The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
I have some thoughts on “Highlands at Risk” [November/December 2012]. Yes, hillside sites have become desirable alternatives to shoreline parcels due to price increases for lakefront properties. Hillside areas tend to have a lower density of development so these larger sites may offer more privacy, too. We became aware of the heightened interest in ridgeline…
In the article “Back to Old School” [November/December 2012], a correction is in order. The original Wee Lassie canoe was constructed in 1882 by J. Henry Rushton, not for Nessmuk (George Washington Sears), but for the William West Durant family. This is according to Dan Brennan, editor of Canoeing the Adirondacks with Nessmuk (The Adirondack…
Thank you ever so much for the fabulous article “Dead trees a sign of life” by George Wuerthner [November/December 2012]. As the chairman of the Maryland Wildlands Committee, I have been a firm believer in what ecologists down here say: “The best tree in the forest is the dead one on the forest floor!” The author articulates…
Two years ago Andrew Cuomo moved into the governor’s mansion at a time when issues of concern to the Adirondacks were languishing amid financial crisis and political neglect. Governor David Paterson showed no understanding of or interest in the Park; political turmoil had incapacitated the legislature, and budget austerity fell particularly hard on programs important…
When it comes to protecting the Adirondack Park for future generations we naturally turn first to preserving wilderness and natural wonders. Everything else flows from this first principle enshrined in Article 14 of the state constitution and other legislation. But safeguarding the well-being of the human communities within the Park is also essential. And despite…
One of the most exciting acquisitions of land for the Forest Preserve in years has been expected since the Nature Conservancy bought 161,000 acres of land from Finch Paper in 2007. But as the state government fell into financial crisis and opposition to the purchase grew even among previous supporters, questions lingered. Would the state…
The Adirondack Park has a reputation for being a place where policy debates can become bruising, bare-knuckle affairs. Those who lived through the turbulent years following the creation of the Adirondack Park Agency in 1971 can recall a time when even the most optimistic might despair of ever finding a subject on which constructive conversation…
What has happened at the Explorer? It seems to have been taken over by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or the Humane Society of the United States. The bobcat is not endangered in New York. Its range is actually expanding. The recent issues have carried anti-trapping and anti-hunting untruths by an Explorer board…
Thank you, Tom Woodman, for your June 25, 2012, article in the Albany Times Union [originally an editorial in the July/August Explorer] calling for an end to the hunting and trapping of bobcats. I, too, agree that the beautiful bobcat deserves to live. I’m so sick of hunters that call killing a sport. It’s barbaric!…
Congratulations on the July/August article “Future of Open Space.” It is indeed time for a review of the Adirondack Park Agency’s work over the last forty years, especially now that it seems to have totally lost its bearings, ignoring the most important and basic purposes of its enabling legislation. Building must be stopped on lands…