seen a revolution in the way we interact with our environment. The Clean Air Act was passed in 1970; in 1971 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was established, followed by the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972. The Adirondack Park Agency Act was passed in 1971, and the State’s Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR) in 1980, the same year as the Superfund Law. In 1993 the Environmental Protection Fund was established.
Adirondack 46ers Continue Support for Stewardship, Trail Work
In 2018, ADK (Adirondack Mountain Club) and the Adirondack 46ers (46ers) entered a three-year joint commitment to promote stewardship and conservation throughout the High Peaks Wilderness.
The 46ers committed $71,000 in funding to protect trails and summits with ADK in 2018, $34,000 in 2019, and will provide an additional $41,000 in 2020 towards those efforts an announcement sent to the press says. Last year, their funding supported trail projects in Avalanche Pass and on Mt. Colden.
Lake Placid Land Conservancy Adds Conservation Planner
The Lake Placid Land Conservancy (LPLC) has announced the hiring of its newest staff member, Carolyn Koestner.
She joins the organization as the Strategic Conservation Planner where she is expected to use her expertise in Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis and mapping to identify priority areas for conservation in the Ausable and Saranac River watersheds. » Continue Reading.
Adirondack Social Sciences Workshop Planned
The Adirondack Research Consortium is set to hold a day-long social sciences workshop on Friday, October 4, 2019 from 10 am to 3 pm in the Sterling Tomkins Pine Room of the Joan Weill Student Center at Paul Smith’s College.
The day will include a keynote talk by author and Yale professor Dr. Bill Weber, lunch, and a panel discussion on ongoing and emerging social issues impacting the Adirondacks. » Continue Reading.
Adirondack Wild Meeting Set, Speakers, Awards Planned
Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve is set to hold its 2019 Annual Meeting of Members and Friends on Saturday, October 12 at the Keene Valley Congregational Church in Keene Valley. The meeting begins with program news, elections and announcements at 11 am. » Continue Reading.
Adirondack Alpine Stewardship Summit Planned
In the Adirondacks, alpine ecosystems are areas above the treeline that are home to rare and endangered alpine plants more commonly found in arctic regions of North America.
Alpine ecosystems cover approximately 173 acres on top of more than a dozen High Peaks, including Marcy, Algonquin and Wright. Alpine vegetation is highly susceptible to human impacts such as trampling and climate change.
Ten years ago, the Adirondacks hosted the Northeastern Alpine Stewardship Gathering for the first time. Since then visitor usage has increased in the High Peaks region, where all of the Park’s alpine ecosystems can be found.
Joe Mahay, An Adirondack Park Activist, 1946-2019
Longtime grassroots Adirondack Park environmental activist Joe Mahay died in early August at home with his family. Joe and his wife Naomi Tannen had been living in Florence, Massachusetts, where for the past year and a half Joe had dealt with metastatic cancer and chemotherapy.
Joe was one of the founders of the Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks and twice served as its Chair, tactfully leading the organization through its formative years and a raucous debate over the future of the Adirondack Park in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Joe had a long career as an administrator at a non-profit agency working with people with developmental disabilities in Essex County and poured his volunteer time for many years into the protection of the Forest Preserve and Adirondack Park.
Forever Wild And The Word “Timber”
Protect the Adirondacks recently won a major victory in its lawsuit to enforce Article 14, Section 1 of the state Constitution, the well-known forever wild clause. The case challenged the excessive tree cutting undertaken by state agencies to build a vast network of Class II Community Connector snowmobile trails in the Adirondack Forest Preserve.
The case began in 2013 and this result has been six years in the making. Previously, the Appellate Division, Third Department, of the state Supreme Court had issued a preliminary injunction against this tree cutting in 2016 after the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Adirondack Park Agency (APA) had constructed or roughed out over 20 miles of new trails.
Latest Adirondack News
- Cuomo Touts Snowmobiling, Tourism
- Weasels in Winter
- DEC Announces 2019 Bear Hunting Stats
- Embedawatt: Valuing What We Have
- Spokesman Leaves Stefanik Campaign
- GFalls Hospital-Albany Med Affiliation OK'd
- Boy Scouts File for Bankruptcy
- APA Approves Raquette Lake Cell Towers
- Hudson River Business Sanctioned by APA
- Snowmobiler Gets 12 Tickets After Chase
Latest Adirondack News
- Cuomo Touts Snowmobiling, Tourism
- Weasels in Winter
- DEC Announces 2019 Bear Hunting Stats
- Embedawatt: Valuing What We Have
- Spokesman Leaves Stefanik Campaign
- GFalls Hospital-Albany Med Affiliation OK'd
- Boy Scouts File for Bankruptcy
- APA Approves Raquette Lake Cell Towers
- Hudson River Business Sanctioned by APA
- Snowmobiler Gets 12 Tickets After Chase
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