Posts Tagged ‘Shoreline Development’

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Cyanobacteria: A Primordial Lake Monster

TOS_Blue_Green_AlgaeIt came from the lake. It is a life form nearly as old as life itself. Living peacefully in the depths for eons, it is awakened by humankind’s abuse of the environment. It strikes out with toxins that attack nerves or the liver. Attempts to kill it only make it more toxic.

It sounds like the plot of a 1950s horror movie. But this horror plays out in lakes and ponds across New York, Vermont and New Hampshire on hot, sunny days each summer. This year, a September heat wave extended the season of blue-green algae blooms past Labor Day at Lake Champlain. In the second week of September there were blooms in Missisquoi Bay, a northern, shallow bay of Lake Champlain, and St. Albans Bay, another lake trouble spot. This summer blooms, or suspected blooms, were also reported in Lake Placid, Schroon Lake, Friends Lake. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Silver Bay YMCA First To Seek LID Certification

Lake George from Silver bayThe leaders of Silver Bay YMCA on Lake George are the first to seek LID certification from the Lake George Waterkeeper.

LID is an acronym for Low Impact Development, and the projects that disturb landscapes the least and leave the lake’s water quality undiminished will be LID certified – much as green buildings are LEED certified. » Continue Reading.


Monday, August 10, 2015

Lake Friendly Living Workshops Planned For Schroon Lake

IMG_0176The Warren and Essex County Soil and Water Conservation Districts are holding two workshops in Schroon Lake to educate about lake friendly living.

As stormwater moves across impervious surfaces such as roads, rooftops and asphalt parking area it can collect sediment, phosphorous, de-icing materials (sand and salt), petrochemicals, and other pollutants that may end up in a nearby lake or stream. There are ways to reduce storm water runoff and keep our water bodies healthy. One way is by collecting storm water in rain barrels and using it to water gardens and landscapes. » Continue Reading.


Friday, July 24, 2015

20th Adirondack Waterfest in Speculator July 31

RonnyAdirondack Waterfest will be held in Speculator on Friday, July 31 at the Village Park, from 10 am to 4 pm. The event features activities, exhibits, and demonstrations in a daylong celebration of water. Admission is free.

Twenty years ago, Hamilton County Soil and Water Conservation District’s first Adirondack Waterfest was held in Speculator on July 19, 1996. Each year, the event is hosted at different locations around the Adirondack Park. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Perennial Sale, Shoreline Stewardship Fest in Lake George

014The Lake George Community Garden Club’s Annual Perennial Plant Sale will be held in Shepard Park, Lake George on Saturday, May 16th from 9 am until 2 pm in conjunction with the Fund for Lake George’s Stewardship with Style Festival on the same weekend, also in Shepard Park.

The annual Perennial Sale offers hundreds of high-quality perennial plants grown and dug from local zone 4 and 5 gardens. Garden Club members will be available to share planting instructions, tips for successful gardening, and other information. The sale will also include a tag sale and the sale of garden art objects created by Garden Club members. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, April 12, 2015

Lake George Effort To Reduce Permit Violations

Lake George DockCustomizing a dock on Lake George? There may be nothing in the Lake George Park Commission’s regulations explicitly allowing or prohibiting some modification or embellishment, but according Molly Gallagher, the Lake George Park Commission’s permit administrator, there are precedents.

“Some of these precedents for what is allowed or for what requires a permit were in my head, or in the head of the Commission’s first executive director, Mike White,” Gallagher told the Commissioners at a recent monthly meeting. “We also have Records of Decisions and individual resolutions. Now I’m putting some of these on paper in the form of a memorandum that will aid you in your deliberations and help guide administrators as well as dock builders and homeowners.” » Continue Reading.


Thursday, March 19, 2015

Comments On Bald Eagle ‘Conservation Plan’ Sought

2010-bald-eagle-kodiakThe NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) “Conservation Plan for Bald Eagles in New York State” is available for public review and comment. The document provides guidelines for the future management of America’s national bird (and national animal) in the State, where it prefers to live in mature forests near large bodies of water.

Bald eagles were once common in America, but their numbers began a dramatic decline as a result of hunting, logging, habitat loss, and pollution. The publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson in 1962, and the modern environmental movement it helped launch, led to a new public awareness of the threats to wildlife from over-development and chemical poisoning. Eventually, that awareness and activism helped save bald eagles from extinction. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Bolton Quick Launch’s Proposed Height Raises Concerns

Bolton Landing Marina from Bolton Bay with Architect rendering of marina with 20 foot height expansionA proposal by the owner of the Bolton Landing Marina to increase the quick launch facility’s height by twenty feet is drawing the scrutiny of Bolton’s Zoning and Planning Boards, both of which will have to approve the expansion before it can be sent to the Adirondack Park Agency for its review.

“No one, to my knowledge, has ever sought a variance to exceed Bolton’s 35-foot height limit,” said Henry Caldwell, a member of the Planning Board. » Continue Reading.


Monday, December 15, 2014

New Report Considers Future Of Lake Trout

Spawning-Lake-troutSince the retreat of the glaciers, lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) have been the top native predator in Adirondack waters. These northern fish require true cold (less than 55°F) and move downward when surface waters warm in late spring and summer. Consequently, they are isolated to the largest and deepest Adirondack lakes – most of them deeper than 30 feet – where they stay in the dark chilly depths all summer and early fall. The species name namaycush is believed to be an Algonquin term for “dweller of the deep.”

This need for very cold, clean, high-oxygen water can bring to light otherwise invisible changes beneath the surface. Water quality in the Adirondack interior, where we don’t have much industry or farming, can be  abstract. You usually can’t see it, touch it or even taste it. But lake trout make the health of our coldest lakes real and tangible. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, September 18, 2014

New Studies Put Focus On Adirondack Loons

Loons Jlarsenmaher 2Biodiversity Research Institute’s (BRI’s) Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation and the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS’s) Adirondack Program have announced that three new articles summarizing research on Adirondack loons have been published in a special issue of the journal Waterbirds that is dedicated to loon research and conservation in North America. Research was conducted on the Common Loon (Gavia immer), which breeds on Adirondack lakes,  by BRI and WCS in collaboration with the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, SUNY ESF’s Adirondack Ecological Center, Paul Smiths Watershed Stewardship Program, and other partners.

“We are pleased to have our loon research in the Adirondack Park included in this unique publication,” Dr. Nina Schoch, Coordinator of BRI’s Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation, said in a statement to the press. “The special issue includes fifteen scientific papers highlighting loon behavior, life history and population ecology, movements and migration, habitat and landscape requirements, and the risk contaminants pose to loon populations. The publication will be a valuable resource to help guide the conservation of loon populations throughout North America.” » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Shoreline Landscaping Event in Lake George

plant_sale_3Vendors, exhibits, speakers and other activities to inspire attractive low impact shoreline landscaping will be featured at the “Stewardship with Style: A Lakescape Event” on Saturday May 10, 2014, from 9 am until 2 pm at Shepard Park in Lake George Village. Displays on rain gardens, shoreline buffers, permeable pavers, invasive species, and native plants, along with kids “make and take” crafts, and the Em2 River Model. There will also be prizes and giveaways. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Adirondack Explorer Hosting Conference On The APA

Paul Smiths AreaIn this 40th anniversary year of the Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan, experts from the Adirondack Park and around the country will convene at the Paul Smith’s Visitor Interpretive Center on September 26, 2013 to assess the progress and unfinished business of the Adirondack Park Agency (APA).

The conference hopes to identify ways the agency can be strengthened, based on successful examples here and elsewhere of preserving water quality, wildlife habitat, and scenic beauty, while also bolstering the regional economy. The principles of conservation design will be a theme of the conference.   A $25 registration fee covers coffee, lunch, and a reception following the event. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Shoreline Regs Are About Water Quality

WaterQuality-3The protection of water quality is of singular great importance for the Adirondack Park and Adirondack communities. In the coming decades, if we are able to maintain stable water quality trends, this will help Adirondack communities enormously, not only for protecting the area’s high quality of life, but economically too. Clean water will be our edge.

Clean water is going to be a commodity that becomes less plentiful in the future. Communities that provide good stewardship for their waters will be communities that have something special to offer in the coming years. » Continue Reading.


Monday, April 29, 2013

Historian Philip Terrie On Fixing The APA

Keene Valley HomeIn the Adirondacks, we often point with pride to the extraordinary oddness of the Adirondack Park. From Manhattan’s Central Park to California’s Yosemite, Americans have gotten used to parks with neat boundaries enclosing a domain wholly owned by the people. Because the land within the boundary is public and that outside private, when you walk or drive across that boundary, you’ve gone from one sort of place to another. You have certain expectations outside that boundary, which are different from those you have inside.

But as we like to say up here, the Adirondack Park is a park like no other. Aside from invoking this peculiarity as an interesting factoid, however, what do we do with it? What defines this Park? Is it something other than a collection of all the acres (almost 6 million of them, roughly half in the public Forest Preserve and half in private hands) inside a blue line on a map of New York State? » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, April 17, 2013

New Report: Lake Champlain Basin Flood Resilience

Lake Champlain FloodingThe Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP) has released a new report, Flood Resilience in the Lake Champlain Basin and Upper Richelieu River. The report presents results of an LCBP flood conference held in 2012 at the request of Vermont Governor Shumlin and Quebec’s (former) Premier Charest, following the spring 2011 flooding of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River Valley. The report provides a review of the 2011 flooding impacts and includes specific recommendations to help inform flood resilience policies and management strategies to reduce the impact of major floods anticipated in the future. » Continue Reading.



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