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Stories
Cormorants’ rebound confounds wildlife managers
By Tim Rowland
The double-crested cormorant made a miraculous recovery after the ban on DDT, a pesticide that had once imperiled the bird’s existence. But while conservationists hailed the return of birds such as the bald eagle, they became increasingly wary of the collateral success represented by the cormorant.
Trekkers test route as Hamlets to Huts seeks a place in the wild
Hamlets to Huts's goal is to connect Adirondack villages and outposts via people power in all seasons, allowing them to experience the backcountry without lugging all the gear. It’s patterned after European hut-to-hut systems, and the yurt trails of Vermont and Colorado. In the Adirondacks, the emphasis is community-based lodging, in part because new structures are prohibited in the state Forest Preserve.
Survey finds hikers favor wildness over access
By Mike Lynch
Hikers value protecting the Adirondack Park’s wild character more than expanding recreation opportunities.
Historic club lands returned to nature
By Mike Lynch
The Inner Gooley complex that included seven buildings and several sheds on the shoreline of Third Lake, the biggest lake of the chain, were removed in late September. Members took the club down the structures as a requirement of their lease with The Nature Conservancy, which purchased the land about a decade ago and later sold it to the state in the spring of 2013.
Broadband access improving in the Adirondacks
Need proof that getting universal high- speed broadband internet access in the Adirondacks is a vital piece of the region’s economic jigsaw puzzle? Just ask Suzanne Hurtado, who lives on Lost Pond. Within days of getting fiber-optic access in 2017, she was able to live video chat several times a day with students she teaches in China.
Volunteers play key role in fighting water pollution
Water is the lifeblood of the Adirondack Park’s tourism, adventuring and second-home economy, as well as its wilderness. Its lakes and rivers face multiple threats ranging from salt to human waste and invasive plants and aquatic animals.
Whiteface work hinders road skiing
By Phil Brown
The Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway opened in 1936. From spring to fall, motorists can drive up the road and then ride an elevator more than 260 feet up to the 4,867-foot summit. The elevator has been closed since fall 2017.
Accelerating climate change threatens Adirondack fish
Some parts of the world, including much of North America, outpace the global average in large part because much of the planet is covered by water and it takes more energy to warm oceans than land. That explains how the Adirondacks can be so far ahead of global change.
With land swap languishing, mine sheds more jobs
By James Odato
Seven workers at the wollastonite processing plant in Willsboro were laid off by owner Imerys on Friday. It’s the latest setback for workers at a mineral operation where a state land swap approved by New York voters has failed to materialize.