Posts Tagged ‘Paul Smith’s College VIC’

Friday, September 22, 2023

Paul Smith’s VIC to host Circular Jazz Trio concert, Leave No Trace training course

Paul Smith's College VIC.

Paul Smiths, NY- Paul Smith’s College VIC has announced a slew of upcoming events to suit a wide variety of interests, including a free jazz concert featuring The Circular Jazz Trio set for tomorrow, Saturday, September 23, as well as an informative and interactive training course focused on the seven principles of Leave No Trace. This two-day event is slated for Saturday, September 30 and Sunday, October 1.

Please see below for more details on these events and a link to keep tabs on other upcoming VIC events, such as a Mushroom Foray event set for tomorrow, and several opportunities to take a beginner-level canoe paddle on Barnum Pond with VIC staff.

» Continue Reading.


Monday, May 8, 2023

Paul Smith’s VIC to host May 11 discussion on how climate change, carbon sequestration impact forests

Paul Smiths, NY – The Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center (VIC) will be hosting a free panel discussion on the impact of climate change and carbon sequestration in forests. The event will be on Thursday, May 11. The event is free and open to the public. The Adirondack Council’s Rewilding Advocate, John Davis, will lead a world-renowned panel of scientists on how the climate change crisis will impact carbon sequestration in forests, as well as the discussion between “young” and “old” forests and how each sequesters carbon.

» Continue Reading.


Monday, February 20, 2023

Paul Smith’s College VIC releases new mobile app that offers interactive trail map

Paul Smith's College VIC.

PAUL SMITHS- The Paul Smith’s College VIC announced the release of its new mobile app that provides an interactive trail map with location services for ease of use on trail system. Content development began in July 2022. App Released in BETA mode to the Public in August. The past two years have been a story of growth, particularly in terms of technology. In August, the VIC
announced a “soft launch” of its new mobile phone application, that would allow users to view their location on an interactive map and explore points of interest along the trails. The app was developed by Frameless Technologies, whose mission is to “create immersive engagement opportunities for innovative brands to attract clients, visitors, and talent.”

» Continue Reading.


Sunday, January 8, 2023

Paul Smith’s College National Championship Nordic Team Celebration set for Jan. 11

Paul Smith’s College Nordic Ski Team

Paul Smiths, NY –  The Paul Smith’s College National Championship Nordic Team certainly has a reason to celebrate, as USA Nordic announced its team for the 2023 World University Games in Lake Placid, which includes two Bobcats, Aidan Ripp and Timothy Ziegler. The student athletes will represent the United States in the Nordic Combined event, a combination of classic cross-country disciplines and ski jumping. All are welcome to gather together to celebrate and honor the Paul Smith’s College National Championship Nordic Team (Bobcats) by attending a special event hosted by Paul Smith’s College VIC. The event is free and open to the public and will take place on the evening of Wednesday, January 11 from 6 to 8 p.m at the Frank Hutchins Lodge at the Paul Smith’s College VIC. Guests will be treated to live music, free food, beer, wine and spirits catered by alum David Pittman. Event organizers have coordinated a special awards ceremony to recognize the team’s accomplishments. The ceremony is slated to begin at 6:30 p.m.

 

Paul Smith’s College VIC is located at 8023 State Route 30 in Paul Smiths, NY. For more information about Paul Smith’s College VIC, call (518) 327-6241, email vic@paulsmiths.edu or visit https://www.paulsmithsvic.org/
 
Photo at top: Paul Smith’s College Nordic Ski Team. Paul Smith’s VIC website photo.

 

 


Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Paul Smith’s College VIC names building for Frank M. Hutchins, founder of Adirondack Park Institute & longtime college trustee

PAUL SMITHS—The Paul Smith’s College VIC honored Frank M. Hutchins, one of its earliest supporters, by naming its main building in his honor. The VIC dedicated the Frank M. Hutchins Lodge in August.

Hutchins, who died in 2012 at 90, served as a Paul Smith’s College trustee for 33 years. He founded the Adirondack Park Institute in 1989 to support the then state-owned visitor interpretive centers in Paul Smiths and Newcomb. As a longtime summer resident of the Adirondacks, he was passionate about the joys of nature—and intent that visitors learn about the significance of the Adirondack Park as well.

» Continue Reading.


Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Paul Smith’s VIC to open Dec. 5 for ski season

Weather dependent, the Paul Smith’s College Visitor Information Center plans to open its doors on Saturday the 5th of December for the winter season.
Ski passes are on now on sale (season passes available here), which gives users access to more than 40K of groomed ski and snowshoeing trails. Click here for details on the fees for day use and season passes.
Please note: You can opt out of shipping and pick up your pass at the front desk. You’ll need to sign a NYS ski waiver. If you’d prefer to print an application and mail it to us, you will find the form and address online as well.
With users’ help and cooperation, staff aim to keep the building open throughout the season. Details on what to expect when you arrive at the VIC are forthcoming.
Photo courtesy of Paul Smith’s VIC

Sunday, October 4, 2020

Hiker Permits? Turns out we’ve been there before

Over the past few years, articles in the Adirondack Almanack, Adirondack Explorer, and other  media outlets, in addition to posts on blogs and social media, has made quite apparent the issues facing the High Peaks Wilderness related to hiking and backpacking.

Matters of hiker education, the ever-increasing number of search-and-rescues, an overly strained and understaffed force of  Forest Rangers, parking, and litter have been brought to the forefront of the public’s attention.

A  variety of solutions have been proposed by groups such as the Adirondack Mountain Club  (ADK), Adirondack Council, and the High Peaks Strategic Planning Advisory Group (HPAG).  A hiker permit system is one of the proposed solutions. In contrast to other articles regarding  hiker permits, this one does not opine on the merits of such, but to make readers aware that they were once implemented in the Adirondacks – albeit at a very small scale.

» Continue Reading.


Wednesday, July 22, 2020

PSC VIC marks National Moth Week

By Anna M. Butler

Dr. Janet Mihuc is a biologist who specializes in entomology, which is the study of insects. She is a professor at Paul Smiths College in their Natural Sciences Department where she teaches courses in entomology, aquatic invertebrates, invertebrate zoology, and guides senior students’ research for their capstone projects. For several years she has been building a checklist of the moth species present on Paul Smith’s College lands. She served as the Director of Project Silkmoth, a citizen science project designed to document sightings of giant silk moths in northern New York State. She holds a Doctor of Arts in Biology from the Idaho State University.

National Moth Week is an international citizen science project. It runs July 18-26 this year.

» Continue Reading.


Tuesday, June 2, 2020

In search of spring salamanders

By Thompson Tomaszewski, Lead Naturalist, Paul Smith’s College VIC

Every resident of the Park marks the changing of the seasons in their own way. We all joke about the “12 seasons of the Adirondacks” that include second winter, false spring, mud season (followed by third winter) and so on as if we are bothered by the seasonality of our landscape, but that is far from the truth. Us blue-liners have come to terms with our seasonal lives, and find excitement in the signs of seasonal changes.

The call of spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) (pictured at left) is by far my favorite sound; no noise of any other critter compares. I could sit and listen for hours on end to their high pitched peeps. This, to me, is the song of spring in the Adirondacks.

Laced into this soprano song is the clucking call of the wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus). Their rough tune is starkly contrasted with that of their neighbor’s but is equally a part of this choir that I’ve come to know and yearn for each April.

This choir is my favorite for two reasons: 1) it’s pleasing to the ear, and 2) it means that salamanders are getting ready to move.

» Continue Reading.


Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Vermicomposting: Making Black Gold

Vermicomposting uses worms to decompose waste courtesy Wikimedia user ChristopheFinotVermicomposting is the process of using worms to digest food waste to produce a nutrient and microbe rich soil amendment known as vermicompost (vermi – being latin for worm).

This compost is sometimes referred to as “black gold” because when mixed into the soil, it’s extremely valuable to the health and growth of the plants. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, August 30, 2018

Paul Smith’s VIC Paint-Out Planned

Painting of Heron Marsh by Sandra HildrethSaranac Lake ArtWorks has announced their 4th Annual “Paint-Out” at the Paul Smith’s VIC has been set to run from September 1st to 8th, 2018. Like the Adirondack Plein Air Festival, which just concluded, the “Paint-Out” focuses on painting the Adirondack environment, which includes people and buildings and activities and wildlife as well as the landscape itself.

The Paul Smith’s College VIC (Visitor Interpretive Center) is located about a mile north of the college campus on Route 30. The building houses two gallery spaces, an interpretive display about the Adirondacks, classrooms, offices, and a small gift shop. » Continue Reading.


Monday, August 13, 2018

Tim Rowland On Adirondack Acronyms

Paul Smiths College VICI was chatting a couple of weeks ago with a town supervisor about a project he was working on, and he told me it had been paid for with a DANSY grant.

“That’s great,” I said, “What’s a DANSY grant?”

“You know, DANSY. D-A-N-S-Y.”

“I get that, but what does DANSY stand for?”

I might as well have asked him his granddaughter’s opinion of rhizomes. It totally threw him off track, and it was pretty clear that in the 30-some years he had been supervisor, no one had ever asked him that question before. He stumbled around a bit before, with a self-satisfied look on his face he pronounced, “It came out of (Sen.) Betty Little’s office.” As if that should settle things. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Is the Adirondack Park an Intentional Community?

Together Resilient“Couldn’t the Adirondack Park be considered an Intentional Community?” I asked Ma’ikwe Ludwig at her presentation November 1st at the Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center. She said she did not know enough about the Park to address the possibility, but a few of the 40 students, professors, and community attendees thought the idea was intriguing. “Many of us live in our communities ‘intentionally’,” said a woman from Saranac Lake. “I try to live cooperatively with my neighbors, look out for our joint welfare, and live responsibly for the planet by keeping my carbon footprint at a minimum.”

I attended this talk by Ludwig, a longtime sustainable community activist, because of my interest in the history of Intentional Communities, specifically those located in the Adirondacks. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, September 27, 2017

2017 Adirondack Rural Skills and Homesteading Fest Saturday

Homesteading Festival goatThe 2017 Adirondack Rural Skills and Homesteading Festival will be held Saturday, September 30th at the Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center from 10 am to 4 pm.

With featured exhibitions on logging, farming with draft horses and a demonstration of competitive lumberjack sports by the Paul Smith’s College Woodsmen’s Team, the festival also offers dozens of workshops that appeal to a wide range of interests such as canning, cider making, woodworking, renewable energy, cord wood construction, small-scale farming and primitive skills. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, August 27, 2017

Nature’s Benefits: Adirondack Forest Bathing

Hellene Gibbons & Jess CollinsHave you heard of Forest Bathing? It’s the literal translation of a program developed in Japan for experiencing nature as a means of de-stressing one’s life. I first learned about it in a 2012 Outside Magazine article titled “Take Two Hours of Pine Forest and Call Me in the Morning.”

The relaxing benefits of nature have been known for thousands of years, the Greek physician Galen used to take his patients outside where they could experience nature as part of their healing process. He felt that it helped stimulate their desire to get better, and famed Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale who went on to found the Leeds Infirmary once wrote about the healing benefits of patients seeing flowers. » Continue Reading.



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