Posts Tagged ‘Tupper Lake’

Monday, December 29, 2014

Adirondackers Await Rail Corridor Decision

Train_overhead-Nancie BattagliaAfter four public meetings on the future of the eighty-mile rail corridor between Big Moose and Lake Placid, the public seems as divided as ever, and the state now must make a decision sure to leave many people unhappy.

The Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Transportation plan to review the public comments and make a recommendation for the best use of the state-owned corridor. After the public has had a chance to weigh in on that recommendation, the departments will make a final decision. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Plaintiffs In Tupper Resort Suit Lose Final Appeal

cranberry pondEnvironmentalists challenging the proposed Adirondack Club and Resort in Tupper Lake have lost their bid to continue their lawsuit against the developer and the Adirondack Park Agency.

The Court of Appeals, the state’s highest tribunal, today rejected a motion by Protect the Adirondacks and the Sierra Club seeking permission to appeal a lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit.

The green groups contended, among other things, that the project violated the APA Act by fragmenting timberlands into “Great Camp” estates. The APA, which approved the project in January 2012, maintains that the project is legal.

“We’re very disappointed in the decision,” Peter Bauer, executive director of Protect, told Adirondack Almanack. “It takes thousands of acres of timberlands and puts them on the chopping block.”

» Continue Reading.


Thursday, December 4, 2014

Redesigned Tupper Lake Website Launched

Tupper Lake WebsiteCORRECTION: The press release announcing this new website misstated who is eligible to be listed on the new website.  All tourism-related businesses are listed, whether they are members of the Chamber of Commerce or not.  Chamber members that are not necessarily tourism-related businesses will be added in the future in a business directory. (For example, service-related businesses that don’t fit into the leisure travel navigation categories, like a lawyer.) This story has been corrected to reflect this new information.

The Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST) has announced the launch of the newly designed TupperLake.com.

The redesigned site is geared toward promoting visitor experiences available in the towns of Tupper Lake and Piercefield, from hiking to shopping to historic sites, and includes an events calendar.  The new site design is responsive, which means that it displays properly in all screen sizes and formats from desktop to tablet, phablet, and phone.
» Continue Reading.


Monday, November 17, 2014

DEC Misinformed Public In Rail-Trail Slide Show

Bog RiverAt recent meetings on the Remsen-Lake Placid rail corridor, the state misinformed the public about the legal implications of removing tracks that cross rivers between Big Moose and Tupper Lake.

The public was told that the state’s Wild, Scenic, and Recreational Rivers Act would prohibit the state from restoring the railroad tracks between Big Moose and Tupper Lake if they were removed.

In a slide show, the state Department of Environmental Conservation noted that railroad bridges generally are not permitted over rivers classified as Wild or Scenic. It said the railroad crosses three such rivers south of Tupper Lake: the Moose, Bog, and Raquette. » Continue Reading.


Monday, November 10, 2014

Rails With Trails: Win-Win Or Apples and Oranges?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAJack Drury says the Trails with Rails Action Committee (TRAC) has a win-win solution to the controversy over the future of the rail corridor between Tupper Lake and Lake Placid: keep the tracks and build a network of bike trails that run alongside or in the vicinity of the tracks.

Adirondack Recreational Trail Advocates (ARTA) also envisions a bike trail between Tupper and Placid, but its plan calls for removing the tracks.

The bike trails proposed by TRAC and ARTA are fundamentally different. To many observers, it’s an apples-and-oranges comparison.

» Continue Reading.


Thursday, November 6, 2014

Train Supporters Stand By Rails-With-Trails Option

Adirondack Tourist Train (Susan Bibeau)Supporters of the Adirondack Scenic Railroad continue to insist, contrary to assertions by state officials, that it’s possible to keep the tracks and build trails in and out of the 34-mile rail corridor between Tupper Lake and Lake Placid.

The Trails with Rails Action Committee (TRAC) has prepared maps and engineer’s drawings showing where trails could be located within the corridor and, where that’s not feasible, where spur trails could be built that leave and re-enter the corridor. The map of TRAC’s proposed trails and sample engineer’s drawings can be found on the group’s website.

TRAC members will be attending public meetings in Tupper Lake and Lake Placid today and tomorrow to discuss their ideas with state officials and the media. (Prepared remarks of two members can also be found on the group’s website.)

» Continue Reading.


Thursday, September 18, 2014

Foes Of Tupper Lake Project Denied Leave To Appeal

ACR-aerial3Opponents of the proposed Adirondack Club and Resort in Tupper Lake have suffered another legal setback in their quest to stop the project.

The Appellate Division of State Supreme Court has refused to grant the opponents leave to take their case to the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest tribunal.

Peter Bauer, executive director of Protect the Adirondacks, said the opponents will file a similar motion with the Court of Appeals itself within thirty days. The high court is expected to issue its decision by the end of the year.

» Continue Reading.


Monday, September 15, 2014

Marsha Stanley: Monarchs And The Power Of One

image (2)My friend Theresa Mitrovitz from Tupper Lake has a small marvel in her yard this week which, if replicated in thousands more backyards, could help save the Eastern migration of the monarch butterfly. I hounded Teresa and her husband John into joining AdkAction.org, a non-profit for which I volunteer, and soon after Theresa jumped with enthusiasm to help with the organization’s project to conserve Monarchs and the milkweed so crucial to their lifecycle.

For twenty years Monarch numbers have been declining steeply. Last year no monarch butterflies were reported in the Adirondacks, and none were sighted in the annual butterfly count at Lake Placid. This year Monarchs have shown signs of a comeback in the North Country and elsewhere, but they have a tough period ahead if they are to continue their age-old flight back and forth to Mexico where they winter. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Special History Train Scheduled For Sept 6th

Union Depot in Saranac Lake. Postcard courtesy of Wayne TuckerOn September 6th, a special History Train will leave from Saranac Lake Union Depot at 6:00 pm.

The History Train calls on the talents and expertise of a number of representatives of our historic area, with a unique venue provided by the Adirondack Scenic Railroad. It promises to be a fun and informative ride from Saranac Lake to Lake Placid and back, engaging the community with the history of the Adirondack Tri-Lakes area.

» Continue Reading.


Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Wild Center Acquires 50 Acres Along Raquette River

Wild Center Aerial September 1, 2014The Wild Center announced today the acquisition of 50 acres of Raquette River front property made possible by a group of supporters. The new acquisition adjoins the Center’s current 31-acre site and includes significant river-frontage on the Raquette River, a seasonal building and wetland habitat.

“This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for The Wild Center,” said Board Chairman and co-founder Obie Clifford in a statement announcing the acquisition. “We had hoped for years to acquire this piece of property to add to our dreams for our campus. Although we didn’t anticipate the property coming on the market so soon, we are tremendously grateful to the generous supporters who joined in pooling their resources to make this purchase possible.” » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Goodman Mt. Trail Dedicated To Slain Civil-Rights Activist

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAState officials, Tupper Lake residents, and others turned out in force on Tuesday afternoon to dedicate a new hiking trail to Andrew Goodman, a twenty-year-old civil-rights activist murdered in Mississippi fifty years ago.

Goodman and two fellow activists—James Chaney and Michael Schwerner—were kidnapped and killed by the Ku Klux Klan in June 1964. That summer, activists traveled through the Deep South in a campaign to register African-Americans to vote.

The murders and their aftermath was dramatized in the 1988 movie Mississippi Burning starring Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe.

» Continue Reading.


Friday, August 15, 2014

Google Highlights Tupper Lake’s Wild Center

Wild+Center+LogoGoogle selected a single business from New York to profile in its annual Economic Impact Report. For 2013, the global internet company picked The Wild Center, in Tupper Lake, citing the Center’s innovative use of the internet to expand its reach. The Wild Center, designed by the firm that built the Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C., opened in 2006, and is one of the Adirondack region’s most popular attractions.

Howard Fish, who heads communications at The Wild Center, got the call from the Silicon Valley headquarters of Google asking if the Center would be okay with being New York’s profiled business. “Google had called us a few times already, and had sent a crew up to map the inside of the Center, so the call was not completely out of the blue, but we were still surprised when they told us that from all the businesses in the state, including the ones in Silicon Alley, they picked a venture in the Adirondacks to profile.” » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, August 6, 2014

A Judicial Retreat From Protecting The Adirondacks

Lady JusticeThe recent decision by the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court upholding the approval by the Adirondack Park Agency of the proposed Adirondack Club and Resort (ACR) project in Tupper Lake has generated intense controversy. Groups on both sides have weighed in with their views on the wisdom or folly of the APA’s approval of the massive project and the court’s affirmance of that approval.

Putting aside the merits of the controversy, what is striking about the court’s decision is the startling absence of any discussion of the uniqueness of the Adirondack Park, the history or purpose of the APA Act, or the special place the Park occupies in the hearts and minds of the people of New York. These omissions are all the more disturbing because of the court’s recognition that ACR is “the largest project ever proposed for New York’s 6,000,000-acre Adirondack Park.” Which leads one to wonder: have the courts fallen out of love with the Adirondack Park? » Continue Reading.


Monday, August 4, 2014

Fight Against APA Over Tupper Resort Continues

Adirondack Club and Resort MapProtect the Adirondacks and the Sierra Club are asking the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, to review a recent decision in favor of the developers of the Adirondack Club and Resort, a massive development proposed for Tupper Lake.

In July, the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court upheld the Adirondack Park Agency’s decision to grant a permit to the developers.

In a statement today, Protect and the Sierra Club said the midlevel appeals court, which is based in Albany, made several errors in its analysis of the case. Because the Appellate Division’s decision was unanimous, the groups must seek permission to take the case to the Court of Appeals.

Following is the groups’ full statement:

» Continue Reading.


Thursday, July 31, 2014

Extinction: Passenger Pigeons In The Adirondacks

Adirondack Passenger PigeonOver the course of the past several years I have frequently paddled in the Raquette River -Tupper Lake area. A few weeks ago I paddled from the boat launch known as “The Crusher”, past the several camps where there was once a set of rapids, past the “Oxbow”; through “the Cut” into Simon Pond, and on to the New York State boat launch at Moody’s along Route 30. The day was sunny, and warm, with a slight breeze, and my fellow paddlers were great companions. It had been all-in-all a very and enjoyable paddle. But the present day description of the route is not what one would have experienced back in the 1850s.

In 1854, Samuel H. Hammond, a prominent attorney, newspaper writer and editor, State Senator and sportsman, wrote in Hills, Lakes, and Forest Streams: or A Tramp in the Chateaugay Woods (1854) about a sporting trip with his guide to Tupper’s Lake from Upper Saranac Lake. Hammond described a river that was considerably different, thanks to logging, blasting, damming, and flooding, than what we see today. One change Hammond would never have dreamed possible.  » Continue Reading.



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