Tag Archive for "Forestry" - The Adirondack Almanack

The New York Society of American Foresters (NYSAF) has named NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Region 5 Natural Resource Supervisor Tom Martin as its 2014 Forester of the Year.

Tom Martin previously served as a Regional Forester for DEC Region 5, and was subsequently named Regional Natural Resource Supervisor, where he oversees forestry programs and the divisions of Fish and Wildlife and Minerals. » Continue Reading.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Identifying Trees In Winter Using Buds

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Every winter I teach several tree identification classes to biology students. Cold or colder, it’s always outdoors, but if student evaluations are on the level, it’s always fun. Demonstrating how to tell one leaf-bereft hardwood from another is one thing.

Bark is not the best feature for identifying trees. Sure, white bark means birch, but some birches have black, yellow or reddish bark. Typical bark patterns, such as diamond-shaped furrows for ash, can be absent depending on site conditions and tree health. Cherry and ironwood bark have light-colored horizontal dashes called lenticels, but only on young wood. Not all hickories have shaggy bark. Bark may provide a clue, but it’s not to be trusted as a sole, or even a primary, source of information. » Continue Reading.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Learn To Spot Emerald Ash Borer

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One of the invasive species that deserves attention by forest owners is the emerald ash borer (EAB). Having eaten its way through the Great Lakes states and portions of the upper Midwest, the EAB is on a fast track to Northern New York.

Since its discovery in 2002, the emerald ash borer has stripped cities and villages of all ash trees. Dorothy wouldn’t recognize one of these “emerald cities.” Treeless neighborhoods in places like Fort Wayne, IN, or Dayton, OH are a far cry from the emerald city of Oz. » Continue Reading.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Watch for Hemlock Wooly Adelgid

Don’t look now, but the sky is falling. Again. This time it’s poised ominously over our hemlock trees, whose verdant canopies shade many a North Country stream and glen. Although hemlocks make lush hedges for home landscapes, they’re best known as stately forest giants that form cathedral-like stands in the Adirondacks and elsewhere. It’s hard to believe these titans are being killed by a tiny insect less than a sixteenth of an inch long. » Continue Reading.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Warren County ‘Farm Talks’ Return

The Warren County Soil & Water Conservation District is continuing its series of free agricultural “Farm Talks” presentations. The Farm Talks are open to all interested in learning about the variety of small farming and homesteading techniques. The next talk will include two presentations.

The first will be “Year-Round High Tunnel Production” with Sandy and Paul Arnold of Pleasant Valley Farm in Argyle. The second presentation of the night will be Starting a Small Scale Tree Nursery with David Lee of the NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Saratoga Tree Nursery. » Continue Reading.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Early Forestry Education On Raquette Lake

by Tom Thacher

An article in the June 21, 1915, Syracuse Post-Standard was the first anyone in our family had heard of the role our property on Indian Point played in the evolution of early forestry education in the United States.

The August Forest Camp was a miniature village of 9×9 tents where approximately twelve boys and men lived while participating in morning instruction and afternoon fieldwork. The month long program included elementary forestry, zoology, botany and fungi courses taught by prominent U. S. pioneers of forestry science. An old Adirondack guide also taught a week of Woodcraft “such as a man should know who wishes to spend any length of time in the woods”. » Continue Reading.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

How Ice Storms Impact Trees

by Guest Contributor

Ice storm.

If you live in northern New England, those words can send a chill up your spine. They portend demolition derbies on the roads, power outages and the ominous cracking sound of limbs breaking and trees falling in woods, parks and urban streets.

Snow we’re up for. Ice, not so much. » Continue Reading.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

A Christmas Tree Farmer’s Year in Review

by Guest Contributor

Walking through a large chain store this past October – at least a week before Halloween – I stumbled upon a display of decorations. Not witches and pumpkins, but trees and bells. There’s no question that retailers are intent on pushing the start of the Christmas season earlier and earlier, but we Christmas tree growers still have them beat; for us, it’s a nearly year-round endeavor.

Spring is one of the busiest times on a Christmas tree farm, yet it sometimes requires an agonizingly long wait before work can get started. It can take weeks of warmer weather to thaw the soil enough to plant the next rotation of trees. » Continue Reading.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

New Wood-Pellet Projects: Paul Smith’s College

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Paul Smith’s College is installing a state-of-the-art wood-pellet boiler system, which will heat its three academic buildings.

This project is one of the first uses in New York State of a high-efficiency and low-emission wood pellet boiler heating system to heat multiple buildings. Paul Smith’s is one of five new sites in the North Country planning to install the technology including the Olympic Regional Training Center in Lake Placid, North Country Community College’s Sparks Athletic Complex in Saranac Lake, the Indian Lake School and the North Country School in Lake Placid. High efficiency wood boilers were pioneered in the Adirondacks by The Wild Center in Tupper Lake. » Continue Reading.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Mississippi Firm Now Largest Adirondack Landowner

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Molpus Woodlands Group has purchased the 112,238-acre holdings of The Forestland Group. A price was not disclosed. The purchase makes Molpus, of Philadelphia, Mississippi, the Adirondack Park’s largest private landowner at more than 273,000 acres. [Note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Molpus is in fact the largest private landowner – in recent years Lyme Timber Company has sold 121,000 acres and now owns 239,500].

The lands are in Lewis, St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, and include frontage on several northern-flowing rivers, including the St. Regis and the Grasse. Prior to The Forestland Group, the lands were owned by Champion International. Molpus had owned only 30,000 acres (near Saranac Lake) until its January 2014 purchase of nearly 131,000 acres in St. Lawrence, Clinton, Franklin and Lewis counties from Rayonier Forest Resources. » Continue Reading.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

For That Real Evergeen Experience, Buy Local

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Of all the memorable aromas of the holiday season, nothing evokes its spirit quite like the smell of fresh-cut evergreen. Although over 80% of American households where Christmas is observed use artificial trees, about 11 million families still bring home a real tree.

Every species of conifer has its own mixture of sweet-smelling terpenols and esters that account for that “piney woods” perfume. While all natural Christmas trees share many of the same aromatic compounds, some people prefer the smell of a certain type of tree, possibly one they remember from childhood. No chemistry lab can make a polyvinylchloride tree smell like fresh pine, fir or spruce. A natural Christmas tree is, among other things, a giant holiday potpourri. » Continue Reading.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Old Trees: Methuselah In Your Backyard

by Guest Contributor

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There’s something in us that can’t help but be impressed by an old tree. Perhaps we’re simply in awe of something that has outlived generations of humans and will outlive us.

We acknowledge this when we compare the giant sequoia groves to a cathedral. When we compile state lists of big old trees. When we give names like Methuselah to the longest-lived specimens.

Most trees are not destined to live long lives. Ninety percent of the trees in a forest will never become very big, or very old. Some will lose the race for sunlight and food. Others will succumb to insects, wind, fire, or logging. » Continue Reading.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

DEC Opens Backcountry Roads To Motor Vehicles

The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has opened new roads and facilities on nearly 25,000 acres of forest preserve and conservation easement lands in the Adirondacks.

New roads and facilities will allow motor vehicles to access the 18,000-acre Kushaqua Tract Conservation Easement Lands in Franklin County using the 3.3-mile Mountain Pond Road, and the 1,600-acre public use area of the Township 19 Tract Conservation Easement Lands in Hamilton County using the 2.6 miles of O’Neil Flow Road and Barker Pond Road. In the Essex Chain Lakes Complex gates have been opened to allow increased access to Camp Six Road in Newcomb, which will allow access for hunting, along with limited camping at designated primitive tent sites. » Continue Reading.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

New Report Quantifies Invasive Species Impacts