The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
I felt a personal connection to your story on the forest ranger who hunts for wreckage from plane crashes in the Adirondacks [“Dean of plane wrecks,” July/August 2015]. I helped to find a plane wreck on Blue Ridge near Lewey Lake about fifteen years ago. It was a C45 that crashed on a low-level training flight in September of 1944.…
A railroad company that three years ago won permission to haul stone from a former mine at the base of the High Peaks has changed course and come up with a breathtakingly bad idea for use of that line. The Saratoga & North Creek Railway says it plans to haul out-of-service oil tanker cars through…
Regarding “What is the harm of fun?” by Michale Glennon and Sarah Reed [“Viewpoint,” May/June], the claim that motor vehicles may have less impact on wildlife than hikers because animals hear them from farther away and thus avoid close contact is patently ridiculous. In considering the effect of hikers on wildlife it is important to ask the question “Exactly what…
The hills were alive with the sound of music—even before Julie Andrews sang of them. In 1947 the New York State Music Camp opened its first summer season at the Otter Lake Hotel. The building is long gone, but a historical plaque marks the location. For nine summers hundreds of students and faculty from the United States, Canada, and overseas had…
To say I was absolutely thrilled after reading about Camp Askenota [“The joys of summer,” May/June 2015] would be an understatement. I spent two of the most memorable weeks of my youth at that Boy Scout camp on Moose Island in Lake Placid in August of 1953. The memories are still quite vivid even now at seventy-six years young. Some…
In Philip Terrie’s article “The Battle of 1915” [May/ June 2015], I was particularly interested in the mention of James S. Whipple, former chief of the Forest, Fish, and Game Commission (now the Department of Environmental Conservation). Whipple is no stranger to those of us here at Cranberry Lake. A land-investment company was formed here in 1902 called the Bear Mountain…
The threat to Adirondack waterways from aquatic invaders has loomed over the Park for years, prompting an environmental call to arms that in the past three years has become both more urgent and more effective. An alliance of community and government groups has formed to provide the financial and political resources to make a real…
As the state continues its phased-in acquisition of former Finch, Pruyn & Company timberland, much attention is on how the state classifies and manages different tracts of land. In choosing what lands will be classified Wilderness, Wild Forest, or Primitive Areas, the Adirondack Park Agency shapes the character of the Park. Clearly, these are key steps in the state’s management of public lands…
Are Californians braver, smarter, more mature, and more tolerant than Easterners? Apparently so, if you believe Peter Nye’s argument against bringing cougars back to the Adirondacks [“It’s Debatable,” January/February 2015]. As a Californian (since 1976) and an Adirondacker (a camp on Piseco Lake, and a family history in the Adirondacks from the 1700s), I have a unique perspective on this silly (and…
Thanks to Tony Hall for his Viewpoint [“Mario Cuomo’s legacy” March/April 2015], citing Governor Mario Cuomo’s vital role in creating the Environmental Protection Fund. I appreciated Tony’s mention of Bob Bendick and myself as participants at the state Department of Environmental Conservation. I would like to elaborate a bit on events of that time. In 1986, DEC created a committee of…