The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
The Explorer has been one of our favorite publications for a long time. One thing we’ve always appreciated was its sensible approach to controversial issues. With that in mind, I wrote the editor and asked why the Explorer was doing a very one-sided series on the possible impact of anthropogenic global warming hypothesis (AGW). He…
Regarding the navigation-rights case over the Mud Pond Waterway in the Adirondacks, I see that the people suing Explorer Editor Phil Brown for trespass are relying on an argument that the contested waterway is not used for commercial purposes and so shouldn’t be considered open to the public. I would think that if an outfitter…
I am sure my feelings are not the only ones in regard to the articles in the January/February issue concerning diversity and the pope’s views on supposed “climate change.” Having loved the Adirondack Park since my first visit in 1947, catching my first dry-fly brook trout in the West Branch of the Ausable River the…
Thanks for the brief article about topo-map reading [Outdoor skills, January/February 2016], which is rapidly becoming a lost art in these days of GPS smart phones. A couple of things to add: Indeed, in theory you could encounter a forty-foot cliff that is not on the map. In practice, I encounter much higher cliffs (eighty…
By Tom Woodman The Adirondack Park is a vast area, and proper stewardship of its sensitive and interconnected regions—from High Peaks to wild rivers to boreal wetlands—requires us to think and act on a landscape scale. If regulators approach important Park management questions on a piecemeal, case-by-case basis, they abandon the broad perspective and bedrock…
Much attention has been given to the new “rail bike” concession operating on a six-mile section of the rail corridor that runs through the Adirondacks. The rail bikes ride on the tracks and accommodate from two to four customers. The charge is $25 each to pedal these large, heavy machines single-file between Saranac Lake and…
We enthusiastically support the solid proposal by the Adirondack Council and several other conservation organizations for expansion of the Adirondack Park High Peaks Wilderness by addition of the Macintyre West and most of the Boreas Ponds and Macintyre East tracts. Acquisition of and classification as Wilderness of these tracts by the State of New York…
Kudos for Chris Morris’s Viewpoint “The man who loved Newcomb” [November/December 2015]. Like many people of the Adirondacks, the subject of this article, Marvin Bissell, was one of a kind. As owner of Bissell’s Store in Newcomb, Marvin affected thousands of people in a very positive way. I first met Marvin in 1962 when going…
I often travel to Burlington, VT, and the province of Quebec when I want an off-road bicycling outing—places that are safe and amenable to biking. Wouldn’t it be pleasant to have that experience in the Adirondacks? That’s why it’s an excellent idea to create a rail trail from Lake Placid to Tupper Lake and put…
If all goes as expected, sometime in the next three months New York State will complete a historic improvement to the Adirondack Park. With the anticipated purchase of Boreas Ponds and the surrounding area the state will complete a four-year process of acquiring sixtyfive thousand acres of priceless land from the Adirondack chapter of the…