The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
The state needs to do much more to protect shorelines, uplands, and the privately owned backcountry. By Philip Terrie In the Adirondacks, we often point with pride to the extraordinary oddness of the Adirondack Park. From Manhattan’s Central Park to California’s Yosemite, Americans have gotten used to parks with neat boundaries enclosing a domain…
Agency says the public has the right to travel on a disputed stretch of Shingle Shanty Brook. By Phil Brown Weighing in on a long-running controversy, the state Department of Environmental Conservation says the public has the right to paddle through private land on Shingle Shanty Brook and adjoining waterways that connect two pieces of…
By Tom Woodman Part way through a presentation on a North Country Sustainability Study in January, an audience member commented: “The days of environmentalism and economic development being strange bedfellows are long gone. Now they work together.” Sadly this was an overstatement—in many cases development efforts are not compatible with sound environmental policy. But this…
Jay Harrison has transformed his backyard playground of Crane Mountain into a climbing mecca in the southern Adirondacks By Don Mellor Some people just see clouds. Others see all sorts of things—funny little poodles, wrinkly faces, continents. And once the shapes define themselves in the minds of the beholders, they become real and clear. “What…
Environmentalists say the APA needs to update its regulations to incorporate “smart growth” principles. By Kim Martineau As the proposed Adirondack Club & Resort in Tupper Lake wound its way through the approval process, two planning consultants separately recommended in 2008 that the Adirondack Park Agency require clustering of homes in the backcountry. Under a…
On the Peavine Swamp trail system in the northwestern Adirondacks near Cranberry Lake I found a tranquil route through open forest, culminating on a knoll overlooking the Oswegatchie River.
DEC’s proposals for managing the former Finch, Pruyn lands kindle a debate over motorized use. By Phil Brown More than five years after the Nature Conservancy bought all 161,000 acres of Finch, Pruyn & Company’s timberlands, the state has acquired eighteen thousand acres for the Forest Preserve and intends to open up some of the…
The Ausable River is a far-reaching system, fed by dozens of streams dropping out of the eastern High Peaks, moving water into the major courses of the East and West Branches before the rivers join to tumble out of the foothills and into Lake Champlain. At some point in its travels much of the flow…
Paul Smiths VIC offers more than just good snow: it has doubled the mileage of ski trails since taking over the facility from the state in 2011. By Phil Brown Winter started slowly, so after we received a few small snowfalls in late November, I jumped at the chance to go on my first ski…
Lawyers deliver arguments in trespassing lawsuit filed against Adirondack Explorer editor. By Kenneth Aaron Was Adirondack Explorer Editor Phil Brown trespassing in 2009 when he paddled through private land abutting state-owned wilderness? Or did he have a right to be there because the waters he canoed are navigable and provide a useful link between parcels…