
Posts Tagged ‘Paul Smith’s College VIC’
Paul Smith’s VIC to open Dec. 5 for ski season

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.
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.
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.
Vermicomposting: Making Black Gold
Vermicomposting 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.
Paul Smith’s VIC Paint-Out Planned
Saranac 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.
Tim Rowland On Adirondack Acronyms
I 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.
Is the Adirondack Park an Intentional Community?
“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.
2017 Adirondack Rural Skills and Homesteading Fest Saturday
The 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.
Nature’s Benefits: Adirondack Forest Bathing
Have 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.
Art Exhibit Sheds Light on Logging Operations
There 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.
Adirondack Researchers Explore Birch Syrup Production
The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program has posted the results of a project exploring opportunities for regional maple sugarmakers to produce birch syrup.
Four sugarhouses participated in the 2015-2016 birch syrup project; one each in Clinton, Essex, Franklin and Jefferson counties.
Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center Maple Program transported the sap collected from 61 paper birch trees there 20 miles to the Uihlein Forest sugarhouse for processing. » Continue Reading.
A Collaborative Art And Science Exhibit At Paul Smith’s
The Paul Smith’s College VIC’s Heron Marsh Gallery will host an opening reception at 10 am Saturday, December 10th, for the art and poetry exhibit, “A Deeper Sense.” The public is welcome, and light refreshments will be served.
During the fall semester, area artists and poets shadowed Paul Smith’s College students during their ecological field studies and produced works of art based on those student projects. » Continue Reading.
Heron Marsh Gallery: Meet Artist Winn Rea
Artist Winn Rea will greet visitors at The Heron Marsh Gallery, Paul Smith’s College VIC, from 2-4 pm, Saturday, November 12, 2016. This is the last day to meet the artist and see the artist’s painted topographic reliefs on view in her solo show, “Topo Shift 3: Woods Way.”
Each work is based on a particular hike or paddle Rea has taken in the Adirondacks. The artist takes photographs of shadows while on the trail. Back in her Keene Valley shop/studio she builds the topography out of layers of Russian Birch plywood then paints the reliefs with the colors, patterns, and shadows collected while hiking. » Continue Reading.
Adirondack Rural Skills and Homesteading Festival Saturday
The 2016 Adirondack Rural Skills and Homesteading Festival will be held Saturday, October 1st at the Paul Smith’s College’s Adirondack Visitor’s Center.
The festival features exhibitions on logging and farming with draft horses, and a demonstration of competitive lumberjack sports by the Paul Smith’s College Woodsmen’s Team, along with workshops on canning, cider making, woodworking, renewable energy, cord wood construction, small-scale farming, and primitive skills. » Continue Reading.
Recent Almanack Comments