The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
One need look no further than the Department of Environmental Conservation’s 2010 Strategic Plan for Forest Management to find the rationale to restore cougars to the Adirondacks. The plan details the destructive impacts and biodiversity loss of New York’s forests from superabundant white-tailed deer, a herd now estimated at more than one million. Throughout much…
Mountain lions have permanent populations in a majority of the land area of California—pretty much anywhere there are scrub or trees and deer. The Santa Monica Mountains, which are in large part in Los Angeles, have a population of twenty-plus lions and growing. Conflicts with humans are very rare. These lions are not transients. They live…
At first glance the proposal might seem irresistible: a development that would bring affluent residents and visitors, resurrect a cherished ski resort, create jobs, and revive an Adirondack region that desperately needs new vitality. But we long ago moved beyond the first glance at the Adirondack Club and Resort proposal in Tupper Lake. And, sadly,…
In your photo essay “Paddles and Petals” [May/June 2011] you pictured a sundew and identified it as Drosera rotundifolia, the round-leaved sundew. I would suggest the plant is Drosera rotundifolia, spatulate-leaved sundew. Jim Spencer, Camillus Ecologist Raymond Curran says Jim Spencer is correct. The sundew appears to be Drosera intermedia as the leaf is…
Having been a trauma surgeon in Vietnam, I was dismayed to read the Explorer story describing entering the woods during hunting season without wearing hunter orange [“Falling for the Jessup,” Annual Outings Guide]. All I saw in the photos were green and light-blue shirts. Yes, a red shirt, but it’s similar to the changing maple…
Nicholas Karas makes excellent points in opposition to stocking brook trout [It’s Debatable, May/June 2011]: the wild ones will come back if left alone for a while. The Department of Environmental Conservation should establish at least some waters where no stocking occurs and the stream is closed for five or so years. I understand this has worked…
Your article “Few Options for Elders” [March/April 2011] describes life at the Clifton-Fine Boarding Home, owned and operated by Cathi Ford. Unfortunately there was a fire at the home in early May. All of the seniors who lived there and the staff got out safely. It happened during daylight hours, and it probably started with…
We at Protect the Adirondacks! believe Fred LeBrun’s commentary, “Park loses green voices” (March/April 2011) contains misleading statements that misrepresent the status of Protect. Despite LeBrun’s pessimism, Protect remains very active in protecting the Adirondack Park. First, Protect is a major player in the Adirondack Park Agency hearings on whether to approve the proposed Adirondack…
With the growing popularity of bicycling, and the lure of being the only long-distance, multi-use trail within the Adirondack Park, the proposed thirty-four-mile Lake Placid-to-Tupper Lake trail along the Adirondack rail line would be a major draw. Bicycling is now the second-most common form of outdoor recreation in the United States, with sixty million Americans…
Would it not be wise to poll bikers and skiers to see if they would use the proposed rail-trail from Lake Placid to Tupper Lake? I for one would not. I have ridden on a rail-trail and, being a mountain biker, found it terribly boring. These trails work in places where they run from town…