Posts Tagged ‘logging’

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Opinion: Wildlife Need More Adirondack Clear-Cuts

Bicknells thrush In the September-October edition of the Adirondack Explorer, ecologist Charles Canham says there are legitimate concerns about over-harvesting trees in the Adirondack Park, and that there is no good ecological or silvicultural rationale for clear-cuts.

I must disagree with these suppositions by Mr. Canham. With millions of acres of state land preserved within the Adirondack Park and never to be managed (harvested), Adirondack Park Agency oversight of larger clear-cuts on non-state-owned lands, and best management practices in place for forest harvests, there should not be great concern for over-harvesting. This is not the days of old, when massive cuts were done on steep slopes with no effort to stabilize the soil. Methods are much more environmentally friendly these days. » Continue Reading.


Monday, November 12, 2018

Opinion: The Adirondacks Does Not Need More Clear-Cuts

Bicknells thrushNew Yorkers think of the Adirondacks first and foremost as a preserve, but working forests on private lands have always been an important part of the Park. There has been a sea-change in ownership in recent years, with timber investment firms now controlling the bulk of working forests. And harvest rates throughout the Northeast have been steadily increasing.

So much so that logging rates are at unsustainably high levels in many places. This is most readily apparent to the public in the growing acreage of clear-cuts in the Adirondacks and Maine. But it doesn’t take clear-cutting to overharvest a region’s forests. Forest biomass is declining in Connecticut due to high-grading—the highly selective logging of just the largest and most valuable trees. To most foresters, that is a far worse sin than clear-cutting. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, September 20, 2018

Adirondack Wildfire: The Destruction of Long Lake West

Damage by Laura Von RoskOver the years I have put my canoe into the waters at Low’s Lower Dam (constructed 1907); and paddled the meandering Bog River Flow up to Hitchins Pond.

I have carried around Low’s Upper Dam (built in 1903*), many times. I usually choose to camp on Low’s Lake, so I keep on going. But occasionally a day paddle and a short hike around Hitchins Pond is in order. It’s on these day paddles that I often walk the road (actually the old Maple Valley Railroad bed), as part of the Horse Shoe Forestry Company, constructed by Abbot Augustus “Gus” Low in 1900. If you know where to look, there are “sidings” where A. A. Low’s sugarhouses were located. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, August 26, 2018

Questions Raised Over Adirondack Conservation Easements

lumberyard by Mike LynchWhile some conservationists are concerned about what they perceive as recently increased logging in the Adirondack Park, New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation has begun providing more information about the nearly 781,000 acres of privately owned timberlands covered by state conservation easements.

Those agreements govern many of the larger logging tracts and prevent other commercial development. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, August 16, 2018

Local. Logging. Live! Along The Hudson

local logging liveThe Tannery Pond Center (TPC) in North Creek is set to present “Local Logging Live! Along the Hudson,” celebrating the logging industry in local communities, both past and present, with activities taking place at both the Tannery Pond Community Center and Riverfront Park in North Creek on August 24th and 25th.

This event will showcase the cultural aspects of the industry and the major role played by the Hudson River. Planned are a variety of activities including musical concerts, historical displays and Gallery exhibit, multi-media lecture, mini woodsmen field day demonstrations, workshops on musical instruments of logging camps, buff mittens, blacksmithing and more. All daytime events are free. » Continue Reading.


Saturday, January 27, 2018

Living A Wood-Burning Life

fireplace At about 9 am on an overcast November Saturday, a group gathered at the edge of the local dump.

They sipped coffee, pulled on gloves, and adjusted ear protectors. Then they started to work. There were loggers, tree care experts, high school students, police officers, doctors, farmers, and lawyers. There were whole families, a guy on crutches, a few dogs, a legislator or two. By day’s end, they had cut and stacked more than 21 cords of firewood, and delivered most of it to the homes of their neighbors. What was left would be available throughout the winter to anyone with an unexpected need for fuel and a way to burn it. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, January 11, 2018

Coalition Urges Governor to Reform 480 Forest Tax Law

The Empire State Forest Products Association, The Nature Conservancy and a bi-partisan group of state lawmakers as well as over 20 industry and conservation groups, have called on Governor Andrew Cuomo to fulfill his promise to reform the Forest Tax Abatement Program in the 2018 State Budget.

Coalition advocates say the existing law, the 480-a Timber Tax Law, is overly complicated, exacerbating the forest loss. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Art Exhibit Sheds Light on Logging Operations

Painting: Dawn Loading by Kathleen KolbThere is an exhibit in the Heron Gallery at the Paul Smith’s College VIC that everyone should go see. It is a collection of oil and watercolor paintings, poetry and written narrative that has great merit. This show would command respect no matter where it is exhibited, but it is especially relevant here in the Adirondacks, as it was in Vermont, it’s state of origin.

I’m primarily a landscape painter and one could say I choose to paint wilderness landscapes that are “pretty”. That’s not aways why I actually chose something as my subject matter, but it probably comes across that way. I don’t often paint anything that’s man-made or unattractive. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Forest Land Conservation Program Opportunities

nrcs-logoNew York Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has announced February 3, 2017 as the application cutoff date for Signup 1 of the USDA’s Conservation Stewardship Program for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017.

The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is among the largest working-lands conservation programs in the United States. Through CSP, agricultural producers and forest landowners are paid for actively managing, maintaining, and expanding conservation activities like cover crops, rotational grazing, ecologically-based pest management, buffer strips, and pollinator and beneficial insect habitat – while maintaining active agricultural production on their land. » Continue Reading.


Monday, December 5, 2016

Free Skidder Bridge Program for Adirondack Logging

skidder bridgeThe Greater Adirondack Resource Conservation and Development Council, Inc. (RC & D), with financial assistance from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Lake Champlain Basin Program, is implementing a free Skidder Bridge Loaner Program for landowners and loggers.

RC & D says the free Skidder Bridge Loaner Program is hoping to encourage the use of the skidder bridges and other Best Management Practices in forest management to protect water quality and assist landowners in increasing economic activity in their communities. » Continue Reading.


Monday, November 7, 2016

Oak Wilt Detected in Canandaigua

DEC LogoThe New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced that oak wilt, a tree fungus that causes disease in oak trees, has been detected in Canandaigua, Ontario County.

This is the third location in New York State where oak wilt has been confirmed and the second location discovered in 2016. The disease was confirmed in Islip earlier this year and had previously been found in Glenville in 2008 and 2013. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, October 18, 2016

International Paper Endows Paul Smith’s College Professor

Brett McLeodA Paul Smith’s College professor has been named as the institution’s first International Paper Endowed Professor in Forestry Economics. Dr. Brett McLeod, professor of Natural Resource Management and Policy and 2003 graduate of Paul Smith’s, was honored with the distinction last week during a ceremony at the college.

The $500,000 endowment from International Paper will allow McLeod to continue his work in natural resource economics for the remainder of his career at Paul Smith’s College and could also help attract world-class professors to fill the position when he retires. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Forest Health and Carbon Storage Roundtable Planned

Logs at a lumber landingThe Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) has announced the release of preliminary findings from its analysis of the wood supply, supply chain infrastructure needs and opportunities, and recommendations for addressing them. The analysis examines the North Country’s current timber supply, its workforce, its infrastructure and the markets that affect them. Findings and recommendations will be unveiled at the Fall Forestry Roundtable in Queensbury on October 12, 2016. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, September 11, 2016

The Big Boom: Old Hudson River Chain Recalls Logging History

courtesy Adam PearsallRecently my son Adam and his seven-year-old daughter Mckenna were canoeing on the Hudson River above the Feeder Dam in Glens Falls when they noticed a small tree growing atop an old stone pier about 30 feet from shore – and something more. Tangled in the roots, they found a large old rusted chain with links 4 inches wide by 6 inches long.

Sharing pictures with Richard “Dick” Nason, the unofficial Finch Pruyn historian and an authority on river log drives, it appears likely the chain was left over from the heyday of log drives on the Hudson River. The chain was found in the Big Boom sorting area. Logs were released from the Big Boom upriver and floated down to the sorting area where they were tallied by owners, identified by the owner’s mark stamped on the butt end of each log. The sorting area was used from 1851 to 1929. Dick suspects the chain may be from the late 1800s. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, July 24, 2016

Jay O’Hern’s New Book On Adirondack Logging

adirondack logging book coverJay O’Hearn’s new book, Adirondack Logging: Life and Time in the Early Years of Logging’s Mechanization (Versa Press 2016) portrays the timber-logging lives of lumberjacks in the “Glory Years” following the introduction of Linn log hauling tractors.

The book includes interviews with loggers, remembrances of lumber camp life, accounts of river drives, the passing of old-style logging with horses, remembrances of yesterday’s lumberjacks, and stories that accompany appetizing recipes.

Rare photographic images capture the scenes once common around lumber camps, centers of the logging industry built exclusively for the lumberjacks. » Continue Reading.



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